Marriage Study Looks At Why Working-Class Americans Aren't Tying The Knot

Why Working-Class Americans Aren't Getting Married

Recently, we've been hearing that fewer and fewer Americans are tying the knot, with the U.S. marriage rate at its lowest point in more than a century. Now, a new study looks at why one group of Americans -- the working class -- is putting off or forgoing marriage altogether.

Researchers found that working-class men and women cited lack of job security, resources and low wages as reasons deterring them from tying the knot.

"Working-class people with insecure work and few resources, little stability and no ability to plan for a foreseeable future become concerned with their own survival and often become unable to imagine being able to provide materially and emotionally for others," lead researcher Sarah Corse -- an associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville -- told The Telegraph. "Insecure work changes peoples' non-work lives."

Researchers also noted that middle-class people were able to invest more time and money into their relationships through things like therapy sessions and date nights, whereas working-class Americans were not.

The not-yet-published study, entitled "Intimate Inequalities: Love and Work in a Post-Industrial Landscape," was presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York. Researchers interviewed 300 working- and middle-class Americans to gauge how their job status played into their relationships.

Click through the slideshow below for more interesting findings about marriage.

Online Gaming Can Hurt Your Marriage

Top 10 Marriage Findings of 2012

Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE