Exiting and Returning to the Parental Home for Boomerang Kids

Young adults commonly exit from and return to the parental home, yet few studies have examined the motivation behind these exits and returns using a life course framework. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the authors examined associations between mental health problems and economic characteristics and exits from (n = 8,162) and returns to (n = 6,530) the parental home during the transition to adulthood. The average age of the respondents was 24 years. The authors found evidence that mental health and economic characteristics were related to home leaving and returning. Emotional distress was associated with earlier exits from and returns to the parental home; alcohol problems were associated with earlier returns to the parental home. The findings regarding economic resources were unexpectedly mixed. Greater economic resources were linked to delayed exits from and earlier returns to the parental home. The implications of these findings for young adults are discussed.     

How Early Life Religious Exposure Relates to the Timing of First Birth

This article examines intermediary processes explaining how religious socialization and involvement early in life are related to the timing of first births for women in the United States. The theory of conjunctural action forms the basis for hypotheses for how religious schemas and materials operate to influence birth timing. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data and event history methods, the study finds evidence for expected family size, work–family gender ideology, educational attainment and enrollment, cohabitation, and age at marriage as mediators of associations between early life religious exposure (affiliation and attendance) and the timing of nonmaritally and maritally conceived first births. These findings corroborate other research identifying the long reach of religious socialization and involvement in youth, elucidate some of the pathways for these connections, and motivate further work to understand linkages between religion and family behaviors in the United States.     

Intergenerational Coresidence and Family Transitions in the United States, 1850 - 1880

This study uses a new source of linked census data (N = 6,734) to test theories proposed to explain the high intergenerational coresidence in 19th‐century America. Was it a system of support for dependent elderly, or did it reflect intergenerational interdependence? I focus on transitions from middle age to old age, and I assess key predictors of family transitions, including widowhood, retirement, disability, migration, and wealth. The results show that adverse events precipitated changes in the headship of intergenerational families but did not increase the likelihood of residing in an intergenerational family. The findings suggest that 19th‐century intergenerational coresidence was not principally a means of old‐age support; more often, probably, there was a reciprocal relationship between generations.     

Is Baby a Blessing? Wantedness,Age at First Birth,and Later‐Life Depression

Research has found that both unintended and nonnormatively timed births have negative consequences, yet little is known about how birth timing and intention jointly influence mothers' mental health. This study explored how the interaction between intention and age at first birth influenced depression 5 to 13 years later by analyzing the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,573). We found that mistimed births, when compared with wanted births, were associated with depression, but only for normatively timed transitions to motherhood. Surprisingly, teen mothers who had unwanted births had better later‐life mental health than teens who had wanted or mistimed births. Among women with wanted or mistimed first births, increasing age at birth was associated with lower probabilities of depression. Most, but not all, of these effects were explained by selection factors and life circumstances. Results show the importance of examining joint effects of first birth wantedness and timing.     

Family Structure States and Transitions: Associations With Children's Well‐Being During Middle Childhood

Using longitudinal data from the Maternal and Child Supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,862) and Hierarchical Linear Models, we estimated associations of family structure states and transitions with children's achievement and behavior trajectories during middle childhood. Results suggest that residing in a single‐mother family was associated with small increases in behavior problems and decreases in achievement and that residing in a social‐father family was associated with small increases in behavior problems. Family structure transitions, in general, were associated with increases in behavior problems and marginally associated with decreases in achievement. Transitioning to a single‐mother family was associated with increases in behavior problems, whereas transitioning to a social‐father family was associated with decreases in reading achievement.     

Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?

Educational expansion has led to greater diversity in the social backgrounds of college students. We ask how schooling interacts with this diversity to influence marriage formation among men and women. Relying on data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3208), we use a propensity score approach to group men and women into social strata and multilevel event history models to test differences in the effects of college attendance across strata. We find a statistically significant, positive trend in the effects of college attendance across strata, with the largest effects of college on first marriage among the more advantaged and the smallest-indeed, negative-effects among the least advantaged men and women. These findings appear consistent with a mismatch in the marriage market between individuals' education and their social backgrounds.     

