Close X
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
ADVT 
Interesting

Why Young Americans Are Having Babies Before Marriage

IANS, 14 Jul, 2016 12:16 PM
     Rising income inequality, and the resulting scarcity of certain types of jobs, is a key reason a large number of millennials in the US are having babies before getting married, a study says.
     
    The researchers traced how the income gap, a large-scale societal trend, was affecting individual personal choices about starting a family. 
     
    The greater the income inequality in an area, the less likely young men and women are to marry before having a first child, the results showed. 
     
    "Does income inequality affect a young adult's decision about getting married and starting a family?" We think the answer is 'Yes' for those who don't graduate from college,” said lead researcher Andrew Cherlin, Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US.
     
    Places with higher income inequality have fewer good jobs for those young adults. They don't foresee ever having the kinds of well paying careers that could support a marriage and a family, Cherlin said.
     
    "But they are unwilling to forgo having children. So with good jobs in limited supply and successful marriage looking unlikely, young women and men without college degrees may go ahead and have a child without marrying first," Cherlin noted.
     
    The study was published online in the journal American Sociological Review.
     
    The team studied 9,000 young people of the generation known as millennials, from 1997 when they were 12 to 16 years old, until 2011, when they were 26 to 31. 
     
    By the end of the study, 53 per cent of the women and 41 per cent of the men reported having had at least one child - and 59 per cent of those births occurred outside of marriage.
     
    The researchers found that childless unmarried men and women who lived in countries with greater household income inequality and fewer middle market jobs available were less likely to marry before having a child. 
     
    In fact, women who lived in an area with high inequality had 15 to 27 per cent lower odds of marrying before having a first child than did women who lived in an area with low inequality.
     
    "They believe that being married is optional. But having a child is mandatory," Cherlin pointed out.

    MORE Interesting ARTICLES

    Pakistan's Transgenders Mocked By Most, Abhorred By Many

    Pakistan's Transgenders Mocked By Most, Abhorred By Many
    PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Abandoned by family and mocked by their society, the life of a Pakistani transgender is lonely. It can even be deadly.

    Pakistan's Transgenders Mocked By Most, Abhorred By Many

    Chicago-Area Woman Who Created Beehive Hairdo Dies At Age 98

    Chicago-Area Woman Who Created Beehive Hairdo Dies At Age 98
    Ahlgrim Funeral Home in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst said Monday that Heldt died Friday at a senior living community.

    Chicago-Area Woman Who Created Beehive Hairdo Dies At Age 98

    Bill Gates: Chickens, Not Computers, Can Solve Poverty

    Want to end extreme poverty? Technology hyper-billionaire Bill Gates says the answer is chickens. And that's not the name of new Microsoft software.

    Bill Gates: Chickens, Not Computers, Can Solve Poverty

    Canadian Bobsledders Take Up Golf With Goal Of Improving Focus, Mental Toughness

    Canadian Bobsledders Take Up Golf With Goal Of Improving Focus, Mental Toughness
    As rain falls on the picturesque setting, one surrounded by breathtaking mountains mostly hidden by clouds on this day, some of the golf balls go straight and some don't.

    Canadian Bobsledders Take Up Golf With Goal Of Improving Focus, Mental Toughness

    Sex Acts With Animals Are Legal, Canada's Supreme Court Rules

    Sex Acts With Animals Are Legal, Canada's Supreme Court Rules
    WARNING: Contents may disturb some readers

    Sex Acts With Animals Are Legal, Canada's Supreme Court Rules

    Uruguay's Blind 'Bird Man' Can Identify 3,000 Bird Sounds

    Uruguay's Blind 'Bird Man' Can Identify 3,000 Bird Sounds
    The 29-year-old said he realized he had perfect, or absolute pitch, when he was a boy. Tossing stones in a river, he was able to tell his father exactly the note each one made when it hit the water.

    Uruguay's Blind 'Bird Man' Can Identify 3,000 Bird Sounds