Education and job-based interventions for unmarried couples living with low incomes: Benefit or burden?

OBJECTIVE: Government initiatives undertaken to improve the earning potential of disadvantaged unmarried parents assume that job training and additional schooling will strengthen these families, yet alternative models predict that these same interventions could overwhelm couples' limited resources, undermining family stability.

METHOD: We use 3 waves of dyadic data and propensity score analysis to test these competing perspectives by examining the effects of job-related and school-related interventions on 3-year marriage rates. The sample consists of unmarried new parents averaging $20,475 in household income, 52% of whom are African American and 20% of whom are Hispanic/Latino.

RESULTS: Marriage rates decreased, from 17% to 10%, for couples in which men participated in school-related interventions. Mediation analyses indicate that school-related interventions reduce the amount of time men spend with their child and the amount of money they contribute to their household, reducing marriage rates in turn. Marriage rates were unaffected by women's participation in school-related interventions, and by men's and women's participation in job-related interventions.

CONCLUSION: Implementing economic interventions that increase income while minimizing demands on the limited resources of economically distressed couples may prove necessary for strengthening society's most vulnerable families. (PsycINFO Database Record