Never-married mothers not only go on welfare in greater numbers than divorced women, but they also stay on longer. While divorced women typically use welfare as a temporary measure until they get back on their feet, unmarried mothers become trapped in long-term welfare dependency.
77 percent of divorced mothers received child support awards, compared to only 20 percent of never- married mothers.
http://www.welfareacademy.org/pubs/welfare/testimony-0395.shtml
Children living with a divorced parent typically
have a big edge over those living with a parent who
has never married an even bigger edge if that parent is the father.
Never married parents are significantly younger
than divorced parents and on average tend to have
fewer years of school completed and lower levels
of income. Nonetheless, although age does have
an effect, the differences remain.
DIVORCED PARENTS ARE
MORE EDUCATED
CHILDREN OF DIVORCED
PARENTS ARE LESS LIKELY TO LIVE
IN RENTAL HOMES...
AND LESS LIKELY TO BE POOR
Employment was an important reason. While many single par
ents had jobs, there were 7.4 million children living with single
moms who were unemployed or not in the labor force.
Children of never married mothers were twice as likely (59
percent) to have their moms unemployed or not in the labor
force as children whose mothers were divorced (29 percent).
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:-1Tu_0s5pz0J:www.census.gov/prod/3/97pubs/cb-9701.pdf+divorced+vs.+never+married+mothers&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShDf4R4roGXERKqZFH4tfMspAyThdzVFNH7gVa1BEa2UFFfgcv6AxhIiVPpEjLX5UKwut4uTFPRAs8_bFhXs9ua2Zp2SJ_dwjxrLxxPs4nI992IPCnHoj7YXbScQGxYqAAA3hXi&sig=AHIEtbQ4-NoxhTgMBWFg3gYAouAZfICy1g
Despite attempts to equate married couples with people who are living together as "domestic partners," married couples are in fact better off than people who are not married, by almost any standard you can think of. Married couples have higher incomes, longer lives, better health, less violence, less alcohol and less poverty.
Women who are shacking up are four times as likely as wives to become victims of violence, and their children are 40 times as likely to be abused by live-in boyfriends as by their own parents.
http://www.adherents.com/misc/marriage.html
At any given time, roughly 50% of women are married, 7% are cohabitating
http://www.psychpage.com/family/mod_couples_thx/cdc.html
Married women are less likely to experience poverty. Marital status is strongly and significantly correlated with the likelihood of being impoverished. Compared to never-married peers, women who had ever been married were substantially less likely to be poor—regardless of race, family background, non-marital births, or education. Ever-married women have a poverty rate that was roughly one-third lower than the poverty rate of never-married women. Currently married women had an even lower probability of living in poverty—about two-thirds lower than other women.
• Lichter, Daniel T.
• 2003
• Unmarried first-time mothers face a greater risk of poverty and welfare dependence. Women who had their first birth out of wedlock were more likely to live below the poverty line (30.1 percent vs. 8.4 percent); more likely to be living below 180 percent of the poverty line (52.3 percent vs. 20 percent); more likely to be receiving food stamps at the time of the survey (35.7 percent vs. 7.8 percent) than women who had their first birth within marriage. The relationships between out-of-wedlock first birth and the three measures of poverty were all statistically significant and held for all racial groups; although, the percentages varied for the different racial groups.
•
• Lichter, Daniel T.
• 2003
http://www.familyfacts.org/topten/topten_0701.cfm
The 3.8 million families maintained by a never-married mother in 1998 represent a major concern because only about one-third of the children in these families have had their paternity established; for the other two-thirds, a child support obligation cannot be established until a paternity determination is made.
http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/archive/child_support_01.shtml
MARRIAGE |
COHABITATION (Living Together) |
|
Marriage requirements -- which vary from state to state -- include a license, a waiting period, blood tests, minimum ages, a ceremony officiated by a clergyperson or an officer of the court, and witnesses. |
Cohabitation can be entered into any time, by anybody of any age and any gender, with no formal requirements. |
|
Marriage must be ended by a formal, legal divorce or annulment process that can be costly, time consuming, complicated, and emotionally draining. |
Usually can be ended simply and informally upon the agreement of the parties. Often, however, the emotional costs are the same as or similar to those experienced at the end of a marriage. |
|
Divorcing spouses have the obligation to divide their property by legally prescribed methods. |
At the end of a cohabitation relationship, the parties can usually divide property however they wish. However, the absence of legal guidelines may create even more conflict as to who gets what. |
|
A higher-wage-earning spouse may have the obligation to provide financial support for the other spouse upon separation or divorce. |
Couples who live together and then split up usually do not incur the obligation to support each other after the break-up, unless they have entered into a contract providing otherwise. While this may seem a boon to the supporting partner, a partner who has become accustomed to being supported may face unexpected financial hardship after the split. |
|
If one spouse becomes ill or incompetent, the other spouse generally has the right to make decisions on the ill spouse's behalf, on issues including health care and finances. |
No matter how close the bond or how long the relationship has existed, a cohabitant may need to defer to immediate family members when it comes to making decisions for an ill or incompetent unmarried partner, unless a general power of attorney or health care power of attorney give that authority to the cohabitating partner. |
|
When one spouse dies, the other spouse has the legal right to inherit a portion of the deceased spouse's estate. |
When one cohabitant dies, his or her property will pass to whomever is named in the will or, if there is no will, to family members according to state laws. The surviving partner has no claim to the estate unless he or she was named in the deceased partner's will. |
|
Children born during the marriage are presumed to be the offspring of the husband and wife. |
The father of a child born to unmarried cohabitants is not entitled to a legal presumption of paternity, and may have to establish his paternity through blood tests and a legal action. |
|
Children born to married couples must be financially supported during the marriage. |
The male in a cohabitating partnership does not incur an immediate legal obligation to support children born during the cohabitation, but may do so voluntarily (and MUST do so if paternity is established). |
|
After separation or divorce, the non-custodial parent generally is legally obligated to help financially support the children of the marriage. |
After a cohabitating relationship ends, the non-custodial parent has the same legal obligation to support his or her children as legally separated or divorced parents, if parentage has been established. |
http://family.findlaw.com/marriage/living-together/cohabitation-comparison.html
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