TY - JOUR
T1 - The Age of Independence, Revisited
T2 - Parents and Interracial Union Formation Across the Life Course
AU - Zhang, Xing
AU - Sassler, Sharon
N1 - Funding Information: 1 We thank Kelly Musick, Daniel T. Lichter, Mariana Amorim, and Megan Doherty Bea for comments on previous drafts of this paper. Prior versions of this work were presented at the 2015 American Soci-ological Association (Chicago) and 2016 Population Association of America (Washington, DC) confer-ences. This material was based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant #DGE-1144153. This research was also supported by the National Institutes of Health under Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (T32-HD049302) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by a core grant (P2C-HD047873) to the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with coop-erative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. 2 School of Medicine and Public Health and Center for Demography and Ecology, 610 Walnut Street, Room 667, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53726; e-mail: [email protected] 3 Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Room 1032A, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850; e-mail: [email protected] Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Eastern Sociological Society
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - Romantic relationships that cross racial lines have grown since anti-miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional. In The Age of Independence, Rosenfeld argued that parental influence over children's mate selection processes had waned. Rosenfeld, however, was not able to test this supposition directly because of his reliance on cross-sectional census data. Using Waves I and III of Add Health for a cohort of individuals from 1994 to 2002, we examine whether parents matter in shaping their offspring's romantic attachments, by exploring whether adolescent reports of maternal closeness and parental control are associated with youth's likelihood of being in an interracial relationship in emerging adulthood. We find that parental factors do influence emerging adults’ romantic relationships; these associations vary by race, ethnicity, and gender. Among white men, maternal closeness in adolescence reduces the likelihood of being in an interracial relationship in emerging adulthood. Parental control elevates the odds of being in an interracial relationship among black and Hispanic women. We also find that parental decisions on where families live shape offspring's choices, as relative exogamous group size in adolescence is associated with interracial union formation in later life. Our findings suggest that parental influence remains salient in the partner choices made by emerging adults.
AB - Romantic relationships that cross racial lines have grown since anti-miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional. In The Age of Independence, Rosenfeld argued that parental influence over children's mate selection processes had waned. Rosenfeld, however, was not able to test this supposition directly because of his reliance on cross-sectional census data. Using Waves I and III of Add Health for a cohort of individuals from 1994 to 2002, we examine whether parents matter in shaping their offspring's romantic attachments, by exploring whether adolescent reports of maternal closeness and parental control are associated with youth's likelihood of being in an interracial relationship in emerging adulthood. We find that parental factors do influence emerging adults’ romantic relationships; these associations vary by race, ethnicity, and gender. Among white men, maternal closeness in adolescence reduces the likelihood of being in an interracial relationship in emerging adulthood. Parental control elevates the odds of being in an interracial relationship among black and Hispanic women. We also find that parental decisions on where families live shape offspring's choices, as relative exogamous group size in adolescence is associated with interracial union formation in later life. Our findings suggest that parental influence remains salient in the partner choices made by emerging adults.
KW - emerging adulthood
KW - interracial relationships
KW - mate selection
KW - parent-child relationships
KW - race and ethnicity
KW - transitions
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85061570979
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85061570979#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1111/socf.12501
DO - 10.1111/socf.12501
M3 - Article
SN - 0884-8971
VL - 34
SP - 361
EP - 385
JO - Sociological Forum
JF - Sociological Forum
IS - 2
ER -