Unintended fertility and the stability of coresidential relationships

Guzzo, Karen Benjamin; Hayford, Sarah R.

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.002

Cited by 39 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…One interpretation, albeit a highly speculative one, is that cohabitation provides an alternative to marriage in disadvantaged communities; nonmarital fertility and childrearing represent an acceptable alternative to traditional family arrangements. For them, a pregnancy, even an unintended one, may not be disruptive to the relationship (cf., Guzzo and Hayford, 2012). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, the decision to marry occurs after the decision to have children. On the other hand, hastily arranged cohabiting unions – especially those precipitated by an unintended pregnant – may be poorly-matched, of low quality, and at greatest risk of dissolution (Guzzo and Hayford, 2012). The meaning of a post-conception union also may depend on normative pressures (e.g., to do the “right thing” for religious or cultural reasons) or on economic exigencies (e.g., when an unintended pregnancy creates economic pressures to formalize the relationship for the benefit of the child).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lichter

Sassler

Turner

2014

Social Science Research

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“…These include observable characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, family background, age at birth, the intendedness of the couple's first birth together, and subsequent fertility within the union-all factors associated (albeit in different ways) with both union stability (Carlson et al 2004;Guzzo and Hayford 2012;Manlove et al 2012;Phillips and Sweeney 2006;Teachman 2002) and cohabitors' transitions to marriage (Carlson et al 2004;Lichter and Qian 2008;Lichter et al 2006;Manlove et al 2012). Accounting for a detailed set of observable characteristics helps control for the compositional changes that may drive change in union stability over time.…”

Section: Change In the Characteristics Of Cohabiting Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Change in the Stability of Marital and Cohabiting Unions Following the Birth of a Child

Musick

Michelmore

2015

Demography

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The share of births to cohabiting couples has increased dramatically in recent decades. How we evaluate the implications of these increases depends critically on change in the stability of cohabiting families. This study examines change over time in the stability of U.S. couples who have a child together, drawing on data from the 1995 and 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). We parse out the extent to which change in the stability of cohabiting and married families reflects change in couples' behavior versus shifts in the characteristics of those who cohabit, carefully accounting for trajectories of cohabitation and marriage around the couple's first birth. Multivariate event history models provide evidence of a weakening association between cohabitation and instability given that marriage occurs at some point before or after the couple's first birth. The more recent data show statistically indistinguishable separation risks for couples who have a birth in marriage without ever cohabiting, those who cohabit and then have a birth in marriage, and those who have a birth in cohabitation and then marry. Cohabiting unions with children are significantly less stable when de-coupled from marriage, although the parents in this group also differ most from others on observed (and likely, unobserved) characteristics.

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“…Gender differences in views about relationship commitment and longevity, combined with differences in views on responsibility for contraception (Augustine, Nelson, and Edin 2009; Edin and Kefalas 2005), also influence the chances of having an unintended birth. Relationships in which a teenage, unintended, or nonmarital birth occur are at an elevated risk of union dissolution (Guzzo and Hayford 2012b; McLanahan and Beck 2010), creating a feedback loop between these fertility behaviors and union instability. Relationship instability and teenage, nonmarital, and unintended childbearing are more common among race-ethnic minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, further widening differences in family behavior (Amato 2010; Smock and Greenland 2010).…”

Section: Why Do People Have Children?mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Partners, More Kids

Guzzo¹

2014

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

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109

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Declining rates of marriage and overall increases in union instability, combined with high levels of unintended and nonmarital fertility, create the possibility for parents to have children with more than one partner, called multiple-partner fertility, or MPF. The unique characteristics of families with MPF present data and other logistical challenges to researchers studying the phenomenon. Drawing from recent studies and updated data, I present new estimates of MPF that show that about 13 percent of men aged 40 to 44 and 19 percent of women aged 41 to 49 have children with more than one partner, with a higher prevalence among the disadvantaged. Compared to parents with two or more children by only one partner, people with MPF become parents at younger ages, largely with unintended first births, and often do so outside of marriage. This article touches on the implications of MPF for families and concludes by discussing the theoretical difficulties in studying MPF and the challenges it presents to public policy.

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Unintended fertility and the stability of coresidential relationships

Cited by 39 publications

References 53 publications

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

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

Change in the Stability of Marital and Cohabiting Unions Following the Birth of a Child

New Partners, More Kids

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