How Education Affects Marriage and Family Structure

Today, the college-educated middle class is more likely to marry and have a more stable family dynamic than their less educated peers. One reason for these differences is that college graduates are more likely to take a flexible approach when it comes to family roles. For example, in a family with college-educated middle class parents, it is not uncommon for the wife to make six-figures while the husband stays at home to care for the kids. Another reason for the differences in relationships and family structures between educated and non-educated couples is that educated couples typically have better and more stable jobs that enable them to put more time and resources into the family.

College-educated couples tend to marry and have children later in life than less-educated couples, and less-educated couples tend to have children out of marriage more often than college-educated couples. College-educated singles typically look for partners who share compatible values and have complementary employment to their own. The recent recession has broadened the marriage gap even more between educated and uneducated couples by reducing the number of men with stable jobs and increasing the number of semi-employed men who tend to provide less help around the house than full-time working men. 

For more information on marriage today, see June Carbone and Naomi Cahn, The Marrying Kind: How Class Shapes Our Search for a Soul Mate, Feb. 16, 2012.