Emerging Adult College Students’ Ideal Marriage Age Gap: Linear and Nonlinear Associations

Guided by Marital Horizon Theory and Marital Paradigms Theory, this study examined how personal characteristics, relationship experiences and perspectives, romantic beliefs, and relationship intentions relate to the gap between college students’ current age and their perceived ideal age of marriage. Data were drawn from a large sample of 5,703 unmarried college students aged 18–30 from two U.S. universities. Multiple regression analyses indicated that predictors from the tested categories were associated with the size of the ideal marriage age gap, though most were nominal in magnitude. Importantly, several associations were nonlinear, revealing curvilinear patterns between marital timing gaps and desires to marry, marital centrality, and parenthood intentions. Age-related trajectories of ideal marital timing were also nonlinear as they associated with race, sexual identity, willingness to cohabit, and willingness to hook up. Findings highlight marital timing as a relational expectation shaped by psychological and developmental processes.