Me Thinks

Social Issue for the week:
Marriage and the Poverty Cycle
(Taken from a Deseret News article 11/3/2013)

College educated and affluent young people tie the knot at the rate of about 84 percent.

Among those with the least education, the rate is only about 48 percent.

(40 percent of all American children are now born out of wedlock.)

What does this mean?  Children of parents in intact marriages are more likely to graduate from college and earn high wages.  Young adults are at least 44 percent more likely to have graduated from college if they were raised by their married parents.  In addition, the children of intact marriages aren't likely to produce children out of wedlock.  More facts:  children raised without married parents are 82 percent more likely to live in low-income homes than those from married households.  They are much more likely to end up in trouble as teenagers, whether from inappropriate sexual behavior or substance abuse.  They tend to suffer more psychological and emotional problems and perform worse in school.  In short, they are set up for a lifetime of living far below their potential, doomed by circumstances over which they had no control.

Research by Bradford Wilcox and Kathleen Kovner Kline, has found that both boys and girls tend to behave better when raised by fathers who are engaged in the family. 

If the nation is looking for ways to break the inter-generational cycle of poverty, it ought to find ways to emphasize the need for stable marriages.  Governments are doomed to pay dearly in many ways for the lack of stable marriages.

My take on the article:  
So what can we do about it?  There are a few things.  If we are married, we can seek to solidify our marriages and keep our marital relationships strong.  We need to put our marriage as a high priority in our lives.  We can teach our children the importance of marriage and we can defend the institution of marriage whenever and wherever possible.