The Effects of the Sequencing of Marriage and First Birth During Adolescence

Abstract

Whether or not they marry, black adolescent mothers are more likely than whites to attend school following the birth of their first child. Marrying to legitimate a birth reduces the likelihood that a teenager will return to school after childbearing; this impact of marriage is much stronger among black than among white teenagers. The timing of marriage appears to affect school enrollment among white teenagers through its impact on living arrangements. However, the negative impact of marriage on educational achievement does not seem to be a consequence of earlier differences in educational expectations among the teenagers. Teenage mothers appear less likely to separate from their husbands in later years if they marry before the birth than if they marry afterward. Delaying marriage until after the birth has a long-term effect on the probability of separation among white teenage mothers, but has only a short-term impact among blacks. Among teenagers who marry before giving birth, there is little difference in the likelihood of separation between those who marry before becoming pregnant and those who do so afterward. In addition, the effect of the sequence of marriage and first birth among white teenage mothers may have declined in recent years. Adolescent mothers who do not marry before their first birth experience a longer interval between that birth and their second than do those who marry either before or during the pregnancy. These differences are primarily the result of short-term variations in the amount of time they spend married; that is, women who are unmarried when they give birth are less likely to have a second birth soon afterward.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Child Marriage in the