A starter marriage is a first marriage that lasts five years or less and ends without the couple having any children together. The term, a play on the expression "starter home", appears as one of the footnotes in Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel Generation X. However, published usage of the term grew significantly after the publication of Pamela Paul’s 2002 book The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony.

Starter marriage（“起步婚姻”或“新手婚姻”）指雙方初婚、婚姻持續時間不到五年且沒有子女的婚姻。這個表達由starter home（首次置業）演變而來，初現于（加拿大小說家）道格拉斯?柯普蘭1991年的小說《X世代》的腳注中。不過，這個表達在出版物中大量使用則是在帕米拉?保羅2002年的著作《新手婚姻與婚姻生活的未來》出版之后。

She claimed that some young couples get married for reasons not strong enough to support a long relationship, and that an increasing number of them end their marriages quickly. Paul’s book caused controversy for suggesting that these divorces are a good thing, if the couple have not had children.

帕米拉?保羅指出，有些年輕夫妻結婚時的理由不夠充分，不足以維持一段長久的關系，因此他們中很多人的婚姻很快就結束了。因為在書中暗示如果沒有孩子的話，這些婚姻結束是一件好事，保羅的這本書曾引發爭議。