Nonstandard Work and Marital Instability: Evidence From the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

This article replicated and extended Harriet Presser's (2000) investigation of the linkages between nonstandard work and marital instability. We reexplored this question using data from a sample of 2,893 newlywed couples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and using different analytic techniques. In contrast to Presser, we found that the key dimension of husbands' and wives' employment was nonemployment. Similar to Presser, we found that wives' working of fixed night shifts increased the risk of divorce, driven by the experience in marriages over 5 years in duration. However, we did not replicate Presser's finding that the effect is significant only among households with children; rather, wives' fixed night shifts were associated with divorce only among those without children.     

Cohort Differences and the Marriage Premium: Emergence of Gender‐Neutral Household Specialization Effects

Using fixed‐effects models and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data, we compared cohort, gender, and household specialization differences in the marriage premium. Do these premiums (a) persist among millennials, (b) reflect changing selection into marriage across cohorts, and (c) differ by the gender division of spousal work hours? Despite declining gender‐traditional household specialization, the millennial cohort garnered larger marriage premiums for women and men. Positive selection explained millenial women's marriage premiums, but less of men's. Household specialization mattered only among millennials, where it is gender neutral: Male and female breadwinners earned significantly larger marriage premiums, whereas husbands and wives specializing in nonmarket work earned no premium, or even penalties, when employed. Results show increasing disadvantage among breadwinner households, with dual earners most advantaged among millennials.     

Religion,Marriage Markets,and Assortative Mating in the United States

As interfaith marriage has become more common, religion is thought to be less important for sorting partners. Nevertheless, prior studies on religious assortative mating use samples of prevailing marriages, which miss how local marriage markets shape both partner selection and marriage timing. Drawing on search theory and data from 8,699 young adults (ages 18–31 years) in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, the author examined the association between the concentration of coreligionists in local marriage markets and marriage timing and partner selection using event history methods. Religious concentration is associated with higher odds of transitioning to marriage and religious homogamy (conditional on marriage) for women and men at older ages (24–31 years) but not at younger ages (18–23 years). The association was also stronger for non‐Hispanic Whites when compared with other racial and ethnic groups. The findings indicate that religion remains relevant in sorting partners for many young adults in today's marriage market.     

Childhood Family,Ethnicity, and Drug Use Over the Life Course

Using multiply imputed data from 5 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 8,294), we investigated whether childhood family characteristics and childhood religious affiliation explain ethnic differences in marijuana and cocaine use in the last year. None of the childhood factors explained ethnic differences in drug use, though ethnicity and several childhood factors had age‐specific effects. Over the life course from young adulthood to middle age, ethnic differences in drug use changed and the effect of childhood religious affiliation declined. Having a more intellectually rich family in childhood increased the risk of drug use at younger ages but reduced it at older ages. The study demonstrates the significance of childhood family experiences for understanding adult drug use.     

Giving to the Good and the Needy: Parental Support of Grown Children

Parents may provide many types of support to their grown children. Parents age 40 to 60 (N = 633) reported the support they exchange with each child over age 18 (N = 1,384). Mothers and fathers differentiated among children within families, but provided emotional, financial, and practical help on average every few weeks to each child. Offspring received most assistance when they (a) had greater needs (because of problems or younger age) or (b) were perceived as more successful. Parents received more from high achieving offspring. Findings support contingency theory; parents give more material and financial support to children in need. Motivation to enhance the self or to assure support later in life may explain support to high achieving offspring.     

Safety Nets and Scaffolds: Parental Support in the Transition to Adulthood

Using longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study (analytic sample N = 712), we investigate how age, adult role acquisition and attainments, family resources, parent-child relationship quality, school attendance, and life events influence support received from parents in young adulthood. Parental assistance was found to be less forthcoming for those who had made greater progress on the road to adulthood, signified by socioeconomic attainment and union formation. The quality of mother-child and father-child relationships affected parental support in different ways, positively for mothers, negatively for fathers. School enrollment, negative life events, and employment problems were associated with a greater likelihood of receiving support. The findings suggest that parents act as "scaffolding" and "safety nets" to aid their children's successful transition to adulthood.     

