Research Shows Importance of “Success Sequence"

Young adults are more likely to avoid poverty if they follow a “success sequence” in this order: earning at least a high school diploma, working full-time, and getting married before having children. This blog post from the Administration for Children and Families describes a recent report from the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Family Studies about millennials following this success sequence. The researchers found that 95% of millennials who married first before having children were not poor, but 72% of millennials who had children before marrying were poor. Millennials were also more likely to make it into the middle or higher end of the income distribution by age 28-34 if they married before having children. The blog post also describes ACF programs that can prevent out-of-wedlock pregnancy and promote healthy marriages.