Arland Thornton

The relationship between cohabitation and divorce: selectivity or causal influence?

Recent evidence linking premarital cohabitation to high rates of divorce poses a complex theoretical and empirical puzzle. We develop hypotheses predicting that premarital cohabitation is selective of those who are prone to divorce as well as hypotheses predicting that the experience of premarital cohabitation produces attitudes and values which increase the probability of divorce. Using multiwave panel data from a recent cohort of young men and women in the United States, we specify and test models of these predictions. The results are consistent with hypotheses suggesting that cohabitation is selective of men and women who are less committed to marriage and more approving of divorce. The results also are consistent with the conclusion that cohabiting experiences significantly increase young people’s acceptance of divorce.

Reciprocal effects of religiosity cohabitation and marriage.

This article formulates and tests theoretical hypotheses of the reciprocal causal relationships between the formation of cohabiting and marital unions and religious commitment and participation. The article uses data from a panel study of mothers and children to show that the religiosity of both mothers and children influences the cohabiting and marital behavior of children, with those from less religious families having higher rates of entering intimate coresidential unions and a tendency to substitute cohabitation and marriage. Analyses of the reciprocal influences of cohabitation and marriage on religiosity indicate that cohabitation decreases religiosity, while marriage leads to increased religious participation.

The influence of school enrollment and accumulation on cohabitation and marriage in early adulthood

We explore the influence of education on cohabitation and marriage formulating a theoretical framework that identifies ways in which the multiple dimensions of education influence both cohabitation and marriage. Our theoretical framework links education and union formation through the incompatibility of educational and marital and cohabiting roles the opportunity costs of truncating education and the accumulation of skills knowledge and credentials gained from school attendance. Using this theoretical framework we formulate hypotheses about the influence of school enrollment and accumulation on marriage and cohabitation....We evaluate our hypotheses using event-history data from a panel study of young [U.S.] adults. Results indicate that school enrollment decreases the rate of union formation and has greater effects on marriage than on cohabitation. School accumulation increases marriage rates and decreases cohabitation--a pattern suggesting that less educated individuals tend to substitute cohabitation for marriage while those with greater school accumulation are more likely to marry. (EXCERPT)

THE INFLUENCE OF THE FAMILY ON PREMARITAL SEXUAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR

This research has expanded our understanding of the determinants of adolescent sexuality in several directions. We have used a study of mothers and children to construct and estimate a model of the intergenerational transmission of sexual attitudes and behavior. With data collected from both mothers and children, we were able to proceed further than most past research and to consider both the attitudes and behaviors of mothers as reported by the mothers themselves. These data permitted an investigation of the determinants of maternal attitudes concerning adolescent sexuality as well as an examination of the influences of the attitudes and experiences of mothers on the attitudes, perceptions, and behavior of children. Obviously, limiting the study to white families prevents generalization of our findings to other subgroups of the population. The findings demonstrate the importance and relevance of parental and adolescent attitudes in understanding adolescent sexuality. Premarital sexuality is a salient issue to both young people and their parents. There are, however, very important and substantial differences in the attitudes of parents and children. On average, the attitudes of young people today are much less restrictive than those of their parents, reflecting either life cycle differences or the impact of social change. The intergenerational difference is recognized by young people themselves and probably affects the ability of parents to assist their maturing children in adjusting to and dealing with their sexuality--a difficulty likely to be reflected in the relative lack of success sexually active young people have in preventing pregnancy. Our findings also add to the research literature in demonstrating that although children, on average, have more permissive attitudes than their parents, the attitudes of individual parents tend to be reflected in the attitudes of individual children. Children whose mothers have less restrictive attitudes have, on average, less restrictive attitudes themselves. Further, the attitudes of mothers are also reflected in the behavior of their children, so on average, mothers with more permissive attitudes have children who are more sexually active. The influence of maternal attitudes, however, is stronger for childrens attitudes than for their behavior. Of course, variability in childrens attitudes and behavior--and even their perceptions of maternal attitudes--can only be partially explained by the attitudes of their mothers; but presumably, if the attitudes of other important family members, including fathers and siblings, were known, the prediction of adolescent attitudes would improve.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Religious Participation and Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Attitudes.

This article considers causal interconnections between adolescent sexuality and the religious affiliation and participation of adolescents. The empirical analysis is consistent with previous research in showing religious involvement and adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior to be strongly correlated. Young people who attend church frequently and who value religion in their lives have the least permissive attitudes and are less experienced sexually. This study however goes beyond the point of view of earlier research in which the assumption was that the empirical correlation between religious involvement and sexuality entirely reflects the impact of religiosity on sexual attitudes and experience. The theoretical arguments presented here support the traditional hypothesis of an effect of religious participation on adolescent sexuality but the study also posits that sexual behavior and attitudes significantly influence religious involvement. This causal model is estimated on the basis of data from a sample of young men and women and their mothers. The empirical analysis supports the theoretical arguments in that significant causal effects in both directions are found in the data.

