"I don't buy that," said Teresa Scroppo, a wife of 34 years and mother of seven kids. "Twenty two isn't much older than 18. You choose to love. Anybody who goes into a marriage with divorce as an option is doomed to fail."
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reflects the current marriage patterns of couples in the United States. The findings are based on the results from the National Survey of Family Growth, a study of women ages 15-44.
The study links a woman's age at the time of her first marriage to the length of time it may take that marriage to collapse. Patterns show that the older a woman is at her first wedding ceremony, the longer that marriage may last.
For example, 59% of marriages to brides under age 18 end in separation or divorce within 15 years, while only 36% end when the bride is 20 or older.Overall, findings suggest that 43% of all first marriages fail within 15 years of declaring holy matrimony. Scroppo is a part of the 57%. Could this have anything to do with her age on the wedding day?
"We were both 22 when we got married," she said. "I knew immediately that he was the one for me."
Nineteen year-old Blance Simonin is having a different marital experience. Married at age 18, she now has a 9-month-old son and two jobs. Simonin finds it hard to be married at a younger age: "I'm still learning to understand how it works."
For video clips of young couples experiencing the married life, check out MTV episodes of Engaged and Underage.
(This was my first article assignment ever in Writing for the Mass Media)
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