Effects of Marital Status Change on Residential Mobility

The authors examine the relationship between residential mobility and various stages of the family life cycle using data for 2058 Rhode Island adults originally interviewed between 1967 and 1969 and followed through 1979. This research uses detailed mobility data collected prospectively over 12 years which has been integrated with complete information on dates of marriage divorce and widowhood to create linked life-cycle segments. An extensive body of information is also available on characteristics of these households to control the effects of other factors that relate both to marital status and to mobility such as home ownership and income. The probability of mobility is modeled as a function that varied both with the time since the last change in marital status and various characteristics. The effects of marriage divorce and widowhood both on immediate relocation and on subsequent mobility patterns are assessed. (EXCERPT)