Darrell Webb

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1103
2/13/2015

Early marriage in America has been a decreasing item for a number of years now. Early
marriage is defined as anyone who gets married under the age of 24. Factors that play into early
marriage include: religious affiliation, gender, ethnicity, family background, economic status,
and prior cohabitation. The average age of marriage has increased by 4 to 5 years in both women
and men from 23 in women and 25 in men.. Women are still more likely to marry early than men
are. People that do marry early. Studies have shown that Hispanics marry young, behind them
are Whites, then Asians, and in last black people (Uecker & Stokes).. A study completed by the
University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School showed associated success with later marriage and
education. They performed a study on college graduates from the 1980s that were married at the
age of 26 and, according to that study, 80% of those college graduates were still married 20 years
later. 65% of college graduates from the 1980s that were married before their 26th birthday

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achieved the same marital success and 49% who married, without a college degree, before their
26th birthday succeeded in their marriage twenty years later (Perez-Crouse, Danny).
The U.S. National Library of Medicine expresses that there has been a cultural shift
towards individuation,. Which simply means that people, rather than making decisions based
off of others, are moving towards making them for solely themselves so family influences about
marriage and relationships are decreasing in effect. People who marry early have shown to have

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lower economic status than those in upper tax brackets because they have less ability to support
themselves. The marriage presents a combination of resources for both partners to pull from.
Couples that are considered to have married early are under the age of 23. The USNLM
states that less than 20% of men and women get married at this age. I will be analyzing the
underlying factors as to why the median age for marriage has steadily increased for a number of
years now. After weighing the pros and cons of early marriage I will come to a conclusion of
whether early marriage is a sensible route for todays society. The USNLMs study of early
marriage has links to many other research studiesys that were consulted while creating their
own. They will be my main source of information..
Marriage is intricate. It combines the lives of two individual partners and the partners
have to take a lot into account when coming together. Finances, work, future plans, and living
arrangements are just some of the things that need to be discussed. With early marriage it is an
even more difficult task to prolong the marriage because most do not have the experience of
being tied to someone outside of their immediate family.
When looking at things like ethnicity and economic status it gets even more difficult
because not everyone has the same ideals. In black families its more common to live together
and have kids prior to getting married. Sometimes never getting married like in the case of my
parents and some of my family members. In suburban white families with a religious affiliation
their children are more likely to marry prior to having kids and living together because of their
beliefs.
Inquiry Questions

What causes people to get married so early? Why do the factors listed before have the
effects they do on marriage? Why is the median age for marriage increasing? What are the
benefits to an early marriage? What are the negatives? Do early marriages have a better chance
of lasting longer than normal ones? What are the connotations associated with early marriage, as
in how do people view early marriage? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Are people approving,
disapproving? What conclusions to people draw about couples that do marry early??

My Interest In This Topic

On my Moms side her parents married at 20 and their parents married even earlier. My
Mom got married early and divorced the man before she met my Dad. My Mom and Dad never
married. I also dont have a religious influence so my views on marriage are skewed. I believe I
have found someone that I would want to spend the rest of my life with but marriage is still
scary. I think this research paper would help make marriage seem like less of a foreign
commodity. I also like looking at social relations. Seeing other cultures views on marriage is
interesting in comparison.
Next Steps
I plan on reading more of the studies that the USNLB cited in their study as well as use
Atkins Librarys database to find more studies that pertain to my topic. Im going to talk to a few
people that were married early because there are some people in my graduating class that are
already married and some in the class ahead of me that I am acquaintances with. Ill ask them
their views of marriage, religious affiliation, family views of marriage, and more.