A new report called "When Marriage Disappears, The Retreat From Marriage in Middle America," published by the University of Virginia's The National Marriage Project, says that marriage rates are falling among the "moderately educated" (which they define as someone with a high-school diploma). The study is quite long and detailed so I won’t even attempt to summarize it here (it's very interesting, though, so I recommend giving it a read). But suffice to say, the study touches on the many socio-economic consequences of a large swath of the population (58 percent of all American adults, according to the report) never marrying.
In short, the report says that without marriage, many of the moderately educated find they are unable to achieve the “American Dream.” Depressing, huh? Here’s another particularly interesting nugget from the report:
"The two less-educated groups of Americans have become more accepting of divorce and premarital sex, even as highly educated Americans have moved in a more marriage-minded direction, despite the fact that historically, they have been more socially liberal."
I found this part fascinating because both Jack and I fall into the highly educated group (even though we have far less education than many of our friends and family members), and we are decidedly liberal. Still, we have definitely embraced some seriously traditional values, including marriage. And honestly, we are sort of thrilled by the squareness of our adult lives. But how about you guys? Where do you fit on the squareness spectrum? And do you think your education level has anything to do with it?
-- Holly
Dec 22, 2010
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