The family of origin was once considered an important “third party” in shaping offspring romantic relationships. However, the increased independence of young adults challenges this idea by suggesting that parents today may have less control over children’s romantic lives than prior generations. Drawing on a “linked lives” framework, this paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and discrete-time competing risks event history analysis to examine whether an individual’s relationship with parents during adolescence affects entry into first unions with same- or different-race partners in young adulthood. Findings suggest that stronger parent-child ties in adolescence deterred entry into any union in young adulthood– same-race or interracial, relative to forming no unions. However, stronger intergenerational ties were associated with an increased likelihood of forming same-race unions versus interracial unions. When the definition of union was expanded to include direct marital first unions versus cohabiting first unions, results suggest that stronger intergenerational ties increased the likelihood of same-race versus interracial cohabiting first unions, but did not significantly influence same-race versus interracial direct marital first unions. Analyses by respondent race indicate few differences among Whites and non-Whites. These findings highlight the potential for parental influence on young adults’ romantic relationships in an era of increasing family diversity.

原生家庭曾被认为是塑造后代恋爱关系的重要“第三方”。然而，年轻人越来越独立，这表明今天的父母对孩子的浪漫生活的控制可能比前几代人少，这对这一观点提出了挑战。本文利用“关联生活”框架，使用全国青少年到成人健康纵向研究的数据和离散时间竞争风险事件历史分析来检验一个人在青春期与父母的关系是否会影响与同龄人的第一次结合。或成年后的不同种族伴侣。调查结果表明，青春期更强的亲子关系阻止了进入任何成年早期的结合——同种族或跨种族，相对于不形成工会。然而，与跨种族工会相比，更强的代际关系与形成同种族工会的可能性增加有关。当结合的定义扩大到包括直接婚姻第一次结合与第一次同居结合时，结果表明，更强的代际关系增加了同种族第一次同居与跨种族第一次结合的可能性，但并没有显着影响同种族第一次直接婚姻与跨种族第一次结合。工会. 按受访者种族进行的分析表明，白人和非白人之间几乎没有差异。这些发现凸显了在家庭多元化日益增加的时代，父母对年轻人恋爱关系的潜在影响。