Children of America experience the most significant "class division" of the nation: Those born to married parents, and the rest who are likely destined to poverty, crime, and dependence on a nanny-state government.
Traditional marriage, childbirth, and financial stability predominates among Christians and college graduates.
For background, read Liberalism Causes Poverty in America: Study and also read Marriage Trend: Confined within Church as well as Fewer Get Married, but Stay Married: Census
UPDATE 4/12/12: Federal CDC reports nearly 1 in 4 babies born to unwed cohabitors
-- From "Young Mothers Describe Marriage’s Fading Allure" by Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times 2/18/12
Sixty-three percent of all births to women under 30 in Lorain County [Ohio] occur outside marriage, according to Child Trends [see below], a research center in Washington. That figure has risen by more than two-thirds over the past two decades, and now surpasses the national figure of 53 percent.
The change has transformed life in Lorain, a ragged industrial town on Lake Erie. Churches perform fewer weddings. Applications for marriage licenses are down by a third. Just a tenth of the students at the local community college are married, but its campus has a bustling day care center.
Older residents blamed the decline in marriage on government aid. Mary Grasso, a retired sweet shop owner, said men had stopped taking responsibility for their children because the state had stepped in with safety net programs. Ms. Grasso, 70, experienced the decline in weddings directly: Wedding cake orders fell by half during the 30-plus years she was in business.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Childbearing Outside of Marriage: Estimates and Trends in the United States" by Elizabeth Wildsmith, Ph.D., Nicole R. Steward-Streng, M.A., and Jennifer Manlove, Ph.D. -- posted at Child Trends November 2011
Having children outside of marriage—nonmarital childbearing—has been on the rise across several decades in the United States. In 2009, 41 percent of all births (about 1.7 million) occurred outside of marriage, compared with 28 percent of all births in 1990 and just 11 percent of all births in 1970.12,20 Preliminary data suggest that this percentage has remained stable in 2010. There are several reasons to be concerned about the high level of nonmarital childbearing. Couples who have children outside of marriage are younger, less healthy, and less educated than are married couples who have children. Children born outside of marriage tend to grow up with limited financial resources; to have less stability in their lives because their parents are more likely to split up and form new unions; and to have cognitive and behavioral problems, such as aggression and depression. Indeed, concerns about the consequences of nonmarital childbearing helped motivate the major reform of welfare that occurred in 1996, and continue to motivate the development of federally funded pregnancy prevention programs among teenagers and marriage promotion programs among adults.
This Research Brief draws from multiple published reports using data through 2009, as well as from Child Trends’ original analyses of data from a nationally representative survey of children born in 2001, to provide up-to-date information about nonmarital childbearing; to describe the women who have children outside of marriage; and to examine how these patterns have changed over time. As nonmarital childbearing has become more commonplace, the makeup of women having children outside of marriage has changed, often in ways that challenge public perceptions. For example, an increasing percentage of women who have a birth outside of marriage live with the father of the baby in a cohabiting union and are over the age of twenty. Moreover, the percentage of women having a birth outside of marriage has increased faster among white and Hispanic women than among black women.
To read the entire research brief above, CLICK HERE.
From "Do we no longer need marriage?" by W. Bradford Wilcox, Special to CNN 2/21/12
For Americans with a college degree, divorce is down, marital quality is stable, and family stability is up since the divorce revolution of the 1970s and early 1980s, according to research I have conducted.
However, marriage is in trouble not only in poor communities but also increasingly in Middle America -- communities where most people have a high school degree but not a four-year college degree. For Americans without a college degree, divorce remains high, marital quality is falling, and nonmarital childbearing is surging.
In general, children born and raised in a married household are more likely to graduate from college, find employment and enjoy stable marriages as adults.
Likewise, married adults are happier and less depressed than their unmarried peers. And because they work harder, act more strategically and carefully after they tie the knot, men enjoy a wage premium that may exceed 10% compared with their single peers. Married men are also much less likely to abuse alcohol, drugs or run into trouble with the law, compared with their unmarried peers.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
From "The Cost of Marriage?" by Kara Miller, Boston Globe 2/21/12
I have been fascinated by the coverage of Charles Murray’s new book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 . . .
Murray attributes the problem to several factors: a reduction in available jobs for those with high school educations, a decline in religiosity, and a disappearing stigma against out-of-wedlock births and divorce, among others.
Among white women under 30, only 8% of those with a college degree have children out of wedlock. For those who have never attended college, more than half of children - 51% - are now born to unmarried mothers.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
From "New brief shows nonmarital childbearing is increasingly common in United States" by Child Trends' blog 12/16/11
Nonmarital childbearing has increased substantially over the past several decades for all groups of women. Between 1970 and 2009, the percentage of all births that took place outside of marriage increased from 11 to 41 percent. Increases in nonmarital births have been more dramatic among white and Hispanic women than among black women.
Women in their twenties have the highest levels of nonmarital childbearing. In 2009, 62 percent of all nonmarital births occurred to women aged 20-29; only 21 percent occurred to teens.
A majority of all births that occurred outside of marriage were unintended--either mistimed or not wanted (50 percent of all births to cohabiting couples and 65 percent of all births to couples not married or cohabiting).
The rise in the number of children being born outside of marriage-among all groups-is linked to broader changes in family structure, most notably increases in cohabitation.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read studies showing that as Cohabitation Soars, Children Suffer and that Unwed Mothers are in Poorer Health
