Then Comes Marriage? Religion, Race, and Marriage in Urban America

W. Bradford Wilcox, University of Virginia
Nicholas H. Wolfinger, University of Utah

The last three decades have witnessed a dramatic “retreat from marriage” in the United States, marked by high rates of nonmarital births, nonmarriage among young adults, and divorce. This study focuses on the role that religious institutions, and the cultural norms and behaviors they promote, play in resisting this retreat among new parents in urban America. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we find that religious attendance is strongly associated with being married at the birth of a child among urban mothers, and that urban mothers who have a nonmarital birth are significantly more likely to marry within a year of that birth if they attend church regularly. Moreover, the effects of religious attendance are particularly strong for African American women. These religious effects are mediated in part by the relationship-related beliefs (e.g., sanctity of marriage) and behaviors (e.g., supportiveness to partner) promoted by churches.