From The Hub at Johns Hopkins University: College-educated women are much more likely than ever before to have a first child outside of marriage, a Johns Hopkins University study finds.

Women with degrees are also more likely to be married at the time of their second birth, suggesting a historic shift among the educated away from starting families with marriage to starting them with a baby. The findings by Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin are published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"The place of marriage in the sequence of life events for emerging adulthood may be shifting among college graduates."

The proportion of first births outside of marriage has increased at all educational levels but the increase has been greatest among women with college degrees, he found.

Cherlin points to several likely reasons for the marked change, chiefly money problems, including college debt and lower economic returns from a college degree, and the widespread cultural acceptance for single parenthood and unmarried couples living together.

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