title: Ideal ages for family formation among immigrants in Europe.
abstract: This paper investigates ideal ages for marriage and parenthood among immigrants from over 160 countries origins living in 25 European countries. Ideals regarding the timing of family formation are indicative of how individuals perceive the family life course and provide insight into family-life aspirations and the meaning attached to these transitions. Using data from the European Social Survey (Round 3, 2006; N=6330) and a cross-classified multilevel modeling approach, we investigate associations between the influences of the dominant family formation timing patterns in countries of origin and settlement, individual-level characteristics, and ideal ages. We make innovative use of a standard demographic measure, the singulate mean age of marriage, to measure family formation patterns. Results suggest that residential context influences are associated with the timing ideals of all migrants, but origin influences seem to be associated with the ideals of only the most recent migrants.
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Lange Houtstraat 19, 2511 CV The Hague, The Netherlands. Electronic address: holland@nidi.nl.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Lange Houtstraat 19, 2511 CV The Hague, The Netherlands; Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Interface Demography, Department of Sociology, Pleinlaan 5, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: valk@nidi.nl.
authors.forename: Helga A G
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: de Valk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005060:Europe; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Europe; Family change; Family formation; Ideals; Immigrants; Second generation