College + Marriage = Trouble?

One of the benefits of higher education is a stronger marriage - unless you're a black woman.

Women who go to college are less likely to divorce but this advantage doesn't accrue to African American women. That's according to a study done by Dr. Jeounghee Kim, assistant professor at Rutgers School of Social Work.

Dr. Kim's research followed couples starting from 1975 to 1979 and ending in 1995 to 1999. Her analysis took into consideration age, geographic location, motherhood status and educational levels at the time of the marriage. Educated white couples showed a decline in divorces over a nine year period. For African American couples, there was an increase in the dissolution of marriages during the eighties before declining among the 1990-1994 cohort. Marriages that resulted in long-term separation and not just legal divorce were both considered a dissolution of the marriage.

You can read more about the study at: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/10/college-fails-to-protect-african-american-women-from-divorce/52397.html.

Black women can address this phenomenon in a couple of ways:
- Marry educated men of other races.
- Marry black men regardless of their level of education.

But what I'd like to know is what stops so many African American men from attending college - and what support, encouragement or change in mindset would make the difference?