Darrell Webb 1

Annotated Bibliography
Why Is Our Culture Steadily Moving Away From Early Marriage?
Darrell Webb
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
3.12.2015

Darrell Webb 2
Constable, Kimanzi. "9 Things Nobody Told Me About Getting Married Young."
MindBodyGreen. MindBodyGreen, LLC, 28 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
This article summarized things that needed to be looked at when marrying young
because marriage in itself is not easy, especially not when youre young. Fighting is
frequent. Communication skills are important. Jealousy is a huge issue. Youll still be
attracted to other people. Look once, dont look again, and definitely dont touch.
Having time apart is just as important as having time together. Merging lives with
someone is a big ordeal. It takes time and patience. Youll lose some friends in the
process. Make sure the relationship isnt just about sex. Sex is important but when its
the only thing the relationship doesnt have much depth. In-laws try to involve
themselves deeply with your life. Its going to be annoying. It says you will have to
choose to fall in love again everyday. There will be rough days but love is where you
look past that and work together. The material is biased but it gives a personal
account of the downsides of marriage as well as ways to get through it. The author,
Kimanzi Constable, is a self-published author of two books and a contributing writer
to The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and MindBodyGreen. He is also a
business editor at The Good Men Project. The intention is to reach newlyweds under
the age of 23 or any significantly younger married couple. This article is a lot more
personal than any of the others. Its advice given through experience of the
downsides. This fits well within my conclusion of weighing the pros and cons or
marriage to come to an ultimate decision of whether or not early marriage is a viable
option at this time. This resource may not appear in my research paper but it has
definitely had an influence upon my thought process.

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Darrell Webb 3

Nisen, Max. "5 Reasons Why People Are Getting Married Later And Later In Life." Business

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Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

This article covers the reasons why later marriage is beneficial. It talks about the
median marriage age increasing. More people are living together as a way to test
compatibility before getting married, a trend that stared in the 60s and has lasted
since. People live alone for longer. Birth control gave people a choice outside of
abstinence and unwanted pregnancy. Children born out of wedlock and their parents
now have more legal protection and is more socially acceptable. College attendance
has increased which has pushed back the age at which people get together. People are
having fewer and fewer kids. Families of 3+ are becoming rare. People are waiting
until they have established themselves and are inflexible in their mannerisms to get
married. The author is a writer for the Business Insider. The subject material is all
objective referencing reports created by the U.S. Census. Its intended audience are
people who are either planning on getting married, people who are married, or people
who are interested in understanding the reasons behind the age of marriage increase.
This article is objective just like the first source and unlike the second one. Ill use
this as another component to my thesis. The three components so far are: reasons our
culture is preferring a later marriage as opposed to an earlier one, advantages and
disadvantages of a later marriage, reasons people get married early, and the
advantages and disadvantages of early marriage. My conclusion will be how I believe
early marriage is still a viable and smart option. This is the counter argument to my

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Darrell Webb 4
paper and at some point I should acknowledge this source and its points in the essay
so that I show an understanding of both arguments.
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Prior, Karen. "The Case for Getting Married Young." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22
Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

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Italic
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The author shows that young adults have more problems with drinking, depression and
dissatisfaction for life. She touches on how young married couples are reported to be more

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satisfied with life than their single counterparts. She discusses how marriage has shifted from
being about social status and power to being about the individual and their compatibility with
the other. Marriage is also less economically and religiously empowering than it has been.
The author states that students are graduating with thousands of dollars of debt and having
less than nothing to bring into a marriage. The author also quotes a study that says parents
are to blame for the delay in marriage because they tell their kids to focus on their education.
It finishes with a personal story and reinforcing that marriage isnt something a person does
when they believe theyre fully developed. Its something to do as the person is developing
so they and their partner can grow and develop together. The article references another article
from the trusted Time mmagazine and a case study of married couples, women who are
pregnant, and other conditions related to early marriage. The purpose of this article is to
negate the stigma associated with early marriage and reveal some of the reasons why
Americas median marriage age is steadily increasing. It provides me with two other sources
as well as a personal account of someone who got married at 19 and is still happily married.

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Darrell Webb 5
Its made me more optimistic about my topic because it has been slightly difficult finding
articles that dont oppose early marriage but the ones that do dont normally have any
references as to where their information was cured from. I dont know if I will use this source
but I would like to keep it on hand. If I do use the source, it will be mentioned in a small
segment of the essay for personal accounts.

