Marriage and Motherhood in Low Income Communities

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Marriage and Motherhood in Low Income
Communities

• Kathryn J. Edin
• University of Pennsylvania

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The Spread of Single Parenthood

• Male Earnings
• Female Earnings
• Public Assistance
• Indeed, it is only a slight exaggeration to say
  that quantitative social scientists main
  contribution to our understanding of single
  parent families has been to show that nothing
  caused them to become more common. Nevertheless,
  they did.
• (Ellwood and Jencks, 20022)

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The Policy Context

• Unfulfilled mandate of welfare reform
• Research and demonstration projects for unmarried
  low income new parents in 7 states (Building
  Strong Families)
• GA, IN, FL, LA, MA, OK, TX
• Research and demonstration projects for married
  low income couples (Strengthening Healthy
  Marriage)
• State Efforts
• TANF Reauthorization releases 100 per year for 5
  years to marriage education, 50 per year for 5
  years for fatherhood programs.

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Promises I Can KeepEDIN/KEFALAS

• Ethnographic observations in 8 poor neighborhoods
  over 5 years
• Repeated, in-depth interviews with 162 single
  mothers (white, African American, Puerto Rican,
  half younger, half older)
• gt16,000
• Funded by W.T. Grant Scholars Award, additional
  funding from W.T. Grant Foundation.

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Supplementary Data

• Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey (20
  LARGE CITIES)
• Qualitative Addition to Fragile Families (NYC,
  CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE)
• What About Fathers (PHILADELPHIA, AUSTIN,
  CHARLESTON, SAN ANTONIO)
• Qualitative interviews in 7 cities with 900 poor
  parents

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Kensington
Pennsport
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West Kensington
East Camden
North Camden
South Camden
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Strawberry Mansion
North Central
East Camden
North Camden
South Camden
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Courtship

• conception lt 1 year
• MPF, her kids play a role in courtship process.
• Dreams of shared children. I want to have a
  baby by you a high form of social praise.
• Contraception initially, then stop when the
  relationship reaches another level.
• Confidence from raising siblings and cousins.

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The Pregnancy

• 2/3 neither planned nor avoided
• Moms response deal with it
• Dads response 55 steady, 45 ambivalent
• Just as pressure goes up, rewards go down.
• In cases of MPF, the perceived value of his
  support may plummet.

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The Magic Moment

• Survey
• 80 survive or reunite at birth, 50 cohabiting.
• Either cohabit or break up.
• 75 of all moms and dads rate chances of
  marriage at 50/50 or better.
• (60 say good or almost certain).
• Edin/Kefalas
• See marriage as 4, 5 or more years off.
• (Gibson-Davis, Edin, McLanahan 2005)
• Shotgun marriage wrong, but a shared child a
  powerful reason to stay together.

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After the Baby

• (Fragile Families baseline results for
  romantically involved couples)
• Dad ever incarcerated 39
• Dad earned lt 10,000 last year 33
• Dad isnt employed now 24
• Mom (Dad) a high school dropout 40
• Either has child with previous partner 61
• BY YEAR 3, 15 had married, 50 had broken up,
  40 still together, most holding firm to marriage
  goal

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Why So Few Marriages?

• Childbearing and marriage are not decisions that
  go together. (Different from college-educated
  sample in NYC. Sassler and Cunningham, 2005.)
• This doesnt indicate a disinterest in marriage,
  but the high symbolic value.
• Relatively high economic AND relational bar for
  marriage.

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Economic Bar

• Marriage ought to be reserved for those who have
  made it economically and can demonstrate their
  social worth with the symbols of modest success.
• The white picket fence dream.
• Economic ability to set up household together is
  NOT enough (most already cohabiting).
• Not respectable to marry without meeting bar.
  (Cant trade love or help around the house for
  money.)
• From Gibson-Davis, Edin, McLanahan 2005 Edin and
  Kefalas, 2005, and Edin, Kefalas, and Reed 2004.

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New Twist on the Economic Bar

• Cant achieve this dream while relying on a man.
  Women feel it is vitally important that both they
  and their partners are economically set prior
  to marriage. There is a STRONG aversion to
  economic dependence on a man.
• Need to make a credible threat to leave
• Patriarchal sex role expectations.
• Bad behaviors.
• Insurance against breakup.

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Relationship Bar

• Even if white picket dream is achieved, couple
  must have also proved theyve attained relational
  maturity by withstanding hard times and the test
  of time. This takes YEARS to attain.
• Normative demands of marriage are higher.
• Divorce is a sacrilege.
• Want partnership of equals/best friend.
• From Gibson, Edin, McLanahan 2003, Edin and
  Kefalas 2005

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FFCWB SURVEYFactors Encouraging Marriage by 1
Year After Birth(Carlson, McLanahan, England
2003, FF analysis)

• Her education and wage rate
• Dads employment and annual earnings
• Quality of couple relationship (his or her
  report)
• Pro-marriage attitudes
• Moms general distrust of men hurts
• His kids by another mother hurt
• All of above are net of relationship status at
  birth (broken up, visiting, cohabiting)

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What Accounts for Break Up?

