“But is this generation actually marrying earlier or just have children out of wedlock?”
I don’t know, but from what I’ve been seeing, probably the latter. If it’s a choice between illegitimacy and infanticide, I’ll take illegitimacy.
“38% of children are born out of wedlock, and there is no sign that that trend is waning among the young, many of whom are the those giving birth to those babies.”
I think that the trends in illegitimacy are in large part economically driven. So long as illegitimacy is viewed as a low risk proposition, the trends will continue. The econonomy since the late 80’s has been very good and there hasn’t been the overriding economic incentive to marry that there has been in past generations. I.e. illegitimacy = destitution. Well, the stock market opens in about an hour and I think the consensus is that we’re about to see a fairly dramatic change in the economy.
As a sidebar note, illegitimacy is part of the reason why I see AFDC as being such a very bad idea in spite of the fact that we don’t spend all that much money on it. The few hundred dollars a month that a family draws a month is pocket change in the grand schema, but it has a strong impact in encouraging irresponsible behavior.
Illegitimacy is the norm in Europe these days. After all the state is the true parent. In Norway hardly anyone gets married any more.