In 2009, Brookings Institution scholars Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill proposed a path into adulthood. This path, called the “success sequence,” is most likely to lead toward economic success and away from poverty. This sequence includes finishing at minimum a high school education, getting a job, followed by marriage and then having children. Since proposing this path, there has been no real test to see if that approach applies to today’s young adults.
Researchers Brad Wilcox, senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and Wendy Wang, director of research at the Institute for Family Studies and former senior researcher at Pew Research Center, thought it would be important to measure the impact of the success sequence messaging on millennials. Their recently released findings reveal some interesting data about millennial behavior regarding education, employment, marriage and family.
According to the study, a record 55 percent of millennial parents (ages 28-34) have put childbearing before marriage. This indicates that today’s young adults take increasingly divergent paths toward adulthood when it comes to family formation. These divergent pathways are associated with markedly different economic fortunes among millennials.
“We found that 97 percent of millennials who followed the success sequence are not poor and are in the middle-income track by age 30,” says Wilcox. “Based on every indicator, from our perspective, the success sequence is still quite relevant and compelling.”
Fully 86 percent of young adults who moved into marriage first have family incomes in the middle or top third compared to only 53 percent of millennials who put childbearing before marriage. For young adults who are unmarried and childless, 73 percent have family incomes in the middle or upper third of the income distribution.