Family transitions in young adulthood.
Using the first (1995) and third (2001-2002) waves of the Add Health survey, we examine women 's family transitions up to age 24. Only a third of all women marry, and a fifth of those marriages dissolve before age 24. Three out of eight women have afirst birth, with a substantial majority of those births outside of marriage: 66% for whites, 96% for blacks, and 72% for Mexican Americans. Cohabitation is the predominant union form; 59% of women cohabit at least once by age 24. Most cohabitations are short lived, with approximately one in five resulting in a marriage. We summarize the family and relationship experience of women up to age 24 in terms offour categories, each accounting for roughly a quarter of all women. Category 1 has the women who remain single nonparents. Category 2 has the early marriers, women whose marriage is not preceded by a first birth. Category 3 has those who become single parents. Category 4 has the women who cohabit at least once, but who do not marry or have a birth by age 24. The strictly ordered transitions of the 1950s are long gone and have been replaced by a variety of paths to adulthood.
Schoen
Robert
R
Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. schoen@pop.psu.edu
Landale
Nancy S
NS
Daniels
Kimberly
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005191:Family Characteristics / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015993:Life Tables; D017533:Marital Status; D008393:Marriage / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020954:Single-Parent Family / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*