African American Women’s Marital Attitudes: A Qualitative Study on Never Married Women

Over the past few decades, marriage rates in the United States among African Americans continue to decline, yet African American women continue to express a desire to be married. Using a grounded theory qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews ( N = 23), we explored marital attitudes among never married African American women. Participants identified both negative and positive exposures to marriage during childhood and messaging from family and faith communities as major sources influencing their desire to marry. Other themes, such as respectability and child behavioral benefits emerged that influenced women’s attitudes toward marriage. We present a discussion of the findings, limitations of this study, and next steps in the research.

The Influence of Developmental Idealism on Marital Attitudes, Expectations, and Timing

Recent theory suggests that developmental idealism (DI) is an important source of variation and change in family behavior, yet this suggestion is largely untested at the individual level. This study examines the influence of DI beliefs and values on individuals’ entrance into marriage. We hypothesize that when individuals and their parents endorse DI, they enter into marriage later or more slowly. We also hypothesize that two pathways connecting DI to marriage are the instillation of older timing attitudes and expectations of marrying at older ages. We test these hypotheses using panel data collected in Nepal from 2008 to 2014. When young people and their parents endorsed DI, the young people valued older ages at marriage and expected to marry later. Young people’s own DI endorsement also delayed their entrance into marriage, but parents’ DI did not.

Transition from Cohabitation to Marriage. The Role of Marital Attitudes in Seven Western and Eastern European Countries

Using longitudinal panel data from the Generations and Gender Surveys on 2,847 cohabiters from seven countries, we examine the role of marital attitudes in the transition from cohabitation to marriage and compare the strength of this association between Western and Eastern Europe. We expect a positive attitude towards marriage to increase the likelihood of cohabiters marrying. We also expect the association between personal attitudes and marriage formation to be weaker among cohabiters from Eastern Europe, due to stronger normative pressure to marry in contexts where cohabitation is less prevalent. In both Eastern and Western European countries, we find a clear positive association between favourable views on marriage among cohabiters and their entry into marriage. Contrary to our expectations, we find evidence that this association is weaker in Western Europe. We discuss this finding in light of the greater postponement of marriage among Western European cohabiters, even among those with a positive attitude towards marriage, as well as the potentially greater significance of life course events and transitions that influence their decision to marry more strongly than is the case for their Eastern European counterparts. This study extends the literature on the relationship trajectories of cohabiters by drawing attention to the normative context that may shape cohabiters’ opportunities and constrain behavioural choice in the marriage formation process. Ultimately, it contributes to an understanding of the consequences of the societal diffusion of cohabitation in Europe.