| The literature surrounding low-income, unwed couples that are expecting a baby or that are new parents is quickly expanding as there is a growing interest in understanding demographics, barriers to marriage, desire to marry, and patterns of relationship among this population. This is due in large part to the federal government's healthy marriage initiative, which is providing millions of dollars nationwide in demonstration grants designed to improve relationships among these parents. In the midst of the expansion of literature, however, there is a remarkable deficit of deep, qualitative understanding of the experiences, beliefs and attitudes of this population regarding relationship formation and marriage (Edin & Reed, 2005; Osborne, 2005). Therefore, this phenomenological dissertation asked the question "what is the lived experience of low-income, unwed parents of young children?"... |
