Early Marriage as a Career Contingency: The Prediction of Educational Attainment

A new definition of early marriage is proposed and tested against age at first marriage for ability to predict educational attainment. Using multivariate statistics and a national probability sample, the index of early marriage was found to be the superior measure. A path analysis shows that generally reduced educational attainment is a consequence of early marriage in the total sample. However, women are more susceptible to reduced education by virtue of their greater propensity to marry early.