book cover

Review & Comments: Marriage and Cohabitation

by Arland Thornton, William Axinn, and Yu Xie
Published by University of Chicago Press, 2007

Review

Review by Kathleen Kiernan, University of York

Comments

"This is an important book that should be read by anyone who cares about research on young adulthood in the United States. It is full of insights and provocative findings linking the generations. The analyses carefully account for pathways of influence on young adults' decision-making about union formation that flow from the lives of their parents and even their grandparents, and are able to distinguish effects that operate most strongly on children from those whose effects are most strongly felt in young adulthood. A tremendous accomplishment."
    –Frances Goldscheider, University of Maryland

"Impressive . . . family demographers will find it invaluable, and other kinds of scholars and researchers will find it very useful. The authors point out that the predictors of entering into cohabitation and marriage are different, and they discuss how cohabitation may affect decisions about marriage. . . . The research reported here is important."
    –Norval D. Glenn, University of Texas at Austin

"Applying state-of-the-art analytic strategies to data from a rich, multi-generational, longitudinal data archive, three premier social scientists describe both changes and previously under-appreciated historical continuity in contemporary marriage/cohabitation. They use skill and care in their analyses and especially in their interpretations. The result is a detailed portrait of generational change and stability in union formation."
    –S. Philip Morgan, Duke University


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