First-Generation College Students and the Timing of Marriage

• In Event: 2452 - New Insights and Trends in Relationship Formation

Abstract

There has been a considerable amount of research documenting the relationship between educational attainment and union formation as well as the relationship between parental education and children’s union formation. In almost all cases, though, these two lines of work are carried out in isolation from each other. This paper fills this void in prior literature by examining the interaction between child and parent education and its influence on the timing of first marriage, paying particular attention to first-generation college students. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I explore if and how marital timing of college graduates varies by parental education. I find that first-generation college attendees marry earlier than other college attendees. However, among those who have not married by the time they complete a bachelor’s degree, there are relatively few differences between first- and continuing-generation college students in their marriage timing. These results offer important insight into the complex relationships between social mobility and demographic processes and provide new evidence about the equalizing effects of higher education, research on which has traditionally focused only on economic outcomes.

Author

• Michael D. King, University of Wisconsin-Madison