A Multilevel Analysis of Marital and Nonmarital Fertility in the U.S.

This study examines the role of a wide range of community characteristics in determining the risk of married and nonmarried nonblack women having a live birth. We find that context affects the risk of both a marital and nonmarital birth although the number of contextual influences is greater for nonmarried women. For married women the factors that affect the likelihood of a birth are: the extent of full-time female labor-force participation percent white-collar workers and percent females in the community who are separated or divorced. Contextual factors affecting the risk of an out-of-wedlock birth include: the female unemployment rate; median housing value; percent females separated or divorced; percent females of childbearing age; the sex ratio of the never married population; and the child/woman ratio for women aged 15-24. Almost all these community characteristics operate independently of individual-level characteristics of the woman. Data are from the 1982 U.S. National Survey of Family Growth Cycle III. (EXCERPT)