Part A-
1. What are some of the major changes taking place in marriage?
2. What are some of the key differences between marriage and cohabition?
3. What does the concept of "rational choice" in social science mean?
4. What is meant by a marriage market?
5. Why do you think cohabitation has emerged as such a common way to form a first union (i.e., as opposed to marriage)?
6. Why do you think that there has been such an increase in out-of -wedlock childbearing?
7. Why do you think there has been such an increase in the likelihood of divorce?
8. Why do you think that there are such huge differences between the marriage behavior of blacks and whites in the US?
9. Why do you think that there is so much less cohabitation in some societies like Italy etc.
10. Several alternative explanations for changes in marriage and union formation are offered in this chapter - which of these seem
most convincing to you? Why?
Part B-
1. What are some of the different ways that we might measure changing marriage timing?
2. How can we measure the increasing experience of cohabitation? Think about why a measure of the proportion of the population currently cohabiting might be very different from the proportion of the population who has ever cohabited.
3. If we were to treat cohabitation and marriage as identical types of unions, what would changes in union formation over the past thirty or so years look like?
4. I have already the increasing difference in the marriage rates of blacks and whites. How does the picture change if we consider all unions, rather than just marriage (i.e., if we also consider cohabitation)?
5. How does the relationship between cohabitation and subsequent marriage differ for blacks and whites? What are possible explanations for this difference?
6. Wilson's "shortage of marriageable men" hypothesis has been extremely influential in recent research on black-white differences in marriage. What exactly does this hypothesis suggest?
7. Clearly education is related to marriage timing, with more highly educated men and women marrying later, on average, than their less educated counterparts. Why, from a theoretical standpoint, is it important to consider the relationship between school enrollment and marriage separately from the relationship between completed educational level and marriage?
8. Family sociologists (myself included) expend a tremendous amount of energy trying to understand the relationships between education and family formation. In much of this work, education is used as a proxy for economic resources or economic potential to evaluate theories about the link between economic status and family formation. Why might the use of education in this context be problematic?
9. What are some of the possible reasons for the inverse relationship between educational attainment and the likelihood of cohabiting?
10. What is (are) the main conclusion(s) that Raley draws from her examination of data on first sexual relationships?
Part C-
1. How do the available data limit what the authors can tell us about historical trends in marriage timing?
2. Does the description of historical patterns of marriage in Europe (and colonial America) correspond with your impressions of marriage and family in the past?
3. How relevant do you think the explanations offered for these historical marriage patterns are for understanding recent changes in marriage timing?
4. The first paragraph on page 65 describing the rapid drop in age at marriage during the 1950s hints at the importance of consumption aspirations and the relative economic standing of children and their parents. Think about why growing up during the depression may have contributed to early marriage among men and women reaching adulthood in the 1950s.
5. There is a tendency among family sociologists and a very strong tendency among the general population to compare recent trends in family formation with patterns observed in 1950s and 1960s. Based on the long-term trends described in this chapter, do you think that this is a good idea.
6. What does the recent trend toward later age at marriage suggest about the likelihood that currently unmarried men and women will ever marry?
7. The authors provide an interesting discussion of the relationship between occupational status and marriage for men between 1850 and 1990. Why can't they do the same thing for women?
8. I find that students are often struck by what they see as an overwhelming emphasis on the role of economic factors in family sociology. This chapter is a good example of such an emphasis. What do you think? Does this focus on economic conditions seem convincing or appropriate to you? Are there other factors that people looking at historical change in marriage timing should be paying more attention to?