Title: The linkage between premarital fertility and cohabitation in the U.S.

POPLINE Document Number: 076110

Author(s):

Manning WD

Source citation:

Madison, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Demography and Ecology, 1992 Jul. [2], 38, [5] p. (NSFH Working Paper No. 52)

Abstract:

Multivariate analysis is used to examine the relationship between premarital fertility of never-married black and white women and cohabitation, and the timing of premarital pregnancies taking family background, activity status, and birth cohort into account. Also examined was the likelihood of marriage before the birth of their child among cohabiting women compared with noncohabiting women. Retrospective data were obtained from the National Survey of Families and Households, 1987-88. Discrete time hazard models were used to estimate the hazard rate of a first premarital pregnancy for women born between 1950 and 1964 and between ages 15 and 25. Life tables were used to estimate the cumulative proportion of women marrying after their first birth. Data were not available for miscarriages or abortions. Time varying covariates in the hazard models were cohabitation status/year and labor force and education participation status in the year prior to each age interval (activity status). Fixed covariates in hazard models were family structure, parents' education, religion, mother's work, and income, which were specified differently in life table analysis. Predictor variables for legitimation of a first birth were cohabitation status during the month of conception, parents' education (over or under 12 years of education), family structure (intact or nonintact), activity status a full year before the birth of the child, first parity birth cohort, and age at pregnancy. The results showed the proportion of women cohabiting at the time of first conception increased between 1980-84 and 1970-74. Hazard results reveal that risk of first pregnancy varied significantly with age. All covariates except work status and religion varied significantly with change in age for white women; for black women, public assistance, marital status, family structure and religion were stable over age segments. Union status was significantly related to timing of first pregnancies among both black and white women; legitimation status of premarital conceptions was significant only among white women. Cohabitation increased the probability of having a first premarital pregnancy among black and white women. Hazard models also support prior research results that more highly educated women and working women had births at older ages among never-married white women. Pregnant cohabiting white women were more likely to marry. Never-married cohabiting black and white women are more likely to begin childbearing before never-married single women and later than married women.

Keywords:

United States
Research Report
Premarital Pregnancy
Marriage Patterns
Fertility Determinants
Consensual Union
Probability
Life Table Method
Multivariate Analysis
Blacks
Whites
Adolescent Pregnancy
Youth
Developed Countries
North America
Americas
Reproductive Behavior
Fertility
Population Dynamics
Demographic Factors
Population
Marriage
Nuptiality
Statistical Studies
Studies
Research Methodology
Demographic Analysis
Data Analysis
Ethnic Groups
Cultural Background
Population Characteristics
Age Factors