[ 英文摘要 ]

The mean age at marriage for both men and women has risen steadily and steeply in Taiwan in the past several decades. We use the Taiwan Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) dataset collected by the Program for the study of Family in Chinese societies at Academia Sinica to investigate the time transit to and determinants of marriage for Taiwanese women. This dataset are composed of three cohorts, which including: (1) 1953-1964, (2) 1935-1954, and (3) 1964-1976. The data employed in the thesis in the analyses is retrieved from those three cohorts linked by each individual ID number up to the 2006 study wave to determine their marital status. The life table technique is employed to identify the risk of marriage and being single for both sexes starting 20 to 40 year of age. Then the Discrete Event History statistical model is utilized to study factors affecting individual transit from singlehood to marriage. In addition, factors related to Chinese family values including family-of-origin effects are also incorporated in the study. The empirical results demonstrate the having a college degree and above will delay marriage until 25 years of age. Having an advance university degree, such as master, or above will even delay marriage further to 34 years of age. Results yielded from logistic regression model show that women born in late birth cohort, for example, the 1964-1976 birth cohorts, ethnicity of father, place of residence, education level, and attachment to one’s parents, all have a negative effect on female transit to marriage. Although Taiwanese men and women have a tendency to delay their transit to marriage to even further age in the recent cohort, the analyses indicate none of them rejects the institution of marriage. One may conclude from analyses that delay marriage does not equate to rejection of institution of marriage in Taiwan.