Children do better in two-parent families. Children in single-parent households are twice as likely to drop out of high school, and they are more likely to become teenage parents. They are also far more likely to grow up poor. Children of single-parent families also move more often, thereby losing such important sources of support as neighbors and other community members. While married motherhood lowers women's wages, they use their husband's support to give them time with their kids, a benefit generally unavailable to the nonmarried.
Divorce drastically diminishes women's financial well-being.
Unfortunately, since the 1950s, black men and women have been less likely to share in the benefits of marriage than whites, Waite notes. By contrast, cohabitation is unstable, easy to get out of, and makes specialization less rational. It links people to a world larger than themselves. Some folks who have been skeptical of marriage, she believes, will then reconsider. In addition to the private aspirations of two partners, there are many forces in the culture impact marriage.