Moving Out and Marriage: What Do Young Adults Expect? (original) (raw)
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Demography, 1989
Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 are used to examine factors influencing young adults' departure from the parental home and the initial pathways taken, including leaving home for marriage, residential semiautonomy (Semi), and premarital residentiill independence (PRJ). Parents' education and continuing in school decrease the likelihU0d of leaving home via marriage and increase the likelihood of leaving home via Semi or PRI. All other factors considered affect all pathways out of the parental home in the same direction, but in differing magnitudes. The predominant influences on PRJ are indicators of modern family values, whereas the predominant influences on leaving home for marriage are measures of resources, both those of the parents and those of the young adults.
“Marriage Is More Than Being Together”: The Meaning of Marriage for Young Adults
Journal of Family Issues, 2011
Based on 424 qualitative interviews with a racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse population of young people ranging in age from 21 to 38, the authors ponder the paradox of the evolving role for contemporary marriage within the developmental perspective of the transition to adulthood. The authors identify two groups: marriage naturalists and marriage planners. Naturalists comprise one fifth of the sample, are largely from rural America, and follow the fast-track into marriage that defined the mid-twentieth century. Planners comprise the remainder of the sample, are based in metropolitan areas, and follow an elongated transition to adulthood. The authors examine the views of each group on commitment and the nature of relationships, and apply their findings to the debates about whether marriage is resilient, in decline, or becoming deinstitutionalized.
The first family formation among young Americans: the role of family process
SN Social Sciences
The percentage of young American adults living with their parents is said to have increased steadily over the last few decades. However, limited research has examined the role of parent-adolescent interaction in the first family formation of young adults. This study examines the association between adolescents' family process and their first union formation (marriage and cohabitation) from the ages of 16 to 35. This study also tests whether the influence of the family process varies significantly by age. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, an event history analysis was conducted to address how the mechanisms of social learning by family affect the timing and types of first union formation. The results indicate that individuals with a positive family process have a lower risk of cohabitating during adolescence and a higher chance of transitioning to marriage than cohabitation in their first union formation. The findings also show that a positive family process is associated with higher chances of marriage in the mid-twenties and later. The study further shows that fathers may have a substantial role to play in affecting the timing and types of first union formation of their children compared to mothers. The findings of this study suggest that family processes are important in determining the timing and type of first union formation among young people in the United States.
Why study young adult living arrangements? A view of the second demographic transition
workshop Leaving Home: A European Focus. …, 2000
The major focus of research and theorizing on the second demographic transition has focused on changes in the relationships between men and women: the growth in cohabitation and the delay in marriage, together with increasing rates of union dissolution. However, the other major family tie, that between the generations, is also being challenged by the second demographic transition. As stable couple formation is delayed, where should young adults live? Should they live in trial unions (cohabitation), alone or with roommates in nonfamily settings, or with their parents?
Young Women’s Transition to Marriage
Demography, 1981
This paper examines determinants of timing of marriage for young women by modeling the transition from the single to the married state by age. This approach, combined with a large longitudinal data set, allows us to disaggregate the analysis into fine age groupings and to include situational and attitudinal factors in our model. We find that those characteristics of a young woman’s parental family that reflect the availability of parental resources tend to decrease the chances of a marriage during the early teens. Chances of marrying appear to decrease with increases in the availability and attractiveness of alternatives to the wife role and in the costs of assuming it. We discuss these results from the perspective of the societal and parental normative pressures which affect timing of marriage for young women.
Living Arrangements and the Transition to Adulthood
Demography, 1985
The sharp decline with age in the percent of young adults who live with their parents is usually attributed to other concurrent life-cycle changes in the “transition to adulthood.” We investigate this presumption using data tracking high school seniors seven years after graduation. Although marriage and military service strongly reduce residential dependence on parents, other life-cycle changes such as employment and parenthood are only weakly associated with living arrangements and often affect returning home more than leaving. “Leaving home” is often independent of other transition events and should be studied directly to understand recent patterns of family change.
Expecting the unexpected: Young people’s expectations about marriage and family
Journal of Sociology, 2012
Many social theorists argue that institutions such as organized religion, the nuclear family and social traditions more generally, are in a rapid and potentially terminal decline. At the same time, there has been a growing emphasis on the processes of individualization, the rise of the 'reflexive self', de-traditionalization and an emergent view of life as a 'planning project' where individuals determine their future pathways through autonomous decision-making. changes, while others, such as Gross and Simmons or Smart and Shipman, advise more caution. In this article we interrogate this tension by using first-wave data from a longitudinal study involving over 7000 12-13-year-old high-school students from government, independent and Catholic schools in Queensland, Australia. In this article we provide key baseline findings on students' expectations of marriage and family life to highlight several key issues that must be addressed by de-institutionalization and reflexivity theorists, and which illustrate the need for a more longitudinal evaluation of their claims.