Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion

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This finding looks at the relationship between marital status and the likelihood of attaining affluence.

At every age level between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-five, married individuals were more likely to have experienced at least one year of affluence – that is, a year in which the family’s income was ten times the official poverty threshold – than unmarried peers, and this advantage increased as individuals aged. By age 45, 33 percent of married individuals versus 16 percent of their peers who were not married had experienced at least a year of affluence. That is, “marriage in early adulthood double[d] the odds of affluence.” Among individuals between ages 45 and 65, the odds were even higher; some 42 percent of married individuals will have experienced at least a year of affluence compared to 18 percent of their peers who were not married.

Sample or Data Description
Data came from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a nationally representative sample, with twenty-five years of longitudinal data between 1968 and 1992. The analytical sample for this particular analysis consisted of 2,213 individuals between the ages of 25 and 65.

Source
"Does Marriage Increase the Odds of Affluence? Exploring the Life Course Probabilities"
Hirschl, Thomas A.
Altobelli, Joyce, Rank, Mark R.
Journal of Marriage and Family Vol. 65, Number 4. November, 2003. Page(s) 927-938.

FindingID: 5906