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10 December 2010
Drawing on the latest national data, a new report concludes that marriage
is in trouble among so-called "Middle Americans," defined as the 58
percent of adults who have a high school diploma and possibly some post-secondary
education, but
no four-year college degree.
The 2010 edition of the State of Our Unions report was released today by the
National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage
and Families at the Institute for American Values.
New data indicate that trends in non-marital childbearing, divorce and marital
quality in Middle America increasingly resemble those of the poor, many of whose
marriages are fragile. However, among the highly educated and affluent, marriage
is stable and appears to be getting even stronger - yet more evidence of America's
"marriage gap."
The report is the first to address the causes of the observed retreat from marriage
in Middle America. It finds that shifts in marriage attitudes, increases in
unemployment and declines in religious attendance are among the trends driving
the retreat.
In a striking reversal of historic trends, highly educated Americans are embracing
a pro-marriage mindset even as Middle Americans are losing faith in marriage.
The report finds:
• Moderately educated Americans have become dramatically more likely than highly
educated Americans (the 30 percent of adults with a four-year college degree)
to have children outside of marriage. In the early '80s, 13 percent of babies
of moderately educated mothers and 33 percent of babies of least-educated mothers
were born outside of marriage, while 2 percent were born to highly educated
mothers. By the late 2000s, the out-of-wedlock birth rate for moderately educated
mothers had soared to 44 percent. It rose to 54 percent for the least educated
mothers and went up slightly to 6 percent for highly educated mothers.
• In a historic reversal, the cultural foundations of strong marriages - adherence
to a "marriage mindset," religious attendance and faith in marriage
as a way of life - are stronger now among the highly educated than among the
moderately educated. For example, teenagers from highly educated homes are more
likely to report that they would be embarrassed by a pregnancy (76 percent)
than their peers from moderately educated homes (61 percent). Highly educated
Americans are also now more likely to attend church on a weekly basis (34 percent)
than moderately educated Americans (28 percent); in the 1970s, highly educated
Americans were less likely to attend church than the moderately educated.
• Divorce rates are up for moderately educated Americans, relative to those
who are highly educated. From the 1970s to the 1990s, divorce or separation
within the first 10 years of marriage became less likely for the highly educated
(15 percent down to 11 percent), slightly more likely for the moderately educated
(36 up to 37 percent), and less likely for the least educated (46 down to 36
percent).
In an era when jobs and the economy are the overriding concerns, why should
the nation care about the marriages of Middle Americans?
The author of this year's lead essay, sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox of U.Va.'s
College of Arts & Sciences, said, "Marriage plays a central role in
securing the American Dream for countless Americans. Adults and children fortunate
enough to live in an intact, married family are much more likely to succeed
in school and the workplace, to acquire a home of their own, and to experience
upward mobility.
"The retreat from marriage in Middle America means that all too many Americans
will not be able to realize the American Dream."
Wilcox said it's striking that the cultural and economic foundations of marriage
appear to be growing stronger among the educated and the affluent, even as they
deteriorate among Middle Americans.
"While many highly educated Americans have progressive views on social
issues in general, when it comes to their own lives, they are increasingly adopting
a marriage mindset and acting accordingly," he said.
The growing "marriage gap" between highly educated and moderately
educated Americans should be of concern to all Americans, he said.
"The vast majority of American adults aspire to marriage, and children
are much more likely to thrive if they are raised in a married home with their
own mother and father," Wilcox said. "Unfortunately, marriage has
now fallen out of reach for millions of adults and children in Middle America."
The complete 2010 State of Our Unions report, "When Marriage Disappears:
The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America," is available for download
at http://stateofourunions.org/.
About the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia
The National Marriage Project is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian and interdisciplinary
initiative located at the University of Virginia. The project provides research
and analysis on the health of marriage in America, including the annual "State
of Our Unions" report. The National Marriage Project, which was founded
at Rutgers University in 1997 by Drs. David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead,
moved to U.Va. in the fall of 2009 and is now directed by W. Bradford Wilcox,
a professor of sociology in U.Va.'s College of Arts & Sciences.
About the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values
Directed by Elizabeth Marquardt, the mission of the Center for Marriage and
Families is to increase the proportion of U.S. children growing up with their
two married parents. At the center's website, FamilyScholars.org, bloggers include
emerging voices and senior scholars with distinctive expertise and points of
view tackling today's key debates on the family. The New York-based Institute
for American Values is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to strengthening
families and civil society in the U.S. and the world.
The "When Marriage Disappears" issue of The State of Our Unions is
part of the "Nest and Nest-Egg Initiative," a multi-year inquiry,
supported by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, into the prudential values
and institutions that are essential to sustaining a secure and thriving American
middle class.
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