• Financial instability/irresponsibility (25 )
• Criminal involvement (30 )
• Incarceration (20 )
• Substance abuse (35 )
• Infidelity (40 )
• Domestic abuse (45 )
• TOO HIGH A BAR FOR MARRIAGE?

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What about the Kids?

• Women hold much higher standards for the men they
  are willing to marry than for the men they are
  willing to have children with. Though they hope
  their babys fathers will rise to the occasion
  and perhaps become the loving life partner they
  desire, theyre not counting on it.
• What would your life be like without your
  children? Children provide them with
• Order
• Validation
• Purpose
• Companionship (relational poverty)

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The Spread of Single Parenthood Revisited
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A Redefinition of Marriage

• Many of the men poor women would have been
  willing to marry in the 1950s and 1960s would not
  meet the standards they hold for marriage now,
  even if unskilled mens employment hadnt
  declined at all.

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Large Changes in Family Values

• Opposition to premarital sex fell from two-thirds
  to one third.
• Opposition to cohabitation fell from two thirds
  to about 40 percent.
• Opposition to nonmarital childbearing fell
  dramatically as well.
• Opposition to divorce among couples with children
  who just cant get along fell from half to one in
  five.
• Sayer, Wright and Edin, 2005.

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Marriage No Longer a Cultural Imperative

• As marriage lost much of its practical
  significance, the culture could afford to make
  marriage more special, more rarified, and more
  significant in its meaning.

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How the Rich and Poor have Adapted to the New
Marriage Norms

• Though the poor and the middle class have a
  similar standard for marriage, the poor are far
  less likely to meet it.

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The Outcome for the Poor A Rise in Nonmarital
Childbearing

• Though marriage standards are widely shared,
  there are large and important differences between
  the social classes, and the rise in nonmarital
  childbearing can only be understood by looking at
  both.

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The Most Important Difference The Social Value
of Children

• The poor ascribe an extraordinarily high social
  value to children.
• They are more likely to think that motherhood is
  one of lifes most fulfilling roles
• They are five times as likely to say they think
  childless people lead empty lives, net other
  differences such as race, age, parental, and
  marital status.
• From Sayer, Wright and Edin, 2005
• For most women living in poor inner-city
  neighborhoods, childlessness is simply
  inconceivable.
• Miss Marias miracle

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Opportunity Costs or Absolute Preferences?

• Fewer forgone opportunities
• opportunity costs nil
• out-of-pocket costs dont vary by age.
• Stronger absolute preferences (a greater taste)
• Children at the center of meaning making
  activity.
• Children can rise to the top of the list of
  potential meaning making activities from mere
  lack of competition.

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Divergent Moral Hierarchies

• For the poor, it is better to have children
  outside of marriage than to marry foolishly and
  risk divorce.
• Id rather say, Yes, I had my kids out of
  wedlock than say I married this idiot. Its like
  a pride thing.
• Im not going to make any promises I cant
  keep.
• I dont believe in divorce. Thats why none of
  the women in my family are married.
• For the middle class marriage still ought to come
  first (Sassler and Cunningham 2004).
• Middle-class women who face steep opportunity
  costs decide that having a child while unmarried
  is simply too potentially costly.

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Do the Poor have Deviant Values?

• The poor view the middle class, who privilege
  career above children, as selfish.
• -- Angelas new plan.
• Few believe having a child outside of marriage is
  the right way to go about things.
• Given their constraints, they take a wait and
  see approach.

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Children Mean Everything

• My son is my heart. When I have hard times
  I always tell myself I wanted him. Even if I get
  that rock on my finger, that white picket fence,
  and that deed that says the house is mine, Ill
  still have my son just in case anything goes
  sour. Ill say to my husband, You leave! This
  boy is MINE.

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Policy Message

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Pregnancy

• not about contraception
• nothing left to lose
• quest for meaning
• 1 for kids

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Marriage

• Not a values problem
• High standards reflect reverence for marriage
  and an aversion to divorce
• Standards reinforced by community
• Couples do generally act on their plans and
  marry if they meet modest financial goals and
  relationships are of suitable quality. BSF does
  not address economic bar for marriage
• -New Hope
• Couples more likely to stay married if there
  economic stability improves. SHM does not
  address economic issues either.
• -MFIP
• Those that dont often have relationships that
  are of dangerously low quality, not good for kids
• Cohabitation usually the only route to
  marriage

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• LIBERALS? relationship skills needed, can benefit
  a wide variety of relationships
• CONSERVATIVES? unlikely to move marriage rates
  much via relationship skills alone. Economic
  piece essential
• ALL? must intervene earlier

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