Magic Moment? Maternal Marriage for Children Born Out of Wedlock

Gibson‐Davis, Christina M.

doi:10.1007/s13524-014-0308-7

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Most previous studies of cohabitation have focused on marriage following the birth of child from a previous or current relationship (e.g., Gibson-Davis, 2014; Lichter et al, 2004; Manlove et al 2012). Yet, the proportion of all adults who marry has declined significantly in the aftermath of the “Great Recession,” supplanted at least in part by concurrent increases in cohabitation (see Kreider, 2010; Manning, Brown, and Payne, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cohabitation, post-conception unions, and the rise in nonmarital fertility

Lichter

Sassler

Turner

2014

Social Science Research

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The majority of U.S. nonmarital births today are to cohabiting couples. This study focuses on transitions to cohabitation or marriage among pregnant unmarried women during the period between conception and birth. Results using the newly-released 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth show that nonmarital pregnancy is a significant precursor to cohabitation before childbirth (18 percent), exceeding transitions to marriage (5 percent) by factor of over three. For pregnant women, the boundaries between singlehood, cohabitation, and marriage are highly fluid. The results also reveal substantial variation in post-conception cohabiting and marital unions; e.g., disproportionately low percentages of black single and cohabiting women transitioned into marriage, even when conventional social and economic risk factors are controlled. The multivariate analyses also point to persistent class differences in patterns of family formation, including patterns of cohabitation and marriage following conception. Poorly educated women, in particular, are much more likely to become pregnant as singles living alone or as partners in cohabiting unions. But compared with college-educated women, pregnancies are less likely to lead to either cohabitation or marriage. This paper highlights the conceptual and technical challenges involved in making unambiguous interpretations of nonmarital fertility during a period of rising nonmarital cohabitation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cohabitation, post-conception unions, and the rise in nonmarital fertility

Lichter

Sassler

Turner

2014

Social Science Research

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“…12 However, children born to parents who are already cohabiting experience their parents’ marriage more often than do children born to single mothers; in fact, nearly half of such children will see their biological parents get married. 13 …”

Section: Parents’ Pathways Into Cohabitation and Marriagementioning

confidence: 99%

Cohabitation and Child Wellbeing

Manning¹

2015

The Future of Children

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Summary In recent decades, writes Wendy Manning, cohabitation has become a central part of the family landscape in the United States—so much so that by age 12, 40 percent of American children will have spent at least part of their lives in a cohabiting household. Although many children are born to cohabiting parents, and cohabiting families come in other forms as well, the most common cohabiting arrangement is a biological mother and a male partner. Cohabitation, Manning notes, is associated with several factors that have the potential to reduce children’s wellbeing. Cohabiting families are more likely than married families to be poor, and poverty harms children in many ways. Cohabiting parents also tend to have less formal education—a key indicator of both economic and social resources—than married parents do. And cohabiting parent families don’t have the same legal protections that married parent families have. Most importantly, cohabitation is often a marker of family instability, and family instability is strongly associated with poorer outcomes for children. Children born to cohabiting parents see their parents break up more often than do children born to married parents. In this way, being born into a cohabiting family sets the stage for later instability, and children who are born to cohabiting parents appear to experience enduring deficits of psychosocial wellbeing. On the other hand, stable cohabiting families with two biological parents seem to offer many of the same health, cognitive, and behavioral benefits that stable married biological parent families provide. Turning to stepfamilies, cohabitation’s effects are tied to a child’s age. Among young children, living in a cohabiting stepfamily rather than a married stepfamily is associated with more negative indicators of child wellbeing, but this is not so among adolescents. Thus the link between parental cohabitation and child wellbeing depends on both the type of cohabiting parent family and the age of the child.

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“…If women and couples do not respond to a non-union conception by forming a mid-pregnancy union, union formation after a birth undoubtedly still occurs. The majority of women with a nonmarital birth eventually cohabit or marry (Gibson-Davis, 2011, 2014), and some – perhaps many – of the initial unions formed after a birth are with the child’s father. Certainly, many new parents are romantically involved even if they do not live together (McLanahan & Beck, 2010), with about a third of these couples cohabiting or married one year after birth (Carlson, McLanahan, & England, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The strongest and most committed likely formed their unions prior to birth, leaving behind a pool of individuals forming either post-birth unions in which the partners have a weaker relationship or in which one or both partners have characteristics linked to elevated dissolution risks (such as low levels of education or poor employment prospects). What this also means, though, is that some new mothers go on to form an initial post-birth relationship with a new partner, especially over longer post-birth durations as the “magic moment” of birth passes (Gibson-Davis, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Research Note on the Stability of Coresidential Unions Formed Postconception

Guzzo

2018

J of Marriage and Family

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There is a large literature examining the stability of mid-pregnancy unions, and parallel work on unions formed after a nonmarital birth, but research has yet to compare pre- and post-birth unions and simultaneously consider whether the union is with the father or a new partner. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort, the author compares the stability of coresidential unions (cohabitations and marriages) among three groups of mothers with non-union first conceptions: those with a mid-pregnancy union with the father (N = 203), those with a post-birth union with the father (N = 333), and those with a union with a new partner (N = 342). Compared to mid-pregnancy unions with the father, post-birth father unions are 35% more likely to dissolve. New-partner unions are more likely to dissolve than both types of father unions. These associations persist when accounting for union type and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.

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Magic Moment? Maternal Marriage for Children Born Out of Wedlock

Cited by 9 publications

References 19 publications

Cohabitation, post-conception unions, and the rise in nonmarital fertility

Cohabitation, post-conception unions, and the rise in nonmarital fertility

Cohabitation and Child Wellbeing

A Research Note on the Stability of Coresidential Unions Formed Postconception

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