Mennonite) Anabaptists (Amish

In the twentieth century Mennonite community and family life changed in some significant ways. At the beginning of the century they were primarily an agrarian people who lived in homogenous rural communities. By the close of the century less than 7 percent of Mennonites were still on the farm (Kauffman and Dreidger 1991). For the most part they have given up traditional dress, have left the agrarian way of life, have moved into most professions, and are much more involved in the life of the dominant culture. They have developed their own institutions of higher education, an insurance industry, an international mission and service organization, retirement communities for the elderly, and many other formal organizations.

Within families there has been an increasing emphasis on egalitarian childrearing and a trend toward a balance of power between husband and wife. This change is probably associated with the increasing emphasis on employment for women. The majority of married Mennonite women are employed full-time outside of the home (Kauffman and Meyers 2001).

The average number of children in Mennonite families also approaches the national norm. In contrast to the Amish who continue to have large families, with the average family including 7 children (Hostetler 1993), Mennonites average 2.3 children per family among couples under the age of 49 (Kauffman and Driedger 1991).

Although Mennonite families are similar in many ways to families in the larger society, there are some unique characteristics of this population. Mennonites continue to place great value on marriage. Ninety-one percent of women and 98 percent of men marry. The majority of Mennonites prefer to marry within their religious tradition. Furthermore, in the United States Mennonites tend to marry earlier than the rest of the population. The average age at marriage for men in 1989 was 23.2 and women 21.3 (Kauffman and Meyers 2001). In contrast the average for males and females in the general population was 26.2 and 23.9 (Eshleman 1997).

Mennonite families also tend to have higher incomes and lower rates of divorce than the dominant culture. The most recent comprehensive survey of Mennonites was taken in 1989 and in that year divorce rates were less than half of the non-Mennonite population in the United States. Only five percent of the respondents over the age of thirty who had married at some point in their life were divorced or separated (Kauffman and Meyers 2001).

Finally, progressive Mennonites tend to be less sexually active prior to marriage than the larger society. Approximately one-third of Mennonites admit to premarital intercourse, which is less than half the incidence in the general population (Lauman et al. 1994).