Mercury News editorial: The hottest U.S. trend: single moms

Mercury News Editorial
Posted: 02/23/2012 05:29:04 PM PST
Updated: 02/23/2012 06:29:28 PM PST

If motherhood before marriage is the new norm for U.S. women under age 30, it's urgent to find out why.

Politicians railing against the decline of family values won't be much help. Evidence suggests that money rather than morality underlies this troubling trend. We need to find out the root causes to decide how to deal with it.

More than half of babies born to U.S. women younger than 30 occur outside marriage, according to a New York Times report in this newspaper on Saturday. But the trend is dramatically different based on education levels: 92 percent of women with college degrees are married when they have a baby, compared to 43 percent of those with a high school diploma or less. The fastest growth was among young white women.

Babies born to single mothers are more likely to grow up in poverty, flounder in school and have emotional or behavioral problems. If we don't catch these problems before they start, society will pay a much higher economic and social cost down the road.

full: http://www.mercurynews.com/editorials/ci_20031833

other sources about this topic (I can't find any DU discussion about it):
"For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage" (original NYT article)
Hugo Schwyzer blog at jezebel.com: "The Increase in Single Moms Is Actually a Good Thing"