Knot Yet: The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage in America

Keywords

marriage, family, twenties

Abstract

If you’ve spent any time in the vicinity of a television in recent years, you’ve surely noticed the crowd of amiable, middle class, young, single urbanites wandering its channels. They wisecrack their way through shows like New Girl, The Mindy Project, and Girls in the spirit of their prototypes on Friends, Seinfeld, andSex and the City. As they move in and out of jobs and careers, sip coffee or cocktails with their friends, and meet, share a bed with, and dump or get dumped by boyfriends and girlfriends, these attractive creatures have helped redefine the twenties and early thirties as a time for self-discovery—a new but crucial life stage before the burdens of wedding anniversaries, mortgages, and car seats set in. This genre is the pop-culture offspring of an important demographic change: the rising age of marriage. The typical American is now well on the way to thirty before tying the knot, later than at any point in history.

Original Publication Citation

Carroll, J. S., Hymowitz, K., Wilcox, W. B., & Kaye, K. (2013). Knot Yet: The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage in America. A commissioned report sponsored by the National Campaign to Teen and Prevent Unplanned Pregnancy, the RELATE Institute, and the National Marriage Project. [Equal Authors]

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2013

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/7133

Publisher

The Relate Institute

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Family Life

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

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