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Title: Effects of Family Stability and Nestleaving Patterns on the Transition to Marriage
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Kobrin, Frances E.
Waite, Linda J.
Effects of Family Stability and Nestleaving Patterns on the Transition to Marriage
Presented: Detroit, MI, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1983
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Divorce; Family Formation; Family Structure; Marriage; Mothers, Behavior; Nestleaving

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Data from the Young Women cohort of the NLS are used to explore patterns of family formation related to two major areas of change in U.S. family structure: (1) the increasing experience of parental divorce; and (2) decline in age of leaving home. The following two questions are addressed. First, are children who grow up in an intact family more likely to marry at any given age than those who do not? Interpretations of results showing the "heritability" of divorce include a possible reluctance by partners who have experienced divorce as children to invest enough in their marriages to keep them going; it seems plausible that they might also be less willing to take the risk at all. This hypothesis may explain the consistent finding of lower marriage rates for blacks than for nonblacks. Second, are children who leave home early, thus experiencing a "role hiatus" in terms of family relationships, less likely to marry at a given age than those who have not had this experience? While many women go away to school, and so increase their economic alternatives to marriage, many others attend college while living at home, and are thus less exposed to alternative spending patterns, and less likely to experience autonomy and independence before marriage.
Bibliography Citation
Kobrin, Frances E. and Linda J. Waite. "Effects of Family Stability and Nestleaving Patterns on the Transition to Marriage." Presented: Detroit, MI, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1983.