Posted on 02/18/2012 12:59:45 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Most Births Among Those Under 30 Are To Unwed Moms
It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: More than half of births to U.S. women younger than 30 occur outside marriage.
Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the past two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.
Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of U.S. children are born to mothers younger than 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.
One group still largely resists the trend: College graduates overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.
“Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that American children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering from emotional and behavioral problems.
The forces rearranging the family are as diverse as globalization and the pill. Liberal analysts argue that shrinking paychecks have thinned the ranks of marriageable men, while conservatives often say that the sexual revolution reduced the incentive to wed and that safety net programs discourage marriage.
The recent rise in single motherhood has set off few alarms, unlike in past eras. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a top Labor Department official and later a U.S. senator from New York, reported in 1965 that a quarter of black children were born outside marriage — and warned of a “tangle of pathology” — he set off a bitter debate.
By the mid-1990s, such figures looked quaint: A third of Americans were born outside marriage. Congress, largely blaming welfare, imposed tough restrictions. Now the figure is 41 percent — and 53 percent for children born to women younger than 30, according to Child Trends.
Large racial differences remain: 73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some postsecondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less.
Almost all of the rise in nonmarital births has occurred among couples living together. While in some countries such relationships endure at rates that resemble marriages, in the United States they are more than twice as likely to dissolve than marriages.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
“Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?”
I remember when it was a scandal when you read about a birth in the local paper and the parents had different last names.
Last time I looked there were about 10 announcements that week and I only saw two that shared the same name.
Marxism-—to destroy Christianity and the natural family.
Children raised without a loving father do not have the same type of worldview that children raised with fathers have. They become emotionally weak—and if they are male and have no positive male role model, they will be unconfident men—easily manipulated and deeply angered and hurt at the rejection of someone whom nature should accept the DUTY to help shape and form the child, so they become a “normal” human being and learn how to deal with all human beings for decades.
Over 95 % of people in prison had no loving father. Marxists know if you destroy the family-—you destroy the ability to transfer the culture-—all the customs and Christian Ethics which made this country great.
Feminism and homosexual movements and ACLU were all founded by Marxists-—who want to destroy our institutions which destroy children—the most vulnerable since they need emotionally healthy role models of both sexes to learn how to build long term loving relationships.
I’m sure they now take into account all the lesbos having children, out of wedlock, NOT married to their lesbo lover.
We are turning into Sodom and Gomorrah.....and we ALL know how that one ended.
Yep. The Woodstock liberals and their descendants redefined marriage to include relationships beyond male-female procreation.
Once two guys can get “married,” anyone “in love” with any other adult, child, animal or “thing” can also claim matrimony.
Unmarried women, watching the marital circus, say “why bother? Marriage doesn’t mean anything. I’m going to get pregnant.”
The moron, alleged president is the chief bastard.
Yet another reason why I say this nation’s problems are far too deep and serious to be solved by temporary political elections.
The window of grace may be closing very soon.
It certainly seems like 2012 is the year of grace.... we open it with everything we have or slam it shut.
Lord help us.
Now what portion of the children born to the unwed white women were fathered by a minority?
“One group still largely resists the trend: College graduates overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education”
Trailer trash and the “me” people are responsible for CHOOSING this lifestyle and poverty.
I would say the fat ones from my observations.
When people of faith expressed concern over the number of unwed mothers, we were trying to pass judgement on others and impose our values. When conservatives expressed concern, we were being racist. Now the truth is there for all to see, and there were NO comments to the original newspaper story. I guess there isn’t much they can say. They sure aren’t going to say “you told us so”!
Illegitimacy has destroyed the black family and community—and African-Americans represent only 13% of the U.S. population. According to the NYT article, the percentage of out-of-wedlock births is over 50% in the Hispanic community, and around 30% among whites. As a reminder, whites still represent over 85% of the American populace. When the illegitimacy rate among that group hits 50%, we are finished, both as a nation and a culture. And, when you look at Charles Murray’s new work on exploding illegitimacy rates among working class whites, you can see that day isn’t very far off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.