Minority Group Status and Fertility Revisited

This paper reexamines the effect of minority group status on fertility to discover the efficacy of two positions outlined by Goldscheider and Uhlenberg (1969) and Sly (1970). The problems raised focus on the definition of "ethnic group," the failure to control for the effects of age at marriage and employment status of woman in fertility analyses, and the failure to examine current as well as cumulative fertility. Results tend to support Goldscheider and Uhlenberg's position that ethnicity has effects on fertility independent of other dimensions and point toward their recommendation that social psychological factors be examined to determine how fertility is influenced by ethnicity.