What's Behind Racial and Ethnic Fertility Differentials?

TO DATE, SOCIAL RESEARCH has accounted for some, but not all of the differential in birth rates between various racial and ethnic groups in the United States (Goldscheider and Uhlenberg,1969; Uhlenberg, 1973; Bean and Marcum, 1978; Johnson, 1979; Bean and Swicegood, 1985; Barringer, Gardner, and Levin, 1993; Brewster, 1994; Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994). After controlling for socioeconomic factors and individual characteristics, past studies have often attributed the residual racial effect to "culture." Yet how, or even why belonging to a particular racial or ethnic group influences fertility behavior is still unclear. Little is known about the mechanisms through which race and ethnicity influence fertility behaviors.