“Why wait?”: Early marriage among Southern college students

Objective

The aim of this analysis is to understand why young adult students in the US South marry in college or shortly afterwards.

Background

While the median age at first marriage in the United States has risen and marriage delay has become culturally normative, a substantial minority of young adults marry in their late teens or early 20's, particularly in the US South. Young adult college students who marry negotiate conflicting imperatives of marriage and educational attainment, and how these are negotiated or resolved sheds light on the social, cultural, and economic forces that inform family formation.

Method

This study draws from in-depth interviews conducted with 45 18–23-year-old engaged or married college students in Mississippi.

Results

Entering college, most participants had expected to marry close to median ages, with marriage perceived as a hindrance to educational achievement. This marriage timeline was negotiated downwards with the influence of four interrelated factors: personal orientation to marriage; a marriage-oriented culture, being in the “right” relationship; and social and financial supports for marriage.

Conclusion

The norm of marriage delay that these young adults embraced became perceived as inapplicable given evidence that marriage would not compromise college completion or financial stability. There were also social and cultural pressures toward marriage. “Why wait?” captures participants' sense of few barriers but clear incentives to marriage. Incentives were sometimes financial but also social, as marriage enabled students to establish themselves as more mature than peers.