Adolescent expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood

Using data collected in 2000 on a racially and ethnically diverse sample of high school seniors, this study analyzes adolescents’ expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood, including unwed parenthood. The conceptual framework combines family context, opportunity cost, and social–psychological perspectives. Each perspective receives empirical support. Race, ethnicity, gender, parental education, and parental expectations for their childʹs education show significant relationships with expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood. Adolescents with higher opportunity costs, as indicated by better grades and higher expectations for their schooling, expect and desire to marry and have children at older ages. The relationships between parental education and parental expectations for their childʹs education and the outcomes are largely mediated through opportunity costs. Significant relationships between locus of control and the outcomes provide empirical support for the social–psychological element of the framework.