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Title: Economic Costs of Martial Disruption for Young Women in the United States: Have They Declined over the Past Two Decades?
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Smock, Pamela Jane
Economic Costs of Martial Disruption for Young Women in the United States: Have They Declined over the Past Two Decades?
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1992
Cohort(s): NLSY79, Young Men, Young Women
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Divorce; Educational Returns; Marital Dissolution; Work Experience; Work History

This dissertation examines the economic costs of separation and divorce for young women in the United States from the late 1960s through the late 1980s. Broadened opportunities for women outside of marriage may have alleviated the severe economic costs of marital disruption. This research thus contrasts the experiences of two cohorts of young women: those who married and separated or divorced in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s and those who experienced these events in the 1980s. Drawing on panel data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979-88, Young Women 1968-78, and Young Men 1966-78, the results show stability in the costs of disruption for the two cohorts. Levels of post disruption economic status and declines from predisruption levels are similar. The results show that women in the more recent cohort had more labor force experience prior to marital disruption than those in the earlier cohort, but that prior work history does not protect women from the costs of disruption. Young separated and divorced women are also not receiving greater income returns to their schooling or labor force experience over time. Other findings show that unmeasured characteristics do not account for the persisting disadvantages of marital disruption. Young martially-disrupted women continue to confront the low wages and conflict between parenting and employment as their counterparts a decade or so ago.
Bibliography Citation
Smock, Pamela Jane. Economic Costs of Martial Disruption for Young Women in the United States: Have They Declined over the Past Two Decades? Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1992.