IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0205732.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The intergenerational transmission of partnering

Author

Listed:
  • Claire M Kamp Dush
  • Rachel Arocho
  • Sara Mernitz
  • Kyle Bartholomew

Abstract

As divorce and cohabitation dissolution in the US have increased, partnering has expanded to the point that sociologists describe a merry-go-round of partners in American families. Could one driver of the increase in the number of partners be an intergenerational transmission of partnering? We discuss three theoretical perspectives on potential mechanisms that would underlie an intergenerational transmission of partnering: the transmission of economic hardship, the transmission of marriageable characteristics and relationship skills, and the transmission of relationship commitment. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child and Young Adult study (NLSY79 CYA) and their mothers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we examined the intergenerational transmission of partnering, including both marital and cohabitating unions, using prospective measures of family and economic instability as well as exploiting sibling data to try to identify potential mechanisms. Even after controlling for maternal demographic characteristics and socioeconomic factors, the number of maternal partners was positively associated with offspring’s number of partners. Hybrid sibling Poisson regression models that examined sibling differential experiences of maternal partners indicated that there were no differences between siblings who witnessed more or fewer maternal partners. Overall, results suggested that the transmission of poor marriageable characteristics and relationship skills from mother to child may warrant additional attention as a potential mechanism through which the number of partners continues across generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Claire M Kamp Dush & Rachel Arocho & Sara Mernitz & Kyle Bartholomew, 2018. "The intergenerational transmission of partnering," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0205732
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205732
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205732
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205732&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0205732?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jay Teachman, 2002. "Stability across cohorts in divorce risk factors," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(2), pages 331-351, May.
    2. Philippe Belley & Lance Lochner, 2007. "The Changing Role of Family Income and Ability in Determining Educational Achievement," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 37-89.
    3. Leandro Carvalho, 2012. "Childhood Circumstances and the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 913-938, August.
    4. Jordan D. Matsudaira, 2016. "Economic conditions and the living arrangements of young adults: 1960 to 2011," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 167-195, January.
    5. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2012. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 645-677.
    6. Laura Tach & Alicia Eads, 2015. "Trends in the Economic Consequences of Marital and Cohabitation Dissolution in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(2), pages 401-432, April.
    7. Jordan Matsudaira, 2016. "Economic conditions and the living arrangements of young adults: 1960 to 2011," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 167-195, January.
    8. Sarah Avellar & Pamela J. Smock, "undated". "The Economic Consequences of the Dissolution of Cohabiting Unions," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 1a25307c3333469ea6b866e1b, Mathematica Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lei, Ziteng & Lundberg, Shelly, 2020. "Vulnerable Boys: Short-term and Long-term Gender Differences in the Impacts of Adolescent Disadvantage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 424-448.
    2. Minna Lyons & Gayle Brewer & Anna-Maria Hartley & Victoria Blinkhorn, 2023. "“Never Learned to Love Properly”: A Qualitative Study Exploring Romantic Relationship Experiences in Adult Children of Narcissistic Parents," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hippolyte d'Albis & Karina Doorley & Elena Stancanelli, 2021. "Older mothers' employment and marriage stability when the nest is empty," PSE Working Papers halshs-03203063, HAL.
    2. Albanesi, Stefania & Gihleb, Rania & Zhang, Ning, 2022. "Boomerang College Kids: Unemployment, Job Mismatch and Coresidence," IZA Discussion Papers 15507, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Christopoulou, Rebekka & Pantalidou, Maria, 2017. "The parental home as labor market insurance for young Greeks during the crisis," GLO Discussion Paper Series 158, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Andra C. Ghent & Marianna Kudlyak, 2015. "Intergenerational Linkages in Household Credit," Working Paper 15-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    5. Christopoulou, Rebekka & Pantalidou, Maria, 2018. "Who saved Greek youth? Parental support to young adults during the great recession," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91954, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Kelly Musick & Katherine Michelmore, 2018. "Cross-National Comparisons of Union Stability in Cohabiting and Married Families With Children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1389-1421, August.
    7. Christopoulou, Rebekka & Pantalidou, Maria, 2022. "The parental home as labor market insurance for young Greeks during the Great Recession," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(3), pages 313-350, September.
    8. Gihleb, Rania & Giuntella, Osea & Lonsky, Jakub, 2023. "Dreaming of leaving the nest? Immigration status and the living arrangements of DACAmented," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    9. Luciana Méndez-Errico & Xavier Ramos, 2022. "Selection and educational attainment: why some children are left behind? Evidence from a middle-income country," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 624-643, November.
    10. Virginia Wilcox & Herman Sahni, 2023. "The Effects on Labor Supply of Living with Older Family Members Needing Assistance with Activities of Daily Living," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 900-918, December.
    11. Dettling, Lisa J. & Hsu, Joanne W., 2018. "Returning to the nest: Debt and parental co-residence among young adults," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 225-236.
    12. Sara Ayllón & Natalia Nollenberger, 2021. "The Unequal Opportunity For Skills Acquisition During The Great Recession In Europe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 289-316, June.
    13. Laura Tach & Kathryn Edin, 2013. "The Compositional and Institutional Sources of Union Dissolution for Married and Unmarried Parents in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1789-1818, October.
    14. Bubonya, Melisa & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2021. "Pathways of Disadvantage: Unpacking the Intergenerational Correlation in Welfare," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Chuanchuan Zhang, 2019. "Family support or social support? The role of clan culture," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 529-549, April.
    16. Cooper, Daniel & Luengo-Prado, María José, 2018. "Household formation over time: Evidence from two cohorts of young adults," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 106-123.
    17. Adriana M. Reyes, 2022. "Race and Ethnic Differences in Financial Dependency of Coresident Young Adults During Economic Recessions and Over Time," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 51-65, March.
    18. Goussé, Marion & Leturcq, Marion, 2022. "More or less unmarried. The impact of legal settings of cohabitation on labour market outcomes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Begley, Jaclene & Chan, Sewin, 2022. "Next to kin: How children influence the residential mobility decisions of older adults," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    20. Céline Le Bourdais & Sung-Hee Jeon & Évelyne Lapierre-Adamcyk & Shelley Clark, 2016. "Impact of conjugal separation on women’s income in Canada: Does the type of union matter?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(50), pages 1489-1522.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0205732. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.