Changes in the Sex Role Attitudes of Women, 1962-1977: Evidence from a Panel Study.

An analysis of data collected from a sample of 1161 white women in the Detroit area who were interviewed in 1962 and reinterviewed in 1977 revealed that the women had adopted more equalitarian attitudes toward sex roles during the 15 year period. Changes in attitude were more apparent when the women were questioned about their attitudes toward broad principles of sexual equality than when they were questioned about their attitude toward specific aspects of sex role behavior. Those women surveyed in 1962 who were younger those who had more education those who were married to men with higher educational levels and those who reported working in 1962 were more likely to have developed equalitarian attitudes by 1977. Women surveyed in 1962 who had large families at the time of the interview and adhered to fundamentalist Protestant beliefs were more likely to continue to hold traditional attitudes in 1977. The experience of women during the 15 year period also accounted for some of the attitude shifts. Those who had acquired additional education and those who reported working at some time during the 15 year period were more likely to develop equalitarian attitudes than those who did not acquire additional education or work experience during the 15 year interim. Tables present 1) correlations between selected socioeconomic and educational variables and changes in sex role attitudes; 2) % distribution of women by sex role attitudes for 1962 and 1977; and 3) distribution of women by selected socioeconomic and educational characteristics for 1962.

Marriage and Cohabitation

In an era when half of marriages end in divorce, cohabitation has become more commonplace and those who do get married are doing so at an older age. So why do people marry when they do? And why do some couples choose to cohabit? A team of expert family sociologists examines these timely questions in Marriage and Cohabitation , the result of their research over the last decade on the issue of union formation. Situating their argument in the context of the Western world’s 500-year history of marriage, the authors reveal what factors encourage marriage and cohabitation in a contemporary society where the end of adolescence is no longer signaled by entry into the marital home. While some people still choose to marry young, others elect to cohabit with varying degrees of commitment or intentions of eventual marriage. The authors’ controversial findings suggest that family history, religious affiliation, values, projected education, lifetime earnings, and career aspirations all tip the scales in favor of either cohabitation or marriage. This book lends new insight into young adult relationship patterns and will be of interest to sociologists, historians, and demographers alike.

Economic potential and entry into marriage and cohabitation.

This article explores the relationship between economic potential and rates of entry into marriage and cohabitation. Using data from the 1990 census and the 1980–1992 High School and Beyond (Sophomore Cohort), we developed a method for explicitly estimating five time-varying measures of earnings potential. The analyses of union formation are based on an intergenerational panel study of parents and children, to which our measures of earnings potential were appended. The results indicate that all five measures of earnings potential strongly and positively influence the likelihood of marriage for men, but not for women. Earnings potential does not affect entry into cohabiting unions for either men or women.

The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and family change

The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and cross-cultural data have converged to exert a profound influence on social scientists and ordinary people. Through the use of these tools, social scientists of the 1700s and 1800s concluded that family patterns in northwest Europe had undergone many substantial changes before the early 1800s. These conclusions were accepted until the last several decades of the 1900s, when almost all were seriously challenged; many were declared to be myths. Further, the developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and the conclusions of generations of social scientists created a package of ideas—developmental idealism—that subsequently became a powerful influence for family change in many parts of the world during the past two centuries. This developmental idealism has been a substantial force for changing living arrangements, marriage, divorce, gender relations, intergenerational relationships, and fertility.

Unwanted childbearing, health, and mother-child relationships.

This paper investigates the relationships among unwanted childbearing, health, and mother-child relationships. We hypothesize that unwanted childbearing affects mother-child relationships in part because of the physical and mental health consequences of unwanted childbearing. Impaired mental health hampers womens interaction with their infants, and these poor neonatal relationships translate into poor mother-adult child relationships. Using the Intergenerational Panel Study of Mothers and Children--a 31-year longitudinal survey of a probability sample of 1,113 mother-child pairs begun in 1961--we demonstrate that mothers with unwanted births have lower quality relationships with their children from late adolescence (age 18) throughout early adulthood (ages 23 and 31). Furthermore, these lower quality relationships are not limited to the child born as a result of the unwanted pregnancy; all the children in the family suffer. Using the 1987-88 wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, a survey of a national probability sample of U.S. households, we show that mothers with unwanted births suffer from higher levels of depression and lower levels of happiness. We also demonstrate that they spank their young children more and spend less leisure time with them. We conclude that experiencing unwanted childbearing reduces the time and attention that mothers give their young children and that these early mother-child interactions set the stage for long-term, lower quality relationships.