Young people from less-privileged homes are more likely to graduate from college and earn more if raised by two married parents.
Young adults are 44 percent more likely to have graduated from college if they were raised by their married parents.
In fact, the opportunity story begins with our families—in particularly, with our parents. As the Nobel-prize-winning economist James Heckman recently noted, “the family into which a child is born plays a powerful role in determining lifetime opportunities.”
Research indicates that adolescents raised in intact, married homes are significantly more likely to succeed educationally and financially. The benefits are greatest for less privileged homes—that is, where their mother did not have a college degree.
As the next graph indicates, young men and women who hail from intact, married homes are much more likely to graduate from college. More precisely, young adults are at least 44 percent more likely to have graduated from college if they were raised by their married parents. This is important because a college degree is associated with better work opportunities, lower odds of unemployment, and a substantial wage premium.
The marriage bump is strongest among families where the parents didn't go to college (the left half of the graph above). Among less-educated families, the children of married parents earn about $4,000 more than their peers from non-intact families, as the next chart shows. The association between intact families and income is not significant for children of college-educated parents.
Adolescent family structure also has important implications for family formation among young adults. The next graph indicates that men and women who hail from intact families are about 40 percent less likely to father or bear a child outside of wedlock. This is important because nonmarital childbearing reduces your odds of successfully getting and staying married down the road, maximizing your income, and of providing a stable home to your children.
Marriage might even have economic benefits at the citywide level. A recentstudy from Harvard and UC-Berkeley found that the most important predictor of economic mobility was the low share of single moms in a community. Mobility for poor kids was highest in the Salt Lake City metro area, which also happens to have one of the lowest rates of single motherhood of any major metro area in the country.
不富裕家庭的年轻人，若是由父母双亲抚养长大，更有机会大学毕业并获得高薪。
在由已婚父母养育下长大的年轻人大学毕业的机会要多出44%。
事实上，机会始于家庭——特别是父母。诺贝尔经济学奖得主詹姆斯·海克曼最近指出，“家庭在孩子的出生中扮演了强有力的角色，决定了其一生的机会。”
研究表明健全的婚姻家庭中长大的青年人在教育上和经济上都更有可能成功。在母亲没有大学学历的不富裕家庭，家庭完整就是最大的优势。
如下图所示，来自完整家庭的年轻男女更有可能从大学顺利毕业。确切的说，已婚家庭长大的青年人大学毕业的机会要多出44%。而大学毕业至关重要，因为它意味着更好的工作机会，更低的失业率和工资的大幅溢价。
父母没念过大学的家庭婚姻是最坎坷的（如上图左示）。下图表明，受教育程度低的家庭中，已婚父母的孩子同离异家庭的同龄孩子相比能多赚4000美元，而对受教育程度高的家庭的孩子来说，家庭完整与收入之间的关系并不大。
青少年的家庭结构对年轻一代成年人家庭的形成有着重要的意义。下图表明，完整家庭中成长起来的男女婚外生育的几率要小40%，这一结论非常重要，因为非婚生育将使你今后成婚和维系婚姻都步履维艰，大幅加薪机会渺茫，甚至为子女提供一个安稳的家都遥不可及。
婚姻甚至在全市层面带来经济效益。哈佛和加州大学伯克利分校最近一项研究表明一个社区经济流动性的最重要迹象是该社区的单身母亲为数不多。盐湖城大都会区是贫困孩子的流动率是最高的地方，也是全美大都会区母亲单身率最低的地方。