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Title: Marital Timing and Marital Assimilation: Variation and Change Among European Americans Between 1910 and 1980

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2003

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Abstract: Most studies of the intersection of marriage and ethnic assimilation focus on partner choice rather than marital timing as an indicator of immigrant adaptation. Yet whether or when immigrant groups assumed an American marriage pattern can shed light on the nature of immigrant adaptation, its pace, and completeness. We examine ethnic differences for European Americans in the marriage timing of select birth cohorts from 1850 through 1950, utilizing information from the 1910 and 1980 Census Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS). Our paper utilizes event history analysis to predict timing of marriage by birth cohort, ethnicity, and nativity. The results indicate much greater ethnic dispersion in marriage timing among the cohorts born between 1851 and 1880 than for those born from 1921 to 1950, among both women and men. The sharp decline in ethnic variation in marriage timing suggests that with increasing duration in the United States a particularly American pattern of marriage evolved. Nonetheless, despite considerable compression among European ethnics in the timing of marriage, as of 1980 ethnicity continued to distinguish age at marriage.

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Authors: Qian, Zhenchao; Sassler, Sharon

Periodical (Full): Historical Methods

Issue: 3

Volume: 36

Pages: 131-148

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Migration and Immigration, Race and Ethnicity

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