Daniel T. Lichter

Race and the Retreat From Marriage: A Shortage of Marriageable Men?

We provide a search-theoretic model of the transition to first marriage among young [black and white] women in the United States. We measure directly the pool of unmarried men relative to unmarried women in local marriage markets as well as the economic attractiveness of available men for each unmarried woman in the NLSY [National Longitudinal Survey of Youth]....Our event-history analysis evaluates the contextual effects of marriage market conditions while controlling for individual factors like womens employment and value orientations known to affect marital timing.... (EXCERPT)

Measuring the Division of Household Labor: Gender Segregation of Housework Among American Couples

Despite a large body of research on the household division of labor, surprisingly little is known about how husbands and wives divide their family work time across a variety of domestic tasks. What differentiates couples exhibiting gender specialization or segregation in household tasks from those couples who share tasks? Using newly released data from the National Survey of Families and Households, this study has two major objectives. First, a new summary measure of the gender-based segregation of family labor is presented. Second, sources of intercouple variation in the sex segregation of household labor are examined, focusing especially on the effects of time availability, family power, and gender role ideology. The results indicate that, even in the late 1980s, American couples exhibited highly sex-segregated family work patterns, including those couples in which the male partner contributes many hours to housework. The study shows that American males would have to reallocate over 60% of their family work time to other tasks before sex equality in the division of labor is achieved. The analysis indicates that this gender-based division of family work is symptomatic of continuing gender inequality and gender role socialization in American society.

Social boundaries and marital assimilation : Interpreting trends in racial and ethnic intermarriage

Interracial/interethnic marriage in America is a barometer of racial/ethnic relations and intergroup social distance. Using data from the 5-percent Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1990 and 2000 censuses, we interpret trends in intermarriage in light of new assimilation theory, recent changes in racial classification, and rapid demographic changes in American society. Our results indicate that changes in marital assimilation have taken on momentum of their own; that is, Americas growing biracial population has fueled the growth of interracial marriages with whites. Analyses also shed new light on the effects of rapid immigration, rising cohabitation, and educational upgrading on intermarriage patterns, and yield both continuities and departures from the past. Historic patterns of racial/ethnic differences in intermarriage persist—Hispanics and American Indians are most likely to marry whites, followed closely by Asian Americans. African Americans are least likely to marry whites. Yet, the 1990s brought significant increases in intermarriage between blacks and whites; large increases in cohabitation did not offset the growth of racially-mixed marriages. The past decade also ushered in unprecedented declines in intermarriage with whites and large increases in marriage between native- and foreign-born co-ethnics among Hispanics and Asian Americans. The role of educational attainment in the out-marriage patterns of Hispanics and Asian Americans was also reinforced. Any evidence of differential growth in African American-white marriages among the highly educated African American population was weak. If intermarriage is our guide, any shifting, blurring, or crossing of racial/ethnic boundaries represent uncommonly weak mechanisms for breaking down existing racial barriers to black-white union formation.

Race, Family Structure, and Changing Poverty among American Children.

The link between family structure and the changing economic well-being of American children since 1960 is examined using child records from the 1960, 1970, and 1980 Public Use Microdata Sample, andfrom the 1988 March Current Population Survey. We find that: (1) childpoverty rates would have been one-third less in 1988 iffamily structure had not changed since 1960; (2) changingfamily structure accountedfor nearly 50 percent of the increase in child poverty rates since 1980; (3) changing maternal employment patterns placed significant downward pressure on child poverty from 1960 to 1988, but could not prevent the overall rise in child poverty during the 1980s; (4) racial divergence in family structure since 1960 exacerbated the persistent black-white differences in childrens economic status; (5) racial differences in parental work patterns since 1960 acted to reduce racial differences in child poverty; and (6) that changing family-size differentials between poor and nonpoor households exerted upward pressure on child poverty rates, especially among whites. Our results reinforce the view that child poverty and racial inequality cannot be separatedfrom the issue of changing family structure in America.

MARRIAGE OR DISSOLUTION? UNION TRANSITIONS AMONG POOR COHABITING WOMEN*

The objective of this paper is to identify the incentives and barriers to marriage among cohabiting women, especially disadvantaged mothers who are targets of welfare reform. We use the newly released cohabitation data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979–2000), which tracks the partners of cohabiting women across survey waves. Our results support several conclusions. First, cohabiting unions are short-lived—about one-half end within one year, and over 90% end by the fifth year. Unlike most previous research, our results show that most cohabiting unions end by dissolution of the relationship rather than by marriage. Second, transitions to marriage are especially unlikely among poor women; less than one-third marry within five years. Cohabitation among poor women is more likely than that among nonpoor women to be a long-term alternative or substitute for traditional marriage. Third, our multinomial analysis of transitions from cohabitation into marriage or dissolution highlights the salience of economically disadvantaged family backgrounds, cohabitation and fertility histories, women’s economic resources, and partner characteristics. These results are interpreted in a policy environment that increasingly views marriage as an economic panacea for low-income women and their children.

