INTERGENERATIONAL EFFECTS ON MARRIAGE AND COHABITATION

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This is a continuation proposal to study the determinants of family formation--cohabitation, marriage, and premarital fertility. The goal is to evaluate the many ways in which family formation is influenced by the experiences, values, and attitudes of both young people and their parents. The approach is based on a dynamic long-term intergenerational model of young people's entrances into cohabitation and marriage, which includes a wide range of influences from both generations. These intergenerational influences on family formation include: 1) family organization and the extent to which individuals organize their activities around family units or around institutions outside the family; 2) family immigration status and farm background; 3) socioeconomic achievement and aspirations; 4) family attitudes and behavior; and 5) religious affiliation and participation. The research investigates causal factors influencing children's union formation extending across the years from the childhood experiences of the parents through the experiences and aspirations of the children in their own young adult years. The ultimate objective is a detailed understanding of the many causal pathways--both direct and indirect--through which the experiences, attributes, and attitudes of the parents and children influence the children's family formation decisions. The data come from a panel study of parents and children that was designed explicitly for the purpose of studying the determinants of family formation. The data set includes eight waves of interviews with mothers extending across the 31 years of the children's lives. The children were born in 1961, and were interviewed when they were 18, 23, and 31. The parental and individual determinants of family formation will be examined from a life course perspective using hazard models.