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Religiosity and the Transition to Nonmarital Parity

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Abstract

Nonmarital parity is associated with several negative outcomes, including health problems, educational problems, and poverty. Understanding the risk and protective factors associated with nonmarital parenthood can inform policy and interventions, reducing both the incidences and associated consequences. The current study focuses on how intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity (the degree to which individuals or groups employ religious ideology in forming values and making decisions) are related to the timing of nonmarital parity using discrete time hazard modeling of a nationally representative sample of adolescent females (N = 7,367) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The majority of the sample (86 %) claimed a religious affiliation and almost a third (32 %) had a nonmarital birth during the study. Even though the majority of the sample is White (67 %), Black and Hispanic females were more likely to experience a nonmarital birth. Results indicate that intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and religious affiliation assert protective effects for some populations while religious affiliation increases risk in the full model. Recommendations for policy, intervention, and future research are offered.

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Notes

  1. Religion and spirituality are often used interchangeably, but within the health literature the focus is primarily related to religiosity rather than spirituality. This study’s use of the term “religiosity” is for consistency between the constructs.

  2. Though we understand that multiple imputation is currently the best method for handling missing data, the creation of 10 datasets when the data are in the person period format the file is just too large to converge.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for the assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/ addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA

    Heidi Ann Lyons & Scott James Smith

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Lyons, H.A., Smith, S.J. Religiosity and the Transition to Nonmarital Parity. Sex Res Soc Policy 11, 163–175 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-014-0153-x

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