Pathways to Adulthood and Marriage: Teenagers’ Attitudes, Expectations, and Relationship Patterns. V. Conclusion

• Overview of Main Results
• Directions for Future Research

This report has examined teenagers’ attitudes and experiences related to romantic relationships and marriage. It has examined these attitudes and experiences using data from four large national surveys:  (1) the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), (2) Monitoring the Future (MTF), (3) the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and (4) the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Using these four data sets, we have focused on teenagers’ initial exposure to and experiences with romantic relationships, as well as their general attitudes toward marriage. Using data from the 2005 wave of the NLSY97, we also analyzed marriage and relationship patterns among a recent cohort of young adults and identified factors in adolescence associated with the likelihood of choosing various relationship pathways in early adulthood. We summarize these findings briefly below. We end the report with some recommendations for future research.

Teens live in a mix of family structures, but most live with married parents — 50 percent with both biological parents and 13 percent with a parent who has remarried. The likelihood of living with two married biological parents varies substantially across various subgroups of teens, with African-American and low-income teens particularly unlikely to live with married biological parents. We also find that most teens view their parents’ marriages positively, particularly those living with both their biological parents. Teens with estranged parents hold less positive views of the quality of their parents’ relationship.

Most teens date at some point. Among our NLSY97 sample members, 74 percent of 15 year olds and 94 percent of 18 year olds report having dated. Sexual activity is less common than dating, but is relatively common among older teens. Among 18 year olds, 65 percent report having had sexual intercourse. We also find that high school students are dating less than they did 15 to 20 years ago and that recent trends suggest that they are delaying sexual activity until later in high school.

We also examined teenagers’ attitudes and expectations concerning romantic relationships and marriage. We find that most teens express strong general support for marriage and believe it is better to get married than stay single. Among high school seniors, most say they feel well prepared for marriage and expect to get married one day. However, while support for marriage remains strong among teens, a growing proportion approves of cohabitation before marriage and wants to delay getting married until later in life.

Teens’ attitudes toward marriage differ by gender and family background characteristics. In general, teenage boys have more positive attitudes toward marriage than teenage girls do; however, boys are more likely than girls to want to delay marriage. Teens’ attitudes toward marriage are also closely linked with their family structure, with support for marriage strongest among teens who are living with both of their biological parents. Support for marriage is also stronger among teens living in rural areas.

Finally, we used data from the 2005 wave of the NLSY97 to examine the romantic relationships of our NLSY97 sample members in early adulthood, when they were 21 to 24 years old. We find that most of these young adults were in a romantic relationship in their early 20s, but relatively few were married. Cohabitation was much more common than marriage for these young adults, with 39 percent having cohabited at some point, compared with 18 percent who had ever married. Young adults in cohabiting relationships tended to rate their relationship quality as high and reported relationship quality levels similar to those of young adults who were married. Even so, transitions out of cohabiting relationships were more common than transitions out of marriage.

The likelihood of marriage and cohabitation varies substantially across different groups of young adults. In particular, women are much more likely than men to marry and cohabit in early adulthood, reflecting the pattern that women often marry at younger ages than men do and often form romantic relationships with men who are somewhat older than they are. We also find that African Americans are less likely than other racial and ethnic groups to marry or cohabit in young adulthood. The likelihood of marriage and cohabitation for young adults also varies by their family structure growing up. For example, those who grew up with a single never-married parent are particularly unlikely to marry as young adults. We also find that those who lived with two married biological parents as teens are less likely than other teens to cohabit as young adults. Finally, we find that the likelihood of cohabitation among young adults is positively associated with certain adolescent risk behaviors (in particular, early sexual activity and dropping out of school). However, these behaviors are not associated with the likelihood of marriage during early adulthood.

We end this report with a few thoughts on promising directions for future research. As reported in Chapter II, our analysis of MTF data indicates that the likelihood of dating among high school students has declined substantially in recent years. As noted in that chapter, it is possible that this decline represents a change in adolescent vocabulary rather than a change in adolescent behavior. In particular, what the term “dating” means to teens may have changed over time, which may have contributed to the decline in the proportion who report that they date. Future research using more qualitative methods could examine whether this is indeed the case. In addition, if teenage dating is in fact declining, additional research could further an understanding of the reasons for this decline and what its implications may be for the likelihood that today’s adolescents will go on to form serious romantic relationships and marry as adults. Our examination of MTF data also reveals evidence that high school students may be delaying sexual activity until later in high school. It would be helpful to examine whether other national data sets, preferably those that include all teenagers (not just those enrolled in school), confirm this pattern. If this pattern is confirmed, future research could explore more fully how and why patterns of teenage sexual activity have changed in recent years.

As noted in Chapter III, the best data on teenage attitudes toward marriage come from the MTF study. However, these data refer only to high school students and do not include the substantial fraction of teens that have dropped out of school. Better information on general attitudes toward marriage that includes all teens, including high school dropouts, would be useful. In addition, future studies could examine how teens’ general attitudes toward marriage relate to their later relationship outcomes in adulthood. In particular, future research could explore how changing adolescent attitudes toward cohabitation may be influencing cohabitation and marriage trends among young adults. Recent studies have found that teens’ early experiences with romantic relationships can have long-term consequences for their chances of forming and sustaining healthy adult marriage (Raley et al. 2007). However, there is less evidence linking teens’ general attitudes toward cohabitation and marriage with their adult relationship outcomes. Research in this area is important for determining whether adolescent relationship skills programs can influence adult relationship outcomes by focusing on teens’ attitudes toward marriage.

In Chapter IV, we report findings based on data from the 2005 wave of the NLSY97 that indicate that cohabiting and married young adults report very similar levels of relationship quality. As noted in that chapter, this result differs from the findings of previous research, which has found that cohabitors tend to have poorer relationship quality than couples who are married (Nock 1995). It would be helpful to use other data, including future waves of the NLSY97, to explore this result further and determine whether there has been a generational shift in this pattern.

Finally, future research in this area could explore more rigorously how teens’ attitudes, expectations, and circumstances influence their later relationship outcomes as adults. The evidence presented in this report is based primarily on descriptive analysis that examines how adolescents’ attitudes and relationship experiences differ across groups defined by various demographic and personal characteristics. These methods provide a useful description of the attitudes and relationship experiences of U.S. adolescents; however, additional research using more rigorous research methods would help to determine whether there are causal links between teens’ early relationship experiences and attitudes and their relationship pathways as adults. As additional waves of the NLSY97 become available that follow this cohort further into adulthood, this more detailed analysis of the link between teenage attitudes and experiences and adult relationship outcomes will become more fruitful.