Pathways to a Stable Union? Pregnancy and Childbearing Among Cohabiting and Married Couples

被引:31
作者
Lichter, Daniel T. [1 ,2 ]
Michelmore, Katherine [3 ]
Turner, Richard N. [4 ]
Sassler, Sharon [1 ,2 ]
机构
[1] Cornell Univ, Dept Policy Anal & Management, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
[2] Cornell Univ, Dept Sociol, Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
[3] Syracuse Univ, Dept Publ Adm & Int Affairs, Syracuse, NY 13244 USA
[4] Mississippi State Univ, Natl Strateg Planning & Anal Res Ctr, Starkville, MS 39759 USA
关键词
Post-conception union; Shotgun marriage; Cohabitation; Non-marital pregnancy; Unintended pregnancy; Marriage; PREMARITAL COHABITATION; MARITAL DISSOLUTION; AFRICAN-AMERICAN; 1ST BIRTHS; STABILITY; PARENTHOOD; TRANSITION; FERTILITY; CHILDREN; CONTEXT;
D O I
10.1007/s11113-016-9392-2
中图分类号
C921 [人口统计学];
学科分类号
摘要
This study analyzes the stability of cohabiting and marital unions following a first birth. But unlike previous research, it compares the subsequent trajectories of unions that began with a pregnancy to those in which conceptions came after coresidence. The U.S. data from the 2006-2010 and 2011-2013 cross-sectional files of the National Survey of Family Growth indicate that roughly 1-in-5 first births were associated with rapid transitions from conception into either cohabitation or marriage. Moving in together following a pregnancy-especially an unintended one-is unlikely to lead to marital success or union stability. Compared with marital unions, dissolution rates following birth were particularly high for couples who entered a cohabiting union following conception. Only a small minority of these couples married ( i.e., less than one-third), and these marriages experienced high dissolution rates. The results also suggest that the most committed cohabiting couples got married after finding themselves pregnant, leaving behind the most dissolution-prone cohabiting couples. The American family system is being transformed by newly emerging patterns of fertility among cohabiting couples.
引用
收藏
页码:377 / 399
页数:23
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