A study has revealed that women who have children outside of marriage are less likely than other single women to marry, and when they do marry… their husbands tend to be less well-matched.
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Zhenchao Qian, co-author of the study and associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University, states that unwed mothers ie baby mamas have a hard time locking down a mate and IF they do finally get married… most tend not to marry quality partners.
The results show that the odds that unwed mothers marry rather than cohabit are about 30 percent lower than those of childless single women.
When they do marry, mothers are more likely to have husbands who are significantly older and less educated than those of childless women.
But wait… there’s more!
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Everybody is somebody’s baby mama these days. The “baby mama” title is like a badge of honor amongst those who snag themselves a “baller” and quickly drop one (or 2 or 3) for their new meal ticket.
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Having a “meal ticket” trumps having a lifetime companion to many women, who in the long run, end up bitter and alone.
?Unwed mothers have significant disadvantages when trying to attract suitable mates,? Mellott said.
?As a result, single mothers are less likely than childless women to be well matched demographically with their husbands or partners.?
Qian conducted the study with Leanna Mellott, a graduate student in sociology at Ohio State, and Daniel Lichter, a professor at Cornell University .
Their results appear in the current issue of the journal Social Forces.
For example, the study showed that single mothers were less likely than childless women to marry a man with at least some college education.
That suggests unwed mothers are unlikely to improve their economic prospects through marriage, she said, because potential husbands are less likely to have opportunities for good-paying jobs.
In addition, a white woman who had children outside of marriage was more likely to marry a man who was significantly older ? at least six years older ? than she. That wasn’t the case for Black and Hispanic women, but only because they were less likely than whites to be married at all, Qian said.
OUCH! 😯
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?Our analysis suggests that Blacks and Hispanics may be less likely to marry or cohabit because they face shortages of potential spouses,? he said.
?If they had been married or living with someone, they would likely have husbands or partners much older than themselves.?
Overall, the results of the sociological study show that ?women who bear children out of wedlock do not fare well in the marriage market,? Lichter said.
Do ‘Baby Mamas’ really face harder challenges than childless women in their search for quality husbands?