Study shows recession has weighed heavily on American marriages
Americans without a college degree bore the brunt of the recent recession, and so did their marriages, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Virginia.
The "Survey of Marital Generosity," conducted on behalf of U-Va.'s National Marriage Project, found that 29 percent of couples reported that the 2007-09 downturn had put financial stress on their marriages. A greater share of participants without a college degree faced at least one type of economic hardship, compared with those with college degrees, and a higher proportion of the same group said they were at high risk of divorce, compared with their better-educated counterparts.
At the same time, about a third of the married individuals surveyed said the recession had led them to "deepen their commitment" to their marriage – a finding that the report's author and U-Va. sociologist Bradford Wilcox described as one of two "silver linings" to the longest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
"On the one hand, some Americans deepened their commitment to marriage, [while] other Americans are stressed out in ways that undercut marriages," said Wilcox, who is also the project's director.