Uecker, Jeremy, and Charles Stokes. "Early Marriage in the United States." Journal of Marriage

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and the Family. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
This is a scholarly article that studies the demographics of early marriage. It is a third person
point of view article that explores why people continue to marry early and why people are not.
Ethnicity shows a pattern in the average age that couples get married. Hispanic people marry the
youngest, followed in order by White, Asian, and finally Black people. The article also states
that location plays a role in early marriage. People from the South and low population diversity
areas tend to marry sooner. Social and economic class play a role in marital timing too. Children
that come from families in a higher tax bracket tend to not marry earlier because their parents
can support them for longer. The rest of the article covers how the data was acquired and
organized. This article was published Nov. 1st, 2008 by the National Library of Medicine by
Jeremy E. Eucker and Charles E. Stokes. Eucker is the Assistant Professor of Sociology at
Baylor University and Stokes is the Assistant Professor of Sociology at Samford University. This
academic source encompasses studies from a multitude of other doctors and comes from the
National Library of Medicine which gives the article its credibility,. Aalthough the studies used

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Darrell Webb 6
are slightly dated. The newest study is dated in the early 2000s and some go back to the 1960s.
The article is a good base for writing a paper on the benefits of young couples marrying early
and provides counter arguments as well. It also provides reasons as to why couples are not
marrying early. I plan on making this study the primary source of information in my essay. This
was the only scientific study I could find that was fully readable in the amount of time had to
spend on this assignment.

Prior, Karen. "The Case for Getting Married Young." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 22 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
The author shows that young adults have more problems with drinking, depression
and dissatisfaction for life. She touches on how young married couples are reported to
be more satisfied with life than their single counterparts. She discusses how marriage
has shifted from being about social status and power to being about the individual and
their compatibility with the other. Marriage is also less economically and religiously
empowering than it has been. The author states that students are graduating with
thousands of dollars of debt and having less than nothing to bring into a marriage.
The author also quotes a study that says parents are to blame for the delay in marriage
because they tell their kids to focus on their education. It finishes with a personal
story and reinforcing that marriage isnt something a person does when they believe
theyre fully developed. Its something to do as the person is developing so they and
their partner can grow and develop together. The article references another article
from the trusted Time magazine and a case study of married couples, women who are

Darrell Webb 7
pregnant, and other conditions related to early marriage. The purpose of this article is
to negate the stigma associated with early marriage and reveal some of the reasons
why Americas median marriage age is steadily increasing. It provides me with two
other sources as well as a personal account of someone who got married at 19 and is
still happily married. Its made me more optimistic about my topic because it has
been slightly difficult finding articles that dont oppose early marriage but the ones
that do dont normally have any references as to where their information was cured
from.

Nisen, Max. "5 Reasons Why People Are Getting Married Later And Later In Life." Business
Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
This article covers the reasons why later marriage is beneficial. IT talks about the
median marriage age increasing. More people are living together as a way to test
compatibility before getting married. A trend that stared in the 60s and has lasted
since. People live alone for longer. Birth control gave people a choice outside of
abstinence and unwanted pregnancy. Children born out of wedlock and their parents
now have more legal protection and is more socially acceptable. College attendance
has increased which has pushed back the age at which people get together. People are
having fewer and fewer kids. Families of 3+ are becoming rare. People are waiting
until they have established themselves and are inflexible in their mannerisms to get
married. The author is a writer for the Business Insider. The subject material is all
objective referencing reports created by the U.S. Census. Its intended audience are

Darrell Webb 8
people who are either planning on getting married, people who are married, or people
who are interested in understanding the reasons behind the age of marriage increase.
This article is objective just like the first source and unlike the second one. Ill use
this as another component to my thesis. The three components so far are: reasons our
culture is preferring a later marriage as opposed to an earlier one, advantages and
disadvantages of a later marriage, reasons people get married early, and the
advantages and disadvantages of early marriage. My conclusion will be how I believe
early marriage is still a viable and smart option.
Constable, Kimanzi. "9 Things Nobody Told Me About Getting Married Young."
MindBodyGreen. MindBodyGreen, LLC, 28 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
This article summarized things that needed to be looked at when marrying young
because marriage in itself is not easy, especially not when youre young. Fighting is
frequent. Communication skills are important. Jealousy is a huge issue. Youll still be
attracted to other people. Look once, dont look again, and definitely dont touch.
Having time apart is just as important as having time together. Merging lives with
someone is a big ordeal. It takes time and patience. Youll lose some friends in the
process. Make sure the relationship isnt just about sex. Sex is important but when its
the only thing the relationship doesnt have much depth. In-laws try to involve
themselves deeply with your life. Its going to be annoying. It says you will have to
choose to fall in love again everyday. There will be rough days but love is where you
look past that and work together. The material is biased but it gives a personal
account of the downsides of marriage as well as ways to get through it. The intention
is to reach newlyweds under the age of 23 or any significantly younger married

Darrell Webb 9
couple. This article is a lot more personal than any of the others. Its advice given
through experience of the downsides. This fits well within my conclusion of weighing
the pros and cons or marriage to come to an ultimate decision of whether or not early
marriage is a viable option at this time. This resource may not appear in my research
paper but it has definitely had an influence upon my thought process.