people who marry as teenagers have higher likelihood of divorce than people who wait until their twenties. teenagers probably cannot choose partners as well as older persons can. in part , they are not mature enough. compared with people in twenties, teenagers may not know what kinds of person they will be as adults and what their needs in a partner will be. even if they do have a good sense of their emerging selves, they will have a more difficult time picking an appropriate partner because it is hard to know what kind of spouse an 18-year-old will prove to be over the long run. moreover, teenage marriages are sometime precipitated by an accidental pregnancy, and it is known that a premarital birth raises the likelihood of divorce. it does so partly because it brings together a couple who might not otherwise have chosen to marry each other. it also may be more difficult, on a practical level, for a couple to make a marriage work if a young child is present from day one. still, earlier marriage cannot be an explanation for the post-1960 rise in divorce because age at marriage increased after 1960.