ABSTRACT
Virtually all theories of marriage and marital timing call attention to the perceived costs and benefits of marriage versus remaining single. This chapter utilizes data from over 2,000 unmarried respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households to examine sociodemographic differences in the anticipated benefits from marriage. Theories of marital entry, especially those emphasizing the structural characteristics of marriage markets, are reviewed to derive hypotheses relating age, race and ethnicity, sex, and other sociodemographic variables to the perceived benefits from marriage. Young black males might be particularly less likely than others to anticipate improvements in personal friendships upon marriage. The larger sex difference among blacks than whites in the expected benefits from marriage might also be partly attributable to the experience of growing up in fatherless families. Finally, further analyses of the expected benefits from marriage seem justified.
