The age at which adults first marry has slowly risen since the 1970’s. In 2021, the average age at first marriage in the U.S. was for 30.4 for men and for 28.6 women. Delaying marriage until the late 20’s or early 30’s has become both common and normal as a response to cultural, economic, and educational shifts. These include the decline of manufacturing and growth of knowledge and service economies, the increased importance of college degrees to opportunities for middle-class jobs, and the increasing acceptance of pre-marital sex and cohabitation. A predominant narrative around marriage today is that young adults should wait, especially if they are enrolled in college, so that they can establish themselves financially and develop maturity before forming their own families.

Still, some young adults marry in the late teens or early 20’s, notably in the U.S. South. 6.44% of 18–23-year-olds in the United States were married, separated, divorced, or widowed as of 2017, and 7.41% in the South. To understand why some marry “early,” I interviewed 45 18-23 year old engaged or married young adult college students in Mississippi. Most of the engaged students would marry in the Summer just after their college graduation.

I found that these young adults hadn’t always planned to marry as early as they did (or would). As they entered college, in fact, they had adopted the idea that marriage would take their focus away from school and had expected to wait until closer to average ages. However, they compromised this earlier marriage timeline due to a set of four factors, some of which reflect their childhood environments and others that reflect influences during college.

First, in students’ personal orientations to marriage, marriage was a central life goal and an important marker of social standing in their families, peer networks, neighborhoods, or religious communities. Students described a preference for committed relationships over casual sexual or romantic ties, with some embracing the idea that dating was intended only to explore marital compatibility.

Second, students were located within a marriage-oriented culture. All had witnessed family members, friends, or peers marry early and had met other students on campus who were engaged or married. While many of their college peers had no interest in commitment, those who did had opportunities to connect with one another, for instance through organized religious groups or sorority chapters that held ritual celebrations of engagement.

Third, the “right” relationship led students to consider marriage. These relationships were emotionally close and positive, with some describing a self-transformation that their partner had enabled. A relationship was also “right” when a partner was supportive of existing goals in school and work, which signaled that marriage was unlikely to throw a student off track. Finally, students had been in their relationships for several years, and a sense of inevitability around marriage had often crept in. For those who had lived together, the familiarity of a shared household made them feel “ready” to get married.

Finally, students had experienced social and financial support for marriage. Their families and friends were excited about the idea of their marriage, and only a very few expressed reservations. In addition, students had confirmed that the financial support their parents gave them for college would continue following marriage or, if it would not, planned their weddings for after graduation. Marriage also allowed some to access additional financial resources such as military spousal benefits or Pell grants for college. And among those who did not approve of living together outside of marriage, marriage could reduce the costs of housing.

Ultimately, marriage at a young age began to make sense to students when they were in quality long-term relationships, when they felt confident that their partner would not hinder their future goals in school or work, when their marriage had the support of family members, and when they would gain financially or at least not lose by getting married. Many said things like “why not?” or “why wait?” to express the feeling that barriers to marriage had been removed. Going forward with an early marriage was also made likely by the orientations towards relationships and marriage that had formed earlier in life in students’ families and communities, and by the prevalence of early marriage in students’ networks.

These young people were certainly aware that they were doing something somewhat unusual by getting married while in college. Yet instead of rejecting the social norm of delaying marriage, they applied it to others while making themselves an exception. Students distanced themselves from the potential stigma of marrying “too early” by talking about themselves as more mature than others, and thus more ready to get married. For instance, Natalie concluded that, “I like being married. I’m perfectly happy being married and being a student. I love it. But if you’re not ready for it, like most people aren’t, you don’t see how anybody else could be.”

Acknowledgement: This study was funded by a Presidential grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.

Rachel Allison is an Associate Professor of Sociology and affiliate of Gender Studies at Mississippi State University. You can follow her on Twitter @rallis2.