Part A-
1) She argues that many explanations of changing family formation behavior do not have a good balance between aggregate-level (structural) factors and individual-level (attitudinal) factors. What is she talking about?
2) What factors does she argue need to be incorporated into any understanding of changing marriage behavior?
3) Why does Tucker see the standard approach to studying marriage behavior (i.e., compare characteristics of those who marry to those who don't marry) is problematic?
4) What do you think of her approach and her measurement of marital values and expectations?
5) What is the basic pattern of racial variation in the measures of marital values and attitudes?
6) This is an interesting study in that the author examines the influence of contextual factors (i.e., the characteristics of the area in which people live) on expectations of marriage. How are local conditions associated with marriage according to the results presented in this chapter?
7) In addition to the economic factors described, what are some other potential explanations for racial/ethnic differences in marriage (and marriage expectations)?
Part B-
1) What are some reasons that we might expect attitudes toward marriage to differ both by race/ethnicity and nativity (i.e., native born vs. non-native born)?
2) What is meant by "assimilation" and why is it important for understanding racial and ethnic differences in attitudes toward marriage?
3) What do the authors find with respect to their hypotheses about assimilation?
4) How are socioeconomic characteristics (e.g., education) associated with attitudes toward marriage? How do these findings compare with related findings from other studies we have discussed this semester?
5) What are the authors main conclusions about the role of attitudes in black-white differences in marriage behavior? In Hispanic-white differences?