Births while cohabiting most common for blacks, disadvantaged whites

Although legal marriage is the most common type of union in the United States and is the setting for most births that occur in a union, childbearing is becoming increasingly common within nonmarital unions. Overall, the gap in childbearing rates between married women and cohabiting women is narrower for black women than for white women; this difference is particularly small among previously married black women and among relatively disadvantaged white women. These are among the conclusions of an analysis of data from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH).(1)

The first wave of the NSFH was administered in 1987 and 1988 to a random sample of American adults, plus an oversample of some subgroups (blacks; men and women in single-parent households; and cohabiting adults). Each of the 13,017 NSFH respondents provided a complete marital history and a partial cohabiting history. The researchers chose to focus on two particular points in the union histories that respondents provided: their first union and their first postmarital union. First unions could be first cohabitations that were not legalized before they were dissolved or before the date of the interview, as well as first legal marriages (whether or not the partners cohabited before marrying). Similarly, first postmarital unions were the initial cohabiting or marital unions individuals entered following the dissolution of their first marriage.

All analyses were restricted to women aged 13-45 at the start of the union. The study of first unions consisted of 3,719 women (733 blacks and 2,986 non-Hispanic whites) who had entered their first union in 1960 or later. The sample for the study of first postmarital unions consisted of 1,164 women (169 blacks and 995 non-Hispanic whites); most were in the first-union sample, but the postmarital union sample also included some NSFH respondents who had entered their first union before 1960 and had entered a postmarital union after 1960.

In both racial groups, the majority of first unions were legal marriages, although the percentage of women whose first union was a legal marriage was smaller among blacks (61%) than among whites (76%). Among married women, blacks and whites were about equally likely to have given birth in that first union (74% vs. 77%); legal marriage was also the setting for the vast majority of births that occurred in first unions (81% among blacks vs. 97% among whites).

Black women were significantly more likely than whites to have entered a cohabiting first union that was not eventually legalized (22% vs. 8%) and to have given birth within such a union (36% vs. 12%). About 17% each of blacks and whites entered cohabiting first unions that led to marriage; these two groups did not differ significantly in their childbearing rates. However, among women who gave birth, blacks were more likely to have done so before marrying. In fact, regardless of whether cohabitation led to marriage, among women who gave birth during a first union, blacks were more likely than whites to have been cohabiting at delivery (19% vs. 3%).

Similar patterns held with regard to first postmarital unions. Previously married black women were significantly more likely than whites both to have entered a cohabiting union that was never legalized (30% vs. 17%) and to have given birth in such a union (26% vs. 9%). No racial differences emerged in the proportion of women who entered postmarital cohabiting unions that eventually led to remarriage, who entered directly into another legal marriage or who gave birth within these unions. Again, among cohabiting women whose first postmarital union led to marriage and included a birth, white women were more likely than black women to have married before the birth (77% vs. 43%). In all, 45% of black women who gave birth while in their first postmarital union were cohabiting at that time, compared with 13% of whites.

Multivariate analyses were then used to control for the effects of potentially confounding variables that reflected women's socioeconomic background and their characteristics at the start of the union. Among women in their first union, those who cohabited were less likely than their married counterparts to have given birth. The relationship was statistically significant for both blacks and whites, but was stronger among whites: Over the course of any one year in their union, white cohabiting women were 70% less likely than their married counterparts to have borne a child (odds ratio of 0.30), while among blacks this differential was 43% (odds ratio of 0.57).

Of the other variables studied, only the duration of the union and age at entry into the first union significantly reduced black women's likelihood of childbearing in their first union (odds ratios of 0.88 and 0.91). Among whites, however, several factors were associated with a significantly increased or a significantly decreased risk of childbearing: Those who grew up in a two-parent family, but not with both biological parents, were more likely to have had a child than were those raised by both of their biological parents (odds ratio of 1.24); Catholics were more likely to have had a child than were Protestants (odds ratio of 1.17); those with some college education were less likely than those who did not graduate from high school (odds ratio of 0.74); and those employed full-time at the start of the union were less likely than those not working at that time (odds ratio of 0.81).

For previously married women, the type of subsequent union remained a highly significant predictor of childbearing among whites: Previously married white women whose next union was a cohabitation were 70% less likely to have had a birth in that union than were those whose next union was marital. In contrast, the subsequent type of union had no significant impact on the likelihood of a birth among previously married black women. This finding, the investigators suggest, may reflect relatively long separation periods and low rates of remarriage among blacks.

Socioeconomic background factors did not influence childbearing within postmarital unions for either white or black women, but some women's characteristics at the start of the union did. Among white women in postmarital unions, the likelihood of childbearing declined significantly as the number of previous births rose, and increased if the woman's youngest child was younger than 10. By simultaneously considering the effects of the number of previous births and the age of the youngest child, the investigators found that women with one young child were still in a "family-building stage" and were likely to have additional births within a postmarital union; those with older children or with a larger number of children, however, had completed family-building and were relatively unlikely to have more births.

Among black women, the number of previous births did not affect the likelihood of childbearing within a postmarital union, but the age of the youngest child did: Black women with children younger than 10 and those with no children were equally likely to have given birth; those with children aged 10 or older, however, were substantially less likely to have done so.

Additional analyses revealed that the racial difference in the effect of union type was statistically significant, and that only among white women did the type of union interact with socioeconomic variables to affect the rate of childbearing. For whites who were in a first union, the contrast between cohabiting and married women was sharpest if the woman's father had a high school education and if the woman herself had some college education; it was diminished if the woman grew up in a family receiving welfare. In postmarital unions, too, socioeconomic disadvantage--as measured by such factors as having a mother with relatively little education, having grown up in a one-parent family and never having been employed before entering the union--brought the level of childbearing among cohabiting women closer to that among married women.

Finally, the investigators examined whether racial differences in childbearing intention may explain the racial variations in the role of cohabitation as a setting for childbearing. Among women who gave birth in their first union, about one-half of whites but just over one-quarter of blacks reported that the birth was mistimed; in both groups, the proportion with an unwanted birth was less than one in 10. No significant differences emerged in analyses of women in postmarital unions. Thus, racial differences in intention status did not seem to account for the relatively high rates of childbearing among black cohabiting women.

According to the investigators, their findings demonstrate that "cohabitation is most similar to legal marriage as a setting for childbearing among black women and relatively disadvantaged white women." They conclude that those "concerned with the decline of marriage and the increase in nonmarital childbearing should more carefully consider the role of the cohabiting union. Our findings suggest that this role varies greatly according to race, socioeconomic status, and stage in marital life course."

Reference

1. L. S. Loomis and N. S. Landale, "Nonmarital Cohabitation and Childbearing Among Black and White American Women," Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56:949-962, 1994.

Copyright The Alan Guttmacher Institute Jul 1995
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