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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Beyond Employment And Income: The Association Between Young Adults’ Finances And Marital Timing, Jeffrey P. Dew, Joseph Price
Beyond Employment And Income: The Association Between Young Adults’ Finances And Marital Timing, Jeffrey P. Dew, Joseph Price
Faculty Publications
This study tested an extension of the theory of marital timing (Oppenheimer, Am J Sociol 94:563–591, 1988) by assessing whether visible and less visible financial assets and debt mediated the relationship between employment and the likelihood of marriage. We conducted these prospective, longitudinal analyses using a sample of 1,522 never-married young adults from the National Survey of Families and Households. For participants who were not cohabiting at Wave 1, financial issues such as car values predicted marriage but did not mediate the relationship between work hours, occupational prestige, and the likelihood of marriage. For cohabiting participants, employment factors were the …
The Gendered Meanings Of Assets For Divorce, Jeffrey P. Dew
The Gendered Meanings Of Assets For Divorce, Jeffrey P. Dew
Faculty Publications
Scholars identified a negative relationship between assets and divorce decades ago, but the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unknown. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 4,721 couples), this study compared three mechanisms that might link assets and divorce. Non-proportional Cox hazard models indicated that two of the three mechanisms explained the relationship between assets and divorce. Wives’ marital satisfaction and their perceptions of their hypothetical post-divorce standard of living completely mediated the relationship between assets and divorce. The relationship between assets and divorce was not related to husbands’ characteristics.
Two Sides Of The Same Coin? The Differing Roles Of Assets And Consumer Debt In Marriage, Jeffrey P. Dew
Two Sides Of The Same Coin? The Differing Roles Of Assets And Consumer Debt In Marriage, Jeffrey P. Dew
Faculty Publications
This study examines whether assets and consumer debts relate to change in marital satisfaction and conflict in opposing ways or in independent ways. It also tests whether these relationships are direct or mediated. Using a nationally representative longitudinal sample, the results indicate that assets and consumer debt influence change in marital outcomes in mostly independent rather than complementary ways. Consistent with prior literature, assets work indirectly by decreasing feelings of economic pressure. Consumer debt, however, directly predicts changes in marital conflict, even after controlling for variables in the family stress model. Debts also act indirectly by decreasing depression once economic …