Gender,Productivity, and the Marital Wage Premium

Explanations for married men’s wage premium often emphasize greater market productivity due to a gendered division of household labor, though this “specialization thesis” has been insufficiently interrogated. Using data from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 972), this paper examines the relationship between wages and time spent in paid labor and housework for married women and men with high levels of labor force attachment and their spouses. Scrutiny of couples’ time use finds strong evidence for the gendered division of labor, but little support for the anticipated wage effects of the specialization thesis itself. Less strict sample restrictions point to the need for continued research directed at couples’ joint employment and household labor decisions.     

Parental Incarceration and the Transition to Adulthood

The growing literature on the intergenerational consequences of incarceration generally neglects to consider how paternal and maternal incarceration structures offspring's transition to adulthood, a fundamental life course stage that has become increasingly unequal. In this article, the authors use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to explore the relationship between parental incarceration and both subjective (e.g., respondent feels older compared to others his or her age) and behavioral (e.g., respondent is a parent) indicators of adulthood transitions among respondents younger than age 24 (N = 10,937). The results suggest that both paternal and maternal incarceration is positively associated with the number of subjective and behavioral adulthood transitions. The results also suggest that parental incarceration is associated with some individual indicators, especially subjective indicators, of adulthood. Taken together, these findings highlight that the high incarceration rate in the United States has transformative intergenerational consequences.     

Family Structure History: Links to Relationship Formation Behaviors in Young Adulthood

Using data from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N=4,538), we examine the intergenerational link between parental family structure history and relationship formation in young adulthood. We investigate: (a) first, whether parental family structure history is associated with young adults' own relationship formation behaviors; (b) second, which dimensions of family structure history are most predictive of children's later relationship formation behaviors; and (c) third, if the association between family structure history and young adulthood relationship formation differs by gender. Our findings provide evidence of an intergenerational link between parent relationship histories and their offspring's own relationship formation behaviors in young adulthood, over and above confounding factors.     

Young Women's Job Mobility: The Influence of Motherhood Status and Education

Previous research has found that women who become mothers in their 20s face larger wage penalties compared to women who delay childbearing until their 30s. Explanations for this have focused on the consequences of employment breaks early in one's career and reduced opportunities in the workplace following the birth of a child. In this article, the author uses panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N = 4,566) to examine another possible explanation: differences in patterns of and wage returns to job mobility. She found that young mothers, relative to childless women, make fewer wage‐enhancing voluntary job separations and often receive lower wage returns for these separations. Educational attainment exacerbates these patterns, largely to the disadvantage of women with less education.     

At‐Home Father Families in the United States: Gender Ideology,Human Capital,and Unemployment

The rising population of stay‐at‐home fathers is driven by economic conditions, human capital, and changing gender ideology. When unemployment rates increase, women become breadwinners in these families. The growing gender education gap is a crucial factor in spousal work and caregiving arrangements. The authors test these propositions by tracking individuals using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth and the Current Population Survey. They find that unemployment rates are associated with having both caregiving and unable‐to‐work stay‐at‐home father families and that the probability that households choose stay‐at‐home father arrangements is greater when mothers have more education than fathers. Finally, individual differences in gender ideology have strong effects on the probability that families choose a caregiving stay‐at‐home father family structure.     

Evidence of the Effectiveness of Child Support and Visitation: Examining Food Insecurity among Children with Nonresident Fathers

Over six million children who reside with a single mother and have a father who lives elsewhere are food insecure. This study examines the effectiveness of two aspects of nonresident father involvement, in-person visitation and financial contributions, in reducing food acquisition problems using data from the National Survey of America’s Families. We find that frequent visits by nonresident fathers are related to a reduced likelihood that the resident mother’s household will experience indicators of food insecurity. The effects of child support receipt on reducing food acquisition problems, however, are less consistent. Our results support policies designed to recognize and encourage nonresidential parents to make both monetary and nonmonetary contributions to the lives of their children.