This research investigates how family events in adult children's lives influence the timing of their parents' financial transfers. We draw on retrospective data collected by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and use event history models to study the effects of marriage, divorce and childbirth on the receipt of large gifts from parents. We find…

Research links sex ratios with the likelihood of marriage and divorce. However, whether sex ratios similarly influence precursors to marriage (transitions in and out of dating or cohabiting relationships) is unknown. Utilizing data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study and the 2000 U.S. Census, this study assesses whether sex ratios…

Previous research suggests that higher incomes, safe workplaces, job security and healthcare access all contribute to favorable health. Reflecting the interest of economic and political sociologists in power relations and institutions, union membership has been linked with many such influences on health. Nevertheless, the potential relationship…

Despite the large literature on the long-term effects of parental divorce, few studies have analyzed the effects of parental divorce on spouse selection behavior. However, the characteristics of one's spouse can have important effects on economic well-being and on marital success. We use discrete-time, event-history data from Finnish population…

Prior research suggests a correlation between incarceration and marital dissolution, although questions remain as to why this association exists. Is it the stigma associated with "doing time" that drives couples apart? Or is it simply the duration of physical separation that leads to divorce? This research utilizes data from the National…

Furstenberg et al. (1995) suggested that one unanticipated consequence of current high levels of divorce might be a "matrilineal tilt" in intergenerational wealth flows. This research uses six waves of the Health and Retirement Survey (1992 to 2002) to investigate this possibility with respect to financial transfers from parents to their…

This article examines whether correlates of cross-national homicide variation tested with data from highly developed, predominantly Western nations could also explain homicide rates in East-Central Europe. Using pooled time-series analyses of data from nine countries from 1990 through 2003, this study found that homicide rates were negatively…

We use data from the Voting and Registration Supplement of the Current Population Survey to explore the effects of family structure on turnout in the 2000 presidential election. Our results indicate that family structure, defined as marital status and the presence of children, has substantial consequences for turnout. Married adults are more…

We assessed the associations between parents' marital discord and divorce, patterns of parent-child relationships, and adult children's subjective well-being. Parental divorce and marital conflict appeared to increase the odds that children were close to neither parent in adulthood. Parental divorce (but not marital conflict) appeared to increase…

There are well-known gender differences in the form and content of extended family relationships. This paper examines how fathers and mothers differ in the support they receive from children and how this depends on whether the parents divorce, become widow(er)s, enter a new relationship, and have new children. The guiding hypothesis is that…

We used adopted and biological children from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study the links between parents' marital conflict, divorce and children's behavior problems. The standard family environment model assumes that marital conflict and divorce increase the risk of children's behavior problems. The passive…

Analysis of data from both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households found that nonresident fathers who formed new unions (marriage or cohabitation) did not subsequently see their nonresident children less often than other nonresident fathers. Instead, decreased visitation with nonresident children was related to number of new…

Data from an extensive survey of the entire adult population of one rural Norwegian county indicate that married persons had the highest level of subjective well-being, followed by widowed persons. Among the formerly married, cohabitation was associated with substantially higher levels of well-being, but the importance of cohabitation depended on…

Analysis of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data indicate that the correlation of education level with marital disruption among U.S.-born Mexican Americans is negative and similar to that among non-Hispanic Whites, while the correlation among Mexican immigrants is positive and weaker. Discusses cultural and socioeconomic influences on…

Longitudinal data on over 1,300 married persons suggest that divorce was deterred by absence of divorce in reference group (normative integration) and was deterred for shorter marriages by more friends and organizational affiliations (communicative integration). Sharing friends and organization affiliations with spouse (functional integration) may…