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Race-Ethnic Differences in the Non-marital Fertility Rates in 2006–2010

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Abstract

Research in the 1980s pointed to the lower marriage rates of blacks as an important factor contributing to race differences in non-marital fertility. Our analyses update and extend this prior work to investigate whether cohabitation has become an important contributor to this variation. We use data from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth to identify the relative contribution of population composition (i.e., percent sexually active single and percent cohabiting) versus rates (pregnancy rates, post-conception marriage rates) to race-ethnic variation in non-marital fertility rates (N = 7,428). We find that the pregnancy rate among single (not cohabiting) women is the biggest contributor to race-ethnic variation in the non-marital fertility rate and that contraceptive use patterns among racial minorities explain the majority of the race-ethnic differences in pregnancy rates.

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Notes

  1. For example, black and Hispanic women are more likely to underestimate the effectiveness of the birth control pill, and black women express greater fear of side effects of hormonal contraception, including reduced sexual desire, elevated risk of cancer, and permanent sterility (Guzzo and Hayford 2012).

  2. The specific wording of the question, asked of anyone who has ever used contraception, is as follows: The next questions are about birth control methods you may have used between (START DATE OF METHOD CALENDAR) and (END DATE OF METHOD CALENDAR). Remember that this also refers to methods men use, such as condoms, vasectomy, and withdrawal. As we discussed earlier, you had a hysterectomy in (DATE OF HYSTERECTOMY). Since (START DATE OF METHOD CALENDAR), have you used any birth control methods for any reason, such as preventing disease?

  3. The specific question on sexual activity during the three-plus years prior to interview reads: Since (January [YEAR OF INTERVIEW-3]/[DATE OF FIRST SEX]), have there been any times when you were not having intercourse with a male at all for 1 month or more. It is asked only of respondents who report having ever had sex in earlier parts of the interview.

  4. The non-marital fertility rate for women aged 35–39 is 29.6 per 1,000 women in 2010, and the corresponding figure for women aged 40–44 is 8.0 (Martin et al. 2012). The substance of our findings is the same regardless whether we exclude or include women aged 35 and above.

  5. Person-months separated, divorced, and widowed are included.

  6. We are unaware of any published estimates of the non-martial fertility rate for Hispanics by nativity status.

  7. Note that the Gray et al. (2006) article is mostly about the non-marital fertility ratio, but we focus on the parts of their argument that apply most to the non-marital fertility rate.

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Acknowledgments

We thank comments and suggestions by the anonymous reviewers, Lawrence Wu, and members of the FAMDEM working groups at the University of Texas on previous drafts of this paper. An earlier version of this research was presented at the 2014 meetings of the Population Association of America. This research was supported by continuing fellowship from the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and also benefitted from 5 R24 HD042849, Population Research Center, awarded to the Populatopm Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Health and Child Development. Opinions reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting agency. 

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Kim, Y., Raley, R.K. Race-Ethnic Differences in the Non-marital Fertility Rates in 2006–2010. Popul Res Policy Rev 34, 141–159 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9342-9

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