The United States shows striking racial and ethnic differences in marriage patterns. Compared to both white and Hispanic women, black women marry later in life, are less likely to marry at all, and have higher rates of marital instability. Kelly Raley, Megan Sweeney, and Danielle Wondra begin by reviewing common explanations for these differences,…

Objectives: This report shows trends and group differences in current marital status, with a focus on first marriages among women and men aged 15-44 years in the United States. Trends and group differences in the timing and duration of first marriages are also discussed. These data are based on the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth…

This paper examines how marital and fertility patterns have changed along racial and educational lines for men and women. Historically, women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap has eroded as the returns to marriage have changed. Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a…

Robert Hummer and Erin Hamilton note that the prevalence of fragile families varies substantially by race and ethnicity. African Americans and Hispanics have the highest prevalence; Asian Americans, the lowest; and whites fall somewhere in the middle. The share of unmarried births is lower among most foreign-born mothers than among their U.S.-born…

The authors used data from the Add Health study to estimate the effects of parents' marital status and relationship distress on daughters' early family formation transitions. Outcomes included traditional transitions (marriage and marital births) and nontraditional transitions (cohabitation and nonmarital births). Relationship distress among…

The purpose of the study was to shed light on the potentially differing dynamics of violence against separated and divorced women by their ex-husbands and violence against married women by their current husbands. Using a nationally representative sample of 7,369 heterosexual women from Cycle 13 of Statistics Canada's General Social Survey,…

With data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n = 6,449), a nationally representative sample of births in 2001, we used hierarchical linear modeling to analyze differences in observed interactions between married, cohabiting, never-married, and divorced mothers and their children. In contrast to previous studies, we…

A computerized safety decision aid was developed and tested with Spanish or English-speaking abused women in shelters or domestic violence (DV) support groups (n = 90). The decision aid provides feedback about risk for lethal violence, options for safety, assistance with setting priorities for safety, and a safety plan personalized to the user.…

Recent studies linking marital status and health increasingly focus on marital trajectories to examine the relationship from a life course perspective. However, research has been slow to bridge the theoretical concept of a marital trajectory with its measurement. This study uses retrospective and prospective data to model the age-dependent effects…

Understanding attitudes toward marriage at older ages is increasingly important as young adults delay marriage and large numbers of people return to the marriage market after divorce. This study examines age differences in the desire to marry among singles age 18 to 69 years, taking into account selection into marriage. Using data drawn from the…

Followed a sample of divorced/separated black and white mothers over 5 years to determine cultural differences in psychosocial wellbeing. White mothers had higher levels of personal mastery, informal support, and economic well-being than black mothers and evidenced significant improvement in most psychosocial domains (possibly due to higher white…

We draw on three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,249) to examine family stability among a recent birth cohort of children. We find that children born to cohabiting versus married parents have over five times the risk of experiencing their parents' separation. This difference in union stability is greatest for White children, as compared…

Examined three types of marital separation: those leading to divorce, those leading to reconciliation, and long-tern unresolved separations. Data from National Longitudinal Surveys cohort of mature women from 1967-1982 revealed important differences among groups of separating women in education, income, and race. (Author/NB)

Analysis of nationwide data on 2,099 African American suicides and 1,729 African American natural deaths indicates that being divorced or widowed significantly raises the odds of death by suicide, but being single does not. A parallel analysis for whites finds greater support for a link between marital status and suicide. (RJM)

Notes that except for black males, a greater transmission effect is found among respondents from childhood homes disrupted by divorce or separation rather than by death. Also suggests that the role model rationale for the transmission of marital instability be elaborated upon. (Author/AM)