Mate Selection Among Married and Cohabiting Couples

This article examines comparative patterns of educational and racial assortative mating or homogamy among married and cohabiting couples and evaluates whether women and men trade in socioeconomic status and racial caste prestige. The 1990 decennial census identifies for the first time individuals in cohabiting relationships. Log-linear models of partner cross-classified data provide several conclusions. First, married and cohabiting couples are highly homogamous with respect to race and education. Second, cohabiting couples are less homogamous than married couples. Third, cohabiting women are less likely than married women to be living with partners with greater education than themselves. Fourth, racially homogamous unions tend to be educationally homogamous and vice versa. Fifth, heterogamous marriages (but not cohabitors) suggest spousal trades: high education in one spouse is associated with higher color status in another. We conclude that research can no longer ignore the qualitatively different mate selection processes of cohabiting couples.

Immigrant Gateways and Hispanic Migration to New Destinations

Our understanding of the underlying demographic components of population change in new Hispanic destinations is limited. In this paper, we (1) compare Hispanic migration patterns in traditional settlement areas with new growth in emerging Hispanic destinations; (2) examine the role of immigration vis-à-vis domestic migration in spurring Hispanic population redistribution; and (3) document patterns of migrant selectivity, distinguishing between in-migrants and non-migrant Hispanics at both the origin and destination. We use several recent datasets, including the 1990 and 2000 Public Use Microdata Samples (which include new regional geocodes), and the 2005 and 2006 files of the American Community Survey. Our results document the widespread dispersion of the Hispanic population over the 1990–2006 period from established Hispanic gateways into new Hispanic areas and other parts of the country. Nearly one-half of Hispanic net migration in new destinations comes from domestic gains. In contrast, both established and other Hispanic areas depend entirely on immigration, with each losing domestic migrants to high growth areas. Migrant flows also are highly differentiated by education, citizenship, and nativity. To fully understand the spatial diffusion of Hispanics requires a new appreciation of the complex interplay among immigration, internal domestic migration, and fertility.

Homogamy Among Dating, Cohabiting, and Married Couples

The winnowing hypothesis posits that transitions from dating to cohabiting to marital unions are marked by increasing selectivity in the mate selection or matching process. In this paper, we provide comparative estimates of educational, racial, and religious homogamy and heterogamy along a continuum of commitment: sexually intimate dating couples, cohabiting couples, and married couples. Log-linear models, fitted to cross-classified data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, provide only partial support for the winnowing hypothesis. On the one hand, homogamy with respect to race and religion increases slightly as relationships progress from dating to cohabitation to marriage. On the other hand, each relationship–dating, cohabiting, and married–is marked by substantial homogamy, at least for the traits considered here. And, in the absence of homogamy, each couple type reveals quite similar patterns of educational heterogamy or intermarriage, although upward mobility through partnering is less evident among cohabitors. Overall, however, the rather stringent sorting criteria that men and women use in selecting a marital partner, which manifests itself in marital homogamy, is also used in dating and cohabiting relationships.

Life course transitions of American children: Parental cohabitation, marriage, and single motherhood

We examine the life course transitions into and from families headed by unmarried cohabiting couples for a recent cohort of American children. Life table estimates, based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth mother-child files, indicate about one in four children will live in a family headed by a cohabiting couple sometime during childhood. Economic uncertainty is an important factor determining whether children in single-parent families subsequently share a residence with a mother’s unmarried partner. Moreover, virtually all children in cohabiting-couple families will experience rapid subsequent changes in family status. Our estimates provide a point of departure for future work on children’s exposure to parental cohabitation and its social and economic implications.

Marriage Markets and Marital Choice

This article presents a search model of marital choice. We tested the hypothesis that demographic shortages of suitable marital partners not only lower the probability of marriage, but increase the likelihood that never-married women will either: (a) marry men with characteristics dissimilar to their own or (b) marry men with low socioeconomic status. This analysis was accomplished using data from the 1979-1986 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, merged with various local-area sex ratios from the 1980 decennial U.S. Census. We found that a favorable marriage market, measured in terms of the relative number of men to women, increases the odds of marrying a high-status man compared with a low-status man (as measured in terms of education and occupation). It also increases the chance of forgoing marriage rather than marrying low-status men. At the same time, we found little evidence that mate surpluses or deficits in the local marriage market affect patterns of homogamy or assortative mating. The implication is that market conditions— good or bad—have little to do with womens willingness to marry heterogamously. Women are unwilling to “cast a wider net” in the face of market constraints.