3.3 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capstone model of marriage | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capstone_model_of_marriage | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:46:51.407043+00:00 | kb-cron |
Paradoxical preparation: The extended period of singlehood required by the capstone model often leads to an accumulation of relationship history, including multiple sexual partners and serial cohabitation. Research cited in the report links these factors to lower marital quality and higher divorce risks, suggesting that the "preparation" period may actually diminish marital prospects. Resequencing of family formation: Because the biological window for female fertility does not shift with social norms, the delay of marriage has led to a "resequencing" where childbearing increasingly occurs before marriage. This resequencing is illustrated by the "Great Crossover": the moment when the median age of first birth dropped below the median age of first marriage, a shift that occurred in the United States around 1990. Consequently, roughly half of all first births in the U.S. in the late 2010s were to unmarried women, almost doubling the rate seen in 1985. Marriage forgone: By setting the bar for marriage at a high level of economic and educational achievement, the capstone model may make marriage inaccessible for lower-income or less-educated individuals, turning marriage into a luxury good rather than a broadly accessible institution. Wardle quotes Ross Douthat, "marriage delayed can mean marriage forgone," particularly for those who cannot meet the high economic prerequisites of the capstone ideal. Focus on Self: The report suggests that the "settled self" developed during a long period of individual independence may be less adaptable (in contrast to the "softer personal clay" of an early marriage), making the merger of lives in a capstone marriage potentially more difficult than growing together in a cornerstone marriage.
== Benefits of a delayed marriage == There are known benefits of delaying the marriage, especially for females:
for college-educated women, the difference in personal income for college-educated married women who married in their thirties and the ones married before age twenty, by the time both groups reached their mid-thirties, was about 18 thousand dollars annually. Their household income was also higher; rate of divorce for women married in their teens and, to some extent, in the early twenties, was much higher. Experience of men without a four-year degree is the opposite: the earlier the marriage, the higher their future income. The college-educated men also benefit financially from marrying in their twenties as opposed to thirties.
== References ==
== Sources == Cherlin, Andrew J. (2004). "The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage". Journal of Marriage and Family. 66 (4): 848–861. Hawkins, Alan J.; Carroll, Jason S.; Jones, Anne Marie Wright; James, Spencer L. (2022). State of Our Unions 2022: Capstones vs. Cornerstones: Is Marrying Later Always Better? (Report). National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the Wheatley Institution, and the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. Wardle, Lynn D. (2018). "Cornerstone or Capstone: The Need to Revive (and How to Renew) a Culture of Marriage". Quinnipiac Law Review. 36 (2): 153–182.