Family Fact: Unmarried Parents

Family Quote: Stress and Divorce

Family Research Abstract: Stressed Out

"According to the 2000 Census findings, 38.9 percent of unmarried-couple heterosexual households had children of their own under 18 years of age.  Because of difficulties in determining the relationship between children and householders, 'unrelated' children must also be accounted for, giving a grand total of 43.1 percent of heterosexual cohabitators having children." 

(Source: Tavia Simmons and Martin O'Connell, Married-Couple and Unmarried-Partner Households: 2000, Census 2000 Special Reports, February 2003, p. 9; http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-5.pdf.)  

"For a couple with young children, divorce seldom comes as a 'solution' to stress, only as a way to end one form of pain and accept another."

(Source: Fred Rogers ["Mr. Rogers"], Mister Rogers Talks With Parents, 1983; in Robert Andrews, Mary Biggs, and Michael Seidel, et al, eds., The Columbia World of Quotations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. www.bartleby.com/66/ [31 March 2003].) 

"A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds four in 10 American indicating they have a limited amount of time to relax, including 14% who say they 'never have time to relax.'"

Not surprisingly, those who were raising small children occupied the end of the continuum describing having the least amount of relaxation time, "in fact, the seven groups with the least amount of time to relax all have young children." Working mothers were the most likely to say they have little time to relax, and to be the most stressed: "Just 9% of this group say they have much time to relax...while roughly two-thirds, 65% report having limited time."

Also predictable is the finding that unmarried Americans with children rank second highest in stress in this poll, with 61% reporting having little or no time to relax.

Yet another rationale for marriage, and for avoiding the day care trap: less stress.