This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual-and community-level U.S. migration experience. In the context of the U.S.-Mexico migration flow, we find that U.S. migration significantly increases the odds of union dissolution for individuals with extensive migration experience as well as for residents in communities with medium international migration levels. We conclude that changes in normative values and social control levels, for both individuals and communities, are partial contributors to this relationship.More than one hundred years of continuous movement across the U.S.-Mexico border has led to a unique arrangement of family life for many Mexicans. Unlike the majority of other U.S.-bound imigration flows, a stable feature of Mexican migration has been the circular migration of men, while spouses and children remain in the origin community (Durand et a1. 2001; Kana'iaupuni 2000b). This arrangement provides migrants with access to scarce capital while at the same time allowing them to avoid the major lifestyle changes and restrictive :+ The authors are listed in alphabetical order denoting equal contributions.

Prevention programs should address relationship context in contraceptive decision making, perhaps by combining relationship and sex education curricula to foster communication and negotiation skills.

The implications of these findings are discussed. The potential of early intervention programmes and home treatment services to address the ethnic differentials identified in this study merit consideration.

Teenagers' sexual behaviors have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults.

Racial and ethnic differences in childbearing intentions are frequently contingent on relationship context. Differences between whites and blacks are largely attributable to married women. Assessment of childbearing intendedness among Hispanics should take nativity into account.