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Cohort Trends in Union Dissolution During Young Adulthood
Author(s) -
Eickmeyer Kasey J.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of marriage and family
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.578
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1741-3737
pISSN - 0022-2445
DOI - 10.1111/jomf.12552
Subject(s) - cohabitation , young adult , national survey of family growth , demography , ordered logit , fragile families and child wellbeing study , psychology , life course approach , cohort , logistic regression , cohort study , developmental psychology , medicine , population , geography , sociology , family planning , archaeology , pathology , machine learning , computer science , research methodology
Objective To determine whether recent birth cohorts of women experienced more union dissolution during young adulthood (ages 18–25) than previous birth cohorts. Background The union formation and dissolution patterns of young adult women in the United States have changed dramatically during the past 25 years. As a result, this life stage is demographically dense as women experience a bulk of relationship experiences, including coresidential unions and dissolution. Method The author uses data on women's marital and cohabiting dissolutions between the ages of 18 and 25 from the National Survey of Family Growth 1995, 2002, and continuous surveys from 2006 to 2010 and 2011 to 2015 ( N = 14,211). The sample is nationally representative. The author uses generalized ordinal logistic regression to examine the likelihood of dissolution during young adulthood across birth cohorts. Results Women born between 1985 and 1989 experience more union dissolutions during young adulthood than women born between 1960 and 1979. However, the shift in cohabitation behavior accounts for this instability. Conclusion Women's relationship formation experiences in young adulthood are characterized by nonmarital relationships (cohabitation) and more union dissolution when compared with older birth cohorts. Theoretical and empirical studies need to evolve to include this more complicated sense of young adulthood, union formation, and instability.