Relationship Between Fertility Rates and Education Background in Women: Quantitative Analysis

Marriage rates have decreased in the United States, in the 1970s there were 76.5 marriages for 1000 unmarried women over 15 years of age and in 2008 it dropped to 34.8 marriages for 1000 unmarried women (Lee and Payne 2010). Marriage rates have decreased for a number of reasons, education attainment, religion, change of social norms, and many more. According to Jeremy E. Uecker and Charles E. Stokes (2008), the age of marriage is related to school enrollment. Right after high school, at the age of 18, there is more of a chance of marriage at this time then in the age of 19, the reason for this is that at the age of 19 most young adults are entering college and not focused on relationships and marriage (Uecker and Stokes 2008). The chance

The issues women faced, demonstrates the influence of family structures. The relation of socioeconomic status in race and ethnicity is looked upon as a strong association to sexual behavior. The length of time parents communicating sexual issues, have shown a significant role in adolescences. The repetition of sexuality virtues impacts gendered sexual expectations. Mothers teach their daughters, the importance of being a virgin until marriage. Lopez states, “Women construct premarital virginity as a commodity that can be rated in a patriarchal society for financial stability and happiness via marriage” (pg. 222). Maintaining premarital virginity represents stability and happiness. With virginity specifies, mothers are over protected towards their daughters. Mothers strive to protect their daughters from gendered inequalities. Gender expectations represents the inequality

The “Catch-30” stage is the reality of all the beliefs and concepts one may have had during the “Trying Twenties” stage. Both genders feel “narrow and restricted” and blaming one another becomes common between friends and families. Most of the topics which turn into debates and arguments are related to career and personal choices of a person’s twenties. Choices which may have sounded perfectly appropriate during the “Trying Twenties” now seem unfit and unsuitable. Everything seems to be contradictory from the previous stage, such as the life which was built during the twenties for the future. The idea of getting married becomes important, and “the single person feels a push to find a partner.” Couples already married start thinking of having children and building families. Arguments between couples are frequent, especially with those who are married for over a decade. The feeling of dissatisfaction is natural among older couples, and divorce may seem to be the only route for agreement. Lack of care and support among couples is what primarily sums up the “Catch-30” stage.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, more unmarried women who became pregnant decided not to get married. As more teenage mothers remained single, public concern increased. Teen pregnancies were, often presented as a medical problem to be, treated with more access to clinics, birth control and abortion. There was a shift from viewing teen pregnancy as a moral problem to that of seeing it as a psychological or health problem (Adams, 1997).

We question the relation between premarital cohabitation and divorce. From looking at literature regarding this question I hypothesize that time and social change determines cohabitation and divorce.

|Evolving role within marriage in the last 30 years |An increasing number of women have remained single for a |The average marrying age of young adults is higher compared|

In fact, young marriage as a whole was rarely studied through the lens of networks. Young marriage is almost always tied to early childbearing, so I first looked for sources that connected the two. Some research has been done on why marriage has become disconnected from childbearing (Edin and Kefalas, 2011; Lappegård, Klüsener, and Vignoli, 2017; Hayford, Guzzo, and Smock, 2014). Though each of these studies came to slightly different conclusions, they all focused on why people were choosing not to get married rather than why some people are still choosing to get married. Edin and Kefalas’ study focus mainly on why young women are choosing to have children before marriage. The data from Edin and Kefalas’s interviews suggest that it is rare for young people to marry young because they do not know anyone who is married at all, much less married at such a young age. This suggests there is a social network connection, but the authors did not focus much on that conclusion. This study was done in an urban area, so I searched for information about young marriage in rural areas as well. I found a study about young first marriages compared between urban and non-urban areas. The study talked about why young marriages are more common in rural areas, and it discussed how friends and family are supportive of the marriage because it is economically beneficial. Again the important of the social networks was

The hesitation that couples have and the higher use of contraceptives has also impacted this demographic transition. According to, Population Education “The rate of decline is dependent on economic and social factors at play- the quicker gains are made in areas such as education and gender equality, the faster birth rates decline” (Grover, 2014). It is easily noticeable that as couples choose to allow money to dictate the decisions they make, in particularly having a kid, the less births will

Based on the Census, from 2005 to 2050 (Figure 1) the presumptions about richness and birth rates, dying, immigration, and migration are the 3 main categories for demographic change. These shouldn’t be looked upon as expectations for further years to come, since they are dependent on the future drifts in socioeconomic and political enclosures. Moroeover, these hypotheses can expand because of critical parts of the populace interrelated progressions. A sample is if migration lessens. This could then accelerate a decrease in the conception rate because of recommended examination expressing that vast families have a tendency to be connected with the migrant populace instead of local conceived occupants.

The theory used in the article is human development/lifespan theory. According to the article theorists agree that adolescent pregnancy is a multidimensional phenomenon with cultural, social, personality, and cognitive components of decision making (Hockaday, Crase, Shelley, and Stockdale, 2000). According to the article this idea is supported by the Biopsychosocial model of risk taking (Hockaday, Crase, Shelley, and Stockdale, 2000). This combination of model of risk taking suggests that the timing of biological maturation influences cognition, perceptions of the self and social environment, and personal values (Hockaday, Crase, Shelley, and Stockdale, 2000). Examples are racial differences in adolescent’s pregnancy, ages of sexual activity,

Tradition gives way to the new era. Saying “I do” before saying, “We found our new home,” is a thing of the past. Today, more and more couples are choosing cohabitation over marriage. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, between the year of 2006 and 2010, 48% of women ranging from age 15 to 44 years of age first lived with a man to whom they were not married (Grinberg). When compared to the numbers from 1995, which was 34% percent, the change in trend becomes obvious (Grinberg). There are many reasons why marriage is no longer the next big step for America’s unwedded couples.

Girls reached marriageable age around twelve to their mid-twenties. Men would reach age between fifteen to twenty. Not only were people marrying their children young and fertile, according to Shannon McSheffrey, “ decisions made on short acquaintance accentuated economic and socioeconomic factors, but they also accentuated initial sexual attraction. They could not, however, emphasize the kind of deep attachment of “soul mates” that has come to be seen in the contemporary West as foundational to a good marriage.” This was also the same case for the noble social class as well, where the practice was that love bloomed in marriage and not before it.

In the same year, the percentage of births outside marriages among teenagers aged 15-19 were as high as 94%. This assessment indicate that teenage mothers or parents to be are less likely to engage in marital actions until during, or after the end of pregnancy (hhs.org). 64% of unmarried teen mothers also become high-school dropouts, exposing themselves to the lack of job skills which will thus, lead to financial deficits (marchofdimes.org).

Due to the shifts in people’s lifestyles, marriage has become less central in society. The traditional precept that a couple should legalize their relationship through marriage before living together has declined these days due to the transformation of people’s attitude and thoughts towards the act of marriage. As a result, couples who are not inclined towards marriage have turned to alternate courses in their relationship. One of the most common living styles most young people have chosen is the live-in relationship or cohabitation. It raises the question of whether this lifestyle choice is more beneficial to cohabiters rather than marriage. Although it is a trending lifestyle, the issue is still a social controversy nowadays.

In today’s society, adolescents have a positive opinion about cohabitation before marriage. The view of marriage as an institution has faded and cohabitation has taken a new part of this culture (Martin, Specter, Martin, & Martin, 2003). It has often been questioned whether or not premarital sexual activity causes marriages to be disrupted. According to Teachman, Premarital sex and cohabitation has not