The specific aim of the proposed project is to enhance our understanding of the influence of social policies (including welfare policies), community context factors, and individual, partner, and background influences on nonmarital childbearing and subsequent union formation. The four stages of the proposed project wilt produce important information about factors associated with: Stage1: the likelihood that unmarried women and men will have a birth outside of marriage; Stage 2: the transition to marriage and cohabitation among unmarried parents; Stage 3: the likelihood of remaining in a stable union over time; and Stage 4: changes over time in patterns of nonmarital childbearing and union formation among unmarried parents. The proposed project will incorporate an ecological perspective, which posits that fertility and family formation behaviors will be influenced by factors from multiple domains. We will examine characteristics of the relationship between the biological parents at the time of the birth for analyses of marriage and cohabitation among unmarried parents. Additional relationship characteristics will include measures of the parent-parent relationship, the parent-child relationship, attitudes and fertility intentions, and previous family formation experiences of biological parents. We incorporate a life-course framework to analyze month-by-month histories of partner characteristics, marital and cohabiting unions, and childbearing for two cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (1995, 2002). We will also use a new national data set - the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort- to examine the relationship context of nonmarital childbearing and the processes of union formation and dissolution among unmarried parents. We will incorporate a new multi-level and multi-process modeling package (aML) in order to assess selection effects and endogeneity of decisions about unmarried parenthood, marriage, and cohabitation. In an era of continued reforms to welfare legislation, research and policy communities will benefit from our policy-relevant empirical research, which is based on theory and is grounded in the research literature.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD044761-04
Application #
7091483
Study Section
Social Sciences, Nursing, Epidemiology and Methods 4 (SNEM)
Program Officer
Bachrach, Christine
Project Start
2003-08-01
Project End
2008-07-31
Budget Start
2006-08-01
Budget End
2007-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$360,092
Indirect Cost
Name
Child Trends, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
127687093
City
Washington
State
DC
Country
United States
Zip Code
Manlove, Jennifer; Wildsmith, Elizabeth; Welti, Kate et al. (2012) Relationship Characteristics and the Relationship Context of Nonmarital First Births Among Young Adult Women. Soc Sci Q 93:506-520
Guzman, Lina; Wildsmith, Elizabeth; Manlove, Jennifer et al. (2010) Unintended births: patterns by race and ethnicity and relationship type. Perspect Sex Reprod Health 42:176-85
McDonald, Jill A; Manlove, Jennifer; Ikramullah, Erum N (2009) Immigration measures and reproductive health among Hispanic youth: findings from the national longitudinal survey of youth, 1997-2003. J Adolesc Health 44:14-24
Manlove, Jennifer; Ikramullah, Erum; Mincieli, Lisa et al. (2009) Trends in sexual experience, contraceptive use, and teenage childbearing: 1992-2002. J Adolesc Health 44:413-23
Moore, Kristin A; Ryan, Suzanne; Manlove, Jennifer et al. (2009) High-Risk Subsequent Births Among Co-Residential Couples: The Role of Fathers, Mothers, and Couples. Fathering 7:91-102
Ryan, Suzanne; Franzetta, Kerry; Schelar, Erin et al. (2009) Family Structure History: Links to Relationship Formation Behaviors in Young Adulthood. J Marriage Fam 71:935-953