For the past few generations, marriage rates have steadily gone down. Today, close to 60 percent of Americans are not married, and a surprisingly high number of them are in relationships with children. What’s going on? Which of the following structures can perform all the activities required for life?
Fortunately, there is a new generation of researchers who argue that people can get married later in life or stay unmarried if they have supportive families around them. The strongest predictor for whether or not someone marries is still their financial situation, which highlights the importance of strong family bonds for unmarried couples with children.
1. Housing
Upon first glance, the housing situation of unmarried parents seems unsustainable. 60 percent of unmarried parents have a child with a different person, which means that they have to find places where everyone can live together. In our society, this often involves moving in with family or friends for years at a time. In order to afford these living situations, many unmarried parents will turn to living with other unmarried couples (this is particularly common in areas like San Francisco). As you might imagine, overcrowded housing can be dangerous for children. On average, 4-7 people will live in one house. Unmarried parents are less likely to have the freedom and money to renovate their houses into safer homes for their families .
2. Education
Because unmarried parents live in such crowded housing situations, they often face problems where the house is too small or they need to move often. This makes it hard to maintain a permanent place of employment, which affects their ability to keep a steady education. Children whose parents attended college are more likely to do so themselves, and this creates a lasting legacy for an entire family.
3. Religion
Unmarried couples have much less time and money to spend on religion than married people; this creates fewer opportunities for children from these families to connect with religious communities , which are generally supportive of marriage.
This is why the lack of social support networks and financial resources among unmarried parents can lead to a higher risk of poverty. In fact, 30 percent of children in low-income homes are raised by a childless adult, which represents a much larger proportion than in middle class families.
4. Disease
A notable contributing factor for poor health among unmarried parents is the fact that they have less access to affordable healthcare. While there are many programs that provide free or reduced cost healthcare for people who don’t have insurance, these are often not available in rural areas or low income neighborhoods . This means that unmarried parents have a higher risk of poor health among themselves and their children.
5. Family and community norms
Unmarried parents are often stigmatized in our society, with feelings of shame and guilt being passed down through generations. Because they are not married, this can create a mentality of shame as well as an inability to feel safe within their communities. This can also carry over onto the children themselves, who may feel ashamed of their families’ situation due to cultural notions about marriage and family. It is impossible to fight against such cultural norms on a large scale because they are so embedded in modern society, but it is important to recognize the negative effects that they have on the individuals who fall victim to them .
6. Financial Issues
The biggest indicator for whether or not a person will get married is still their financial situation. This has a huge effect on the choices that unmarried parents make. People who do not have a steady income are less likely to feel comfortable marrying more children. Because of these factors, children of unmarried parents are more likely to become financially dependent on the government, leading to possible long-term issues with poverty and government dependence .
7. Family Planning
One possible solution to this problem is family planning, which is the ability for a parent to choose in advance how many children they have as well as whether or not they want to marry the other parent (or any potential partner). Family planning is a hot-button issue in modern society, and each side has a lot of support behind it.
8. Divorce
The second biggest predictor for whether or not someone will get married is their family history. 32% of children whose parents are divorced will witness their parents’ second marriage fail. This creates what is known as the “cycle of divorce,” where children who witness the break up of their parent’s marriage seek to avoid ever ending up in that situation themselves. Studies show that children raised in these situations often have higher rates of both divorce and out-of-wedlock births, meaning that not only are they more likely to get divorced but also more likely to marry someone who is also divorced .
Because children of unmarried parents are more likely to experience divorce, they are also more likely to have children outside of marriage themselves. 40 percent of children born out-of-wedlock have at least one parent who was also born out-of-wedlock, and this figure jumps to 70 percent for African American children .
9. Poor work ethic
The link between poverty and poor work ethic is well known among economists; many studies show that the poorest families have less discipline among their members and therefore lower productivity . Children from these backgrounds will find it difficult to succeed in our society because they are deprived of a good work ethic. The most difficult aspect of this is that they are less likely to be able to find employment in an industry where they are needed (like construction or manufacturing). This is a long-term impact of poverty that can have a lasting negative impact on an entire community.
10. Lower life expectancy
Children who grow up in poor families will be more likely to die earlier than their peers with better lifestyles, because their bodies are more susceptible to the health risks that poverty brings. For example, young people from poor family backgrounds are more likely to get lung disease . These problems can be avoided by adequate nutrition for young people and improved access to healthcare for the elderly.
Conclusion:
As a society, we must work together to make sure that children born into a life of poverty have the necessary support to grow up healthy and successful. No child should have their life determined by the circumstances of their birth. If we work together and focus on creating opportunities for them to succeed, we can break the cycle of poverty once and for all.
