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Early Union Formation in Canada: Links with Education

Mise en union précoce au Canada: liens avec l'éducation

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European Journal of Population / Revue européenne de Démographie Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article examines the link between early union formation and education using a new Canadian longitudinal data set, the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). Educational transitions and early union formation occur around the same time in young adulthood, yet the roles of student and conjugal partner are often thought to be incompatible. We examine the effect of two important educational indicators (exit from full-time school and level of achieved education) on the timing of the first conjugal union. In addition, we incorporate several more direct measures of educational commitment. Results from proportional hazard models reveal that exit from full-time school greatly increases the transition to first union, especially marriage. Similarly, obtaining a post-secondary degree/diploma also significantly increases the risk of forming a union, especially for women. More direct measures of educational commitment show that skipping classes in high school has a negative effect on the risk of marriage, but a positive effect on cohabiting unions. A greater aspiration for future education, meanwhile, has a negative impact on union formation in general.

Résumé

Cet article examine les liens existant entre éducation et formation d’une union précoce à partir des données d’une nouvelle enquête longitudinale canadienne, l’Enquête auprès des jeunes en transition (EJET). Bien que les transitions associées à la trajectoire éducative et à l’entrée dans la vie de couple surviennent souvent autour du même moment dans la vie des jeunes adultes, les rôles d’étudiant et de partenaire conjugal sont souvent perçus comme étant incompatibles. Nous examinons ici l’effet que deux dimensions importantes de l’éducation, soit la fin des études à temps plein et le niveau d’éducation atteint, exercent sur le moment d’entrée en première union. Nous incorporons également dans l’analyse diverses mesures de l’engagement et des aspirations scolaires des jeunes. Les résultats issus des modèles à risques proportionnels révèlent que la fin des études à temps plein accroît grandement l’entrée en première union, en particulier par le biais du mariage. De même, l’obtention d’un diplôme post-secondaire accroît de façon significative le risque d’entrer en union, et ce surtout chez les femmes. Les mesures de l’engagement académique des jeunes montrent que le fait de manquer des cours à l’école secondaire a un effet négatif sur le risque de se marier, mais un effet positif sur le risque de former une union libre. Des aspirations scolaires plus élevées ont, par ailleurs, pour effet de retarder de manière générale la formation des couples.

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Notes

  1. Their study was not restricted to a young sample however. They ran separate analyses by age group allowing for comparisons with younger samples.

  2. In models that include a dummy variable to indicate the 1,375 missing cases the results do not vary from those without these cases and so we present analyses with them removed.

  3. Respondents are in a union if they state they are married, or living with a partner (such as a common law partner or boyfriend or girlfriend).

  4. Respondents who had not formed a union by Cycle 1 and who left the sample between cycles were censored at Cycle 1, while those who had not formed a union by Cycle 2, and were still in the sample, were censored at Cycle 2.

  5. In other analyses not shown, we included all dependent children but these results did not appreciably differ from those presented.

  6. The exact wording of the race question was “People in this country come from many different cultural or racial backgrounds. I’m going to read you a list. Are you White, Black, Chinese, etc?”.

  7. We had more detailed information on country of birth; however, cell sizes were too small when analyzing this rare outcome (early union formation). Thus, we opted for the more simplistic, yet robust indicator of whether they were born in Canada or not.

  8. In results (not shown) that include language but not province of high school, the language effect is stronger. Yet, each elicits an independent effect and is asked at two separate phases of the life course; therefore both are included.

  9. The Ontario secondary school education system was reformed in 2003 when grade 13 was amalgamated with grade 12.

  10. Our strong results may be somewhat overstated since, unlike Coppola (2004) we did not control for the endogeneity between education and union formation.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this research was provided by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the McGill Canada Research Chair on Social Statistics and Family Change. We would like to thank the participants of the IUSSP Transition to Adulthood workshop, as well as Benoît Laplante for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Statistics Canada, Centre for Education Statistics, 150 Tunney’s Pasture, Main Building, Room 2000 – K, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0T6

    Darcy W. Hango

  2. Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Céline Le Bourdais

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  1. Darcy W. Hango
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  2. Céline Le Bourdais
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Correspondence to Darcy W. Hango.

Additional information

The analysis is based on research carried out in the Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics, which provides researchers with access to detailed longitudinal survey data collected by Statistics Canada. The opinions expressed here do not represent the views of Statistics Canada.

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Hango, D.W., Le Bourdais, C. Early Union Formation in Canada: Links with Education. Eur J Population 23, 339–368 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-007-9129-3

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