Cycle Of Marriage

Much like the cycle of poverty, marriage is cyclic as well. A child born to a married couple is more likely to be married in his lifetime, and a child born out-of-wedlock is less likely to be married. In order to break this cycle, marriage needs to be reintroduced back into communities where marriage has declined the most. This means reintroducing marriage into the inner city, places with low educational attainment rates, and places where low-income people are struggling the most (Pew Research Center, 2010). If nothing is done, the cycle will continue and only get worse. Marriage could continue to decline even more, and children will be worse off. They will have lower quality parenting, be less successful, and many of them will make the same …show more content…
In order to fix the cycle of children born out of wedlock and the decline of marriage, concentrated efforts must be made to educate youth, change culture to encourage marriage and responsible childbearing choices and to increase education attainment thus increasing income among those who are most strongly affected by the …show more content…
One investment that could be made is universal pre-kindergarten. According to research done by The Pew Charitable Trusts, children who attend pre-k are less likely to be held back a grade, be dependent on welfare, or be involved with law enforcement. They are also more likely to graduate and earn more money as adults (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2005), which helps them break the cycle of poverty and empowers them to be successful. This success in turn motivates marriage by increasing the utility gained from the marriage. Additionally, the encouragement of trade schools through financial investments or tax rebates for the students could help students who are not a fit for traditional college find a career as a skilled craftsman. For example, colleges like Ivy Tech, ITT tech, or DeVry can help students earn a degree in a skill like welding or plumbing that would otherwise be unavailable to them. According to a paper funded by the US Department of Education, vocational training improves employment and earning for at-risk youth and adults (Brown, 1998). Higher earnings and employment could help the marriage market by empowering more people, especially young men that make them marketable for marriage. A steady job was the most important thing in a potential spouse to women according to Pew Research Survey (Pew Research Center, 2010), and as a result, increasing jobs and employment