Internet access and partnership formation in the United States
Open accessAbstract
The Internet has fundamentally altered how we communicate and access information and who we can interact with. However, the implications of Internet access for partnership formation are theoretically ambiguous. We examine their association using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and Current Population Survey (CPS) in the United States. We find that the relationship between Internet access and partnership states (in the NLSY97) or partnership status (in the CPS) is age-dependent. While negative at the youngest adult ages, the association becomes positive as individuals reach their mid- to late 20s, for both same-sex and different-sex partnerships. The results suggest that Internet access is positively associated with union formation when individuals enter the stage in the young adult life course when they feel ready to commit to a long-term partnership. Our study contributes to a growing literature that highlights the implications of digital technologies for demographic processes.Supplementary material for this article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2021.1999485
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According to recent evidence from the United States, matching tends to be positively affected at the point at which individuals are willing to engage in a partnership.
“According to recent evidence from the United States, matching tends to be positively affected at the point at which individuals are willing to engage in a partnership (Sironi & Kashyap 2022).”
From Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences (2024) · cites this paper as Sironi & Kashyap 2022
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that Internet access becomes positively associated with partnership status after the mid-20s, when the desire to settle down may grow stronger. It does not measure individuals’ willingness to partner at a specific point or establish that willingness causes matching to improve. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences
Bloom, D. E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2024) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-081523-013750 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences
Bloom, D. E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2023) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4597716 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
- Authors
- Sironi, M., & Kashyap, R.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Venue
- Population Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-11-23
- Volume
- 76
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 427-445
- ISSN
- 0032-4728 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-4747
- PMC
- PMC9621102
- OpenAlex
- W3096306306
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Population Studies (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- internet access, partnership development, marriage, cohabitation, same-sex partnerships, digital technologies, age-dependent effects, digital divide, demographic processes
- MeSH terms
- Internet Access, Adolescent, Data Collection, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, United States, Young Adult
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