Disadvantaged? Go to college, become less likely to marry (dating, long-term, marriage)
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Research has shown that college is the great equalizer in the labor market, overcoming social class differences, but the same can’t be said for the marriage market.
According to a new study from researchers at Cornell University, going to college unexpectedly lowers the odds of the less-advantaged ever marrying....
They note that men and women from the least advantaged backgrounds who attend college appear to be caught between two worlds: They are reluctant to “marry down” to partners with less education, but they are unable to “marry up” to partners from privileged backgrounds. Lead researcher Kelly Musick calls this “marriage market mismatch.”
The question not answered here, is whether these people tend to enter long-term relationships, do they have more or less normal dating lives, or do they live mostly single and not in relationships or even dating?
If they cannot find a partner with similar education, should they settle for partners with, say, only a high school diploma, or is there something else they should do?
Research has shown that college is the great equalizer in the labor market, overcoming social class differences, but the same can’t be said for the marriage market.
According to a new study from researchers at Cornell University, going to college unexpectedly lowers the odds of the less-advantaged ever marrying....
They note that men and women from the least advantaged backgrounds who attend college appear to be caught between two worlds: They are reluctant to “marry down” to partners with less education, but they are unable to “marry up” to partners from privileged backgrounds. Lead researcher Kelly Musick calls this “marriage market mismatch.”
This is true to some extent from my experience and observations from my fellow educated members of my immediate family and friends. Also it's worse for the women who are educated and come from poor families due to the fact they can't find a suitable husband and have out of wedlock issues like lower class women. I do agree about the two worlds and I have noticed it, but also a part of it.
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 05-12-2014 at 05:26 AM..
Social class and identity is a major part of the cycle of poverty... it's in the mannerisms, the language, the posture, the diet... everything. It's a massive challenge to break through the racial and cultural barriers... probably even harder than the economic barriers, which are also rather hard to break through.
The question not answered here, is whether these people tend to enter long-term relationships, do they have more or less normal dating lives, or do they live mostly single and not in relationships or even dating?
If they cannot find a partner with similar education, should they settle for partners with, say, only a high school diploma, or is there something else they should do?
Some do marry up, there was one such case in my family. It just goes to show that theory and reality don't always mesh.
But does the fact you know of one such case in your family really disprove the whole theory?
I've seen upward mobility like that among college students who get married, and I worked in a university for 15 years, so I've see a fair amount of it. Young people often don't care about class. It may be more of a problem after people are out of college, and dating in their later years, idk.
Unless all the underprivileged children who go to college are all of the same sex, there should be persons of the opposite gender who were raised underprivileged and went to college to pair up with. Like tends to marry like, and there should be "like" persons out there to marry.
Unless all the underprivileged children who go to college are all of the same sex, there should be persons of the opposite gender who were raised underprivileged and went to college to pair up with. Like tends to marry like, and there should be "like" persons out there to marry.
It's not that simple.
"Underprivileged" encompasses a wide variety of experiences: urban, suburban, rural, and international. Then factor in racial, religious, and political differences.
College can be a socially jarring experience is you are not from the dominant social class. College students are aware of social class. I rarely saw major class variation in long term relationships or marriages during/out of college.
Even if one undergoes a thorough acculturation, one still won't fit in entirely. My university in the United Kingdom had a strong upper class culture: long weekends in London, ski trips to the Alps (at the chalet of one's parents), summers abroad, and so on. No matter how well I fit in day-to-day or matched my horizons/ambitions to my peers, I didn't have a summer home in Hawaii, and my family was a comparative embarrassment (although I knew that even before I went off to college).
I was not at all disadvantaged, but I come from a very "split" world. My closest family skews heavily towards working class (except for my parents) and none of my cousins have college degrees. My father, whom I was closest to, had his closest friendships with working class men, so those were the men I grew up hanging around with. Meanwhile, my education involved a private school populated mostly by the privileged to VERY privileged, and I went to an Ivy League college. Part of my social problems during high school and college were due to the fact that I couldn't relate to A LOT of my classmates at all. But because I'd gone to private school my whole life, I didn't really fit into my cousins' world either.
End result: My happiest relationships have been with working-class guys who are also extremely intelligent. They're not intimidated by my resume or my brain, and I understand them pretty well. But finding those guys.... well, that can be hard.
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