Question

To what extent do age norms of key life transitions into adulthood differ by community context?

What can you find out about patterns of age at marriage, age at childbearing, and likelihood of divorce in urban and rural communities?

What information can you find about age of householder and homeownership in urban and rural communities?

Answer 1

In many ways, the qualities of the transition to adulthood, particularly the density of potential life changes make it an important connection of individual development and historical change, how historical change influences individual development and how individual development in the aggregate can influence historical change. Most role transitions in the family life course are shaped by culturally and contextually defined kin age systems . For example, within kin units, family members may be channeled into parental and grandparental roles according to age norms that are grounded in a broader social context, but revised, adapted, and implemented by the kin network. Age norms, the core of kin age systems, are socially governed expectations and sanctions concerning the appropriateness of role acquisitions and behaviors as a function of chronological age. These expectations form elaborate systems which provide prescriptive timetables for the ordering and sequencing of familial role transitions. Individual family members anticipate certain transitions and the time at which they should occur according to  these prescriptions.Among the many global life transitions across the lifespan, this transition ranks very high in terms of importance, complexity, and uniqueness. It is when educational and life plans formulated up through adolescence - often with considerable individual and societal investment - meet the opportunities and constraints of post-adolescent life. In particular, it is when one typically confronts, or at least becomes familiar with, the necessity of compromise in the interplay of competing life goals. This helps make it a potentially critical life transition in terms of ongoing health and well-being. It is also a demographically dense period with multiple transitions related to social role, residence, work, and education, all within a relatively short time. A common-sense belief about transitions, and one that works well in understanding the global transition into adolescence, is that multiple simultaneous transitions result in reduced health and well-being

Marriage and family formation are the cornerstone of every society, but are based on individuals choice and preferences which are significantly shaped by societal norms.However, more important is to offer explanations to differences among individuals and trends over time. Marriage patterns vary considerably across countries and over time. In depth demographic changes are occurring in the developing world in connection with women’s age at entry into marriage and parenthood.The delay of marriage is now evident in many but not all countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The trend is more advanced in Asia and North Africa, and it is continuing in Latin America, although only modestly. It is occurring in both urban and rural areas and among women with no formal education as well as educated women. In many developing countries, it is reflected by later age at birth for women having their first child. Although teenage fertility is declining in some countries, a few Latin American countries have experienced increases in teenage pregnancy and childbearing, evidently caused by increases in the proportion of sexually active adolescents. These exceptions no twithstanding, the general picture is one of changes consistent with lower fertility and associated improvements in women’s status.

  Based on the three levels of rurality for counties, homeownership rates increase as the proportion of the population living in rural areas increases. Both completely rural (76.2 percent) and mostly rural (74.4 percent) counties had higher median homeownership rates than the 68.2 percent in mostly urban counties (there was no statistical difference between the completely rural and mostly rural rates). Similar to national findings, the homeownership rates in completely rural and mostly rural counties in the Midwest, South and West regions were higher than those counties that were mostly urban (again, there was no statistical difference between the completely rural and mostly rural rates). Completely rural counties in the Northeast had homeownership rates higher than both mostly rural and mostly urban counties in that region.With a median age for the adult population of 51 in rural areas compared to 45 in urbanareas, the adult population in rural areas tend to be older and naturally in stages of life in which owning a house is more likely.To understand why homeownership rates are higher in rural areas than urban areas, some of the characteristics that have traditionally been indicators of homeownership can be taken into account. The likelihood of owning a house increases as age increases. With a median age for the adult population of 51 in rural areas compared to 45 in urban areas, the adult population in rural areas tend to be older and naturally in stages of life in which owning a house is more likely. Furthermore, householders age 65 or older, an age group that regularly has some of the highest homeownership rates, accounted for 27.7 percent of all households in rural areas and 22.4 percent in urban areas.