Young people from less-privileged homes are more likely to graduate from college and earn more if raised by two married parents.
Young adults are 44 percent more likely to have graduated from college if they were raised by their married parents。
In fact, the opportunity story begins with our families—in particularly, with our parents. As the Nobel-prize-winning economist James Heckman recently noted, “the family into which a child is born plays a powerful role in determining lifetime opportunities。”
Research indicates that adolescents raised in intact, married homes are significantly more likely to succeed educationally and financially. The benefits are greatest for less privileged homes—that is, where their mother did not have a college degree。
As the next graph indicates, young men and women who hail from intact, married homes are much more likely to graduate from college. More precisely, young adults are at least 44 percent more likely to have graduated from college if they were raised by their married parents. This is important because a college degree is associated with better work opportunities, lower odds of unemployment, and a substantial wage premium。
The marriage bump is strongest among families where the parents didn't go to college (the left half of the graph above). Among less-educated families, the children of married parents earn about $4,000 more than their peers from non-intact families, as the next chart shows. The association between intact families and income is not significant for children of college-educated parents。
Adolescent family structure also has important implications for family formation among young adults. The next graph indicates that men and women who hail from intact families are about 40 percent less likely to father or bear a child outside of wedlock. This is important because nonmarital childbearing reduces your odds of successfully getting and staying married down the road, maximizing your income, and of providing a stable home to your children。
Marriage might even have economic benefits at the citywide level. A recentstudy from Harvard and UC-Berkeley found that the most important predictor of economic mobility was the low share of single moms in a community. Mobility for poor kids was highest in the Salt Lake City metro area, which also happens to have one of the lowest rates of single motherhood of any major metro area in the country。
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不富裕家庭的年輕人，若是由父母雙親撫養(yǎng)長大，更有機(jī)會(huì)大學(xué)畢業(yè)并獲得高薪。
在由已婚父母養(yǎng)育下長大的年輕人大[微博]學(xué)畢業(yè)的機(jī)會(huì)要多出44%。
事實(shí)上，機(jī)會(huì)始于家庭——特別是父母。諾貝爾經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)獎(jiǎng)得主詹姆斯·海克曼最近指出，“家庭在孩子的出生中扮演了強(qiáng)有力的角色，決定了其一生的機(jī)會(huì)。”
研究表明健全的婚姻家庭中長大的青年人在教育上和經(jīng)濟(jì)上都更有可能成功。在母親沒有大學(xué)學(xué)歷的不富裕家庭，家庭完整就是最大的優(yōu)勢。
如下圖所示，來自完整家庭的年輕男女更有可能從大學(xué)順利畢業(yè)。確切的說，已婚家庭長大的青年人大學(xué)畢業(yè)的機(jī)會(huì)要多出44%。而大學(xué)畢業(yè)至關(guān)重要，因?yàn)樗馕吨玫墓ぷ鳈C(jī)會(huì)，更低的失業(yè)率和工資的大幅溢價(jià)。
父母沒念過大學(xué)的家庭婚姻是最坎坷的(如上圖左示)。下圖表明，受教育程度低的家庭中，已婚父母的孩子同離異家庭的同齡孩子相比能多賺4000美元，而對受教育程度高的家庭的孩子來說，家庭完整與收入之間的關(guān)系并不大。
青少年的家庭結(jié)構(gòu)對年輕一代成年人家庭的形成有著重要的意義。下圖表明，完整家庭中成長起來的男女婚外生育的幾率要小40%，這一結(jié)論非常重要，因?yàn)榉腔樯龑⑹鼓憬窈蟪苫楹途S系婚姻都步履維艱，大幅加薪機(jī)會(huì)渺茫，甚至為子女提供一個(gè)安穩(wěn)的家都遙不可及。
婚姻甚至在全市層面帶來經(jīng)濟(jì)效益。哈佛和加州大學(xué)伯克利分校最近一項(xiàng)研究表明一個(gè)社區(qū)經(jīng)濟(jì)流動(dòng)性的最重要跡象是該社區(qū)的單身母親為數(shù)不多。鹽湖城大都會(huì)區(qū)是貧困孩子的流動(dòng)率是最高的地方，也是全美大都會(huì)區(qū)母親單身率最低的地方。
