The decline in marriage rates and resulting childhood circumstances is a major factor in the instability of America's middle class, says "State of our Unions: Marriage in America," a report from the National Marriage Project and the Institute for American Values.
For background, read Out-of-Wedlock Births: Majority for Moms Under 30 and also read Family Demise; 1/3 of Households are People Alone as well as Cohabitation Soars, Children Suffer: Study
UPDATE 6/19/14: Out-of-Wedlock Births Vast Majority Among Less-educated Young Adults
UPDATE 3/21/13: 48 Percent of First Children Born to Unwed Mothers
-- From "Marriage culture called key to stable middle class" by Cheryl Wetzstein, The Washington Times 12/17/12
The disappearance of marriage in “middle America” is tracking with the disappearance of the middle class in the same communities, and “strikes at the very heart of the American Dream,” scholars Elizabeth Marquardt, David Blankenhorn, Robert I. Lerman, Linda Malone-Colon and W. Bradford Wilcox said in a paper released Sunday.
They offer 10 recommendations to President Obama and other policymakers to renew a marriage culture.
The 10 recommendations include ending tax penalties for married couples, investing in relationship-skills education and premarital education for persons seeking to form stepfamilies, divorce reform, and tripling the tax credit for minor children.
A companion report, “Social Indicators of Marital Health and Well-Being,” showed that U.S. high school students continue to have high aspirations for marriage: Eighty percent of high school girls and 72 percent of high school boys said having a good marriage and family life is “extremely important,” according to Monitoring the Future surveys from 2007 to 2010.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Children Born to Single Parent Households Becoming 'New Normal,' Says Study" by Myles Collier, Christian Post Contributor 12/19/12
The study showed that of the children that were born from adults representing "middle-America," 44 percent were born outside of marriage. That rate has been steadily increasing since the 1980s when the percentage of children born out of wedlock was only 13 percent.
Research suggests the rise in cohabitating individuals has a direct correlation to the increase in children being born out of marriage as the attitude towards the role of marriage, as a structure for raising children has changed.
70 percent of high school dropouts were found to be cohabitating as compared with only 50 percent of college graduates. Cohabitating couples were also more likely to be from the lower bracket of economic placement.
The authors of the report gave a bleak outlook for marriage in the future as the meaning of marriage among younger generations has changed from solely being used as a structure in which to raise children to that of an institution seen to be partially self-servant.
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Also read Kids are Hazardous to Marriage, Say Liberal Studies
