The landscape of union formation has been shifting; Americans are now marrying at the highest ages on record and the majority of young adults have cohabited. Yet little attention has been paid to the timing of cohabitation relative to marriage. Using the National Survey of Families and Households and 4 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth, the authors examined the timing of marriage, ...

This article focuses on lesbian and gay couples and families and the politics of same-sex marriage. Drawing from the literature on same-sex couples, same-sex marriage, and queer theory’s concept of heteronormativity, we argue that gay and lesbian couples and families both affirm and challenge heterosexual and gendered family forms. First, we review literature that discusses how same-sex relatio...

In the United States, low marriage rates and high divorce rates among the poor have led policymakers to target this group for skillsand values-based interventions. The current research evaluated the assumptions underlying these interventions; specifically, the authors examined whether low-income respondents held less traditional values toward marriage, had unrealistic standards for marriage, an...

background: marriage causes family and from a point of view it is a social symbol   which is reflection of whole society. one of the forms of marriage is family marriage. these kind of marriage are important in human heredity (heritage), according to social, cultural and economic conditions, this pattern of marriage is different between the countries and even inside a specific country. as famil...

This article adds to recent literature in the study of religion and marriage by examining older couples’ use of religion as a cultural repertoire in enduring marriages. The study includes qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 43 married, Christian couples. Couples reported four predominant social contexts that gave sacred meanings to their marriage: prayer, worship services and sermo...

Marriage is central to understanding historical populations and the family. Not only is marriage the event in the human life cycle which precipitates family formation, but also marriage patterns are the primary surface on which fertility levels are inscribed. Age at marriage and proportion married determine females’ exposure to risk of pregnancy. Since Hajnal demonstrated the primacy of nuptial...

To test the existence of the "magic moment" for parental marriage immediately post-birth and to inform policies that preferentially encourage biological over step parent marriage, this study estimates the incidence and stability of maternal marriage for children born out of wedlock. Data came from the National Survey of Family Growth on 5,255 children born non maritally. By age 15, 29 % of chil...

Career Choice, Marriage-Timing, and the Attraction of Unequals Both men and women wish to have a family and a rewarding career. In this paper, we show that the under-representation of women in high-powered professions may reflect a coordination failure in young women’s marriage-timing decisions. Since investing in a highpowered career imposes time strain, it precludes early participation in the...

This paper examines how the marital behaviors of Hui Muslims respond to varying conditions of local ethnic marriage markets. Specifically, we explore marriage patterns indicating adherence to two Islamic norms: universal marriage and endogamy. We measure marriage market conditions by local concentrations of Hui and we estimate discrete-time hazard models of marital outcomes using the China 2005...

Using data from South Asia, this article examines how arranged marriage cultivates rivalry among sisters. During marriage search, parents with multiple daughters reduce the reservation quality for an older daughter's groom, rushing her marriage to allow sufficient time to marry off her younger sisters. Relative to younger brothers, younger sisters increase a girl's marriage risk; relative to yo...