A new study confirms
the increasingly strong link that exists between marriage and social class. It shows that marriage is becoming a ‘privilege’ of the middle-class. The study’s authors say that the “marriage is becoming a distinctive
social institution marking middle-class status”. It is in decline in working class communities.

The study was conducted by American sociologists who interviewed and surveyed more than 300
working and middle-class people aged between18 and 70 to verify if there was a
link between marriage and employment status, reports The Daily Telegraph.

For Jennifer Silver of Harvard University,
“blue collar workers living in an unstable situation had difficulty trusting potential partners
because of the risk of betrayal”. The study adds: “their disillusionment with any
possibility of long-term success in the labour market was matched by a
pervasive sense of disillusionment
about the possibility of meaningful enduring relationships.”

By contrary, people
with a university education tend to have a stable job with a better wage. In
this case, it’s easy to
have a commitment in a stable
relationship with
children. More, these people can afford to “insure themselves against marital breakdown by ‘investing’ in therapy sessions, adult education class and
regular ‘date nights’.”

Prof Sara Corse, a sociologist at the
University of Virginia who led the study explains: “working- class people with
insecure work and few resources, little stability and no ability to plan for a
foreseeble future become concerned with their own survival and often become
unable to imagine being able to provide materially and emotionally for others. Insecure work changes
people’s non-work
lives”.