High Hopes, but Even Higher Expectations: The Retreat from Marriage among Low-Income Couples

Christina Gibson, Princeton University
Kathryn Edin, Northwestern University

This paper explores the perceptions and objections that low-income cohabiting parents have to marriage. We use data from the Fragile Families Survey, a longitudinal survey of 5000 new parents, and the Time Love, Cash, Caring, and Children Project (TLC3), an in-depth qualitative study of a sub-set of 75 romantically involved Fragile Families couples. We demonstrate that these parents take marriage extremely seriously - more seriously, in fact, than the decision to have a child. Most couples have had in-depth conversations about marriage, but surprisingly, these marriage conversations do not involve references to children, policy, or political concerns. However, because these couples do take marriage so seriously, they have extremely high requirements for the emotional and financial status of their partners. While these couples have a pro-marriage attitude, they also equate marriage with emotional guarantees and a middle-class lifestyle. Unfortunately, these goals may be unobtainable for many low-income cohabiting parents.