Opinion: People are getting married less often and having more children outside of marriage -- especially in rural areas

Rates for unmarried women and children out of
marriage are increasing. (photo by Thiago Cerqueira)

In an effort to prioritize "spending and infrastructure for communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” new guidelines from the Transportation Department have been issued by the Trump administration, according to a Washington Post opinion piece by Shelley Clark, a professor of sociology at McGill University, and Matthew Brooks, an assistant professor of sociology at Florida State University. 

Clark and Brooks said that the new guidelines would seem to be aimed toward Trump supporters in rural areas including “large traditional families.” However, their research shows that the appeal of having a large traditional family is not as popular as it once was. 

“Between 1988 and 2018, the proportion of rural women who were married fell from 55% to 33%… By 2018, rural women were more likely than urban women to be in an unmarried, cohabiting partnership (19% vs. 14%),” according to Clark and Brooks. They also said that the rates for women who have never been married has increased for both rural and urban women.

With the number of unmarried and divorced women rising, Clark and Brooks have tracked that the number of children born outside of marriage has also been on the rise. That is occurring at a time when the overall average number of children being born per woman has declined; and the number of rural children living with married parents has declined at twice the rate of urban children.

While Clark and Brooks said that rural transportation would be very beneficial due to the need to “travel greater distances to access necessities,” their research indicated “that using marriage and family size as the criteria for transportation funding is likely to disadvantage rural regions.”

“These rapid transformations in both marriage and non-marital childbearing help explain why many rural residents and politicians are inclined to think the traditional family is under threat,” according to Clark and Brooks. They also suggested that policies should be based on data about needs rather than “stereotypes about small-town family life.”

The number of children who have lost a parent to drug overdose or firearms climbs; overdose loss is up 345%

Nearly 100,000 children lost parents to a drug overdose
or gun violence in 2020. (Adobe Stock photo)

Over the past 20 years, the number of U.S. children who have faced a parent's death from drug overdose or firearms has increased at an alarming pace. These children are left to grapple with a loss that impacts how they thrive or don't thrive throughout their developmental years and into adulthood.

"Nearly 100,000 children lost parents to a drug overdose or gun violence in 2020 alone – almost three times more than in 1999," reports Deidre McPhillips of CNN. "Overall, more than 1 million children have lost a parent to a fatal drug overdose or gun violence over the past two decades, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The increase in the number of parent-age deaths from drug overdose is staggering. McPhillips writes, "About 72,800 children lost a parent to a drug overdose in 2020, up 345% from the 16,000 children affected in 1999, according to the study."

The percentage increase in gun-related deaths is not as high as that for drug overdoses, but it's still startling. "There was a 39% increase in children who lost a parent to gun violence – from 18,000 in 1999 to 25,000 in 2020," McPhillips reports. By comparison, the number of children who lost parents due to other causes increased 24% between 1999 and 2020.

"Other research has shown that losing a parent can have negative effects on a child's health, education and livelihood – in both the short and long term," McPhillips adds.

Deaths due to drugs, guns or crime are not as acceptable for children and adults to discuss. Robin Gurwitch, a psychologist and professor at the Duke University School of Medicine, told McPhillips: "When it can't be talked about openly and freely, it makes it harder for children to get the support they need. For children who hold those things inside, the risk of it leaking out into everything from severe behavior challenges to bereavement disorders to other types of mental health challenges – anxiety, depression or their own substance abuse – goes way up."