"Less than 10 percent of the births to college-educated women occur outside marriage, while for women with high school degrees or less the figure is nearly 60 percent." Mr. Winship interprets his own results cautiously, warning that other differences (like race, education or parenting styles) may also separate the two groups. He also warns, even if marriage helped the people who got married it might hurt other families if it tied them to troubled men. There's not much question that raising kids alone is financially crippling, and may be damaging to children in other ways too.