The Influence of Nonmarital Childbearing on the Formation of First Marriages

45 Pages Posted: 16 Oct 2002 Last revised: 23 Dec 2022

See all articles by Neil G. Bennett

Neil G. Bennett

CUNY Institute for Demographic Research; National Center for Childhood Poverty; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

David E. Bloom

Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Cynthia Miller

Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation

Date Written: December 1993

Abstract

We examine the association between nonmarital childbearing and the subsequent likelihood of first marriage and document a negative association between these variables -- controlling for a variety of potentially confounding influences -- in several large survey data sets for the United States. We then subject possible explanations of this finding to empirical test. The analyses performed support the following conclusions: Nonmarital childbearing does not appear to be driven by low expectations of future marriage. Rather, the direction of causation is just the reverse: Nonmarital childbearing tends to be an unexpected and unwanted event that has multiple effects, which on balance are negative, on a woman's subsequent likelihood of first marriage. Further, the upward trend in the proportion of childbearing that occurs outside of marriage may account for one-fourth of the increase in the proportion of women never marrying in the United States over cohorts separated by almost two decades. We do, however, find that nonmarital childbearers are more likely to enter informal cohabitational unions than are their single counterparts who do not bear a child. We find evidence that the negative association between out-of- wedlock childbearing and subsequent marriage is particularly strong among welfare recipients as well as evidence that out-of-wedlock childbearing increases the likelihood that a woman marries her child's biological father. On the other hand, we find no evidence that (a) stigma associated with nonmarital childbearing plays an important role

Suggested Citation

Bennett, Neil G. and Bloom, David E. and Miller, Cynthia, The Influence of Nonmarital Childbearing on the Formation of First Marriages (December 1993). NBER Working Paper No. w4564, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=330307

Neil G. Bennett

CUNY Institute for Demographic Research ( email )

Box D-901
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National Center for Childhood Poverty

The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University 154 Haven Ave.
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United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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David E. Bloom (Contact Author)

Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health ( email )

677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA MA 02115
United States
617-432-0654 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Cynthia Miller

Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation ( email )

200 Vesey Street
New York, NY 10281
United States

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