Diverging Marriage Patterns by Parental Socioeconomic Backgrounds and College Education: Evidence from the NLSY97 cohort

• In Event: 41021 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 9: Global Family Dynamics

Abstract

The patterns of decline in marriage and delayed marriage in the United States have diverged by socioeconomic background, particularly by individual college education, in recent decades. However, little is known about whether the patterns are also stratified by parental backgrounds and how the two cross-generational dimensions of socioeconomic status simultaneously affect the formation of marriage. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth 1997 data and discrete-time event history analysis, this study finds that the marriage rate is lower for men and women from low-income backgrounds compared to those from middle- or high-income backgrounds. Regardless of whether holding a college degree or not, the difference in the marriage rate between low-income and middle- and high-income women is significant. The results suggest that the decline in marriage is not only a consequence of intragenerational inequality but also of intergenerational inequality and that marriage is a channel for the reproduction of inequalities across generations.

Author

• Sheng-Pin Huang, National Taiwan University