Childhood Family Instability and Young-Adult Union Experiences: Black-White Differences in Outcomes and Effects

Today's young adults have diverse union expe ri ences; some enter endur ing mar i tal or cohabiting unions at young ages, but many delay or dis solve their unions or remain sin gle. Childhood fam ily insta bil ity-defined as par ents' tran si tions into or out of roman tic cores i den tial unions-offers one expla na tion for why some peo- ple are more likely than oth ers to enter and exit unions. We eval u ate whether this family instability hypothesis-a union-spe cific ver sion of the gen eral hypoth e sis that insta bil ity affects peo ple across mul ti ple life domains-can explain Black and White young adults' union for ma tion and dis so lu tion. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics' Transition into Adulthood Supplement (birth cohorts 1989-1999), we find that the mar ginal effects of child hood fam ily insta bil ity on cohab i ta tion and mar riage are weaker for Black than for White youth. Further, Black-White differ ences in child hood fam ily insta bil ity's prev a lence are small. Consequently, novel decom po si- tions that account for racial dif fer ences in insta bil ity's prev a lence and mar ginal effects reveal that childhood family instability contributes little to Black-White inequality in young adults' union out comes. Our results chal lenge the gen er al iz abil ity of the fam- ily insta bil ity hypoth e sis across racialized groups in the union domain. Explanations for Black-White dif fer ences in young -adult mar riage and cohab i ta tion reside beyond childhood family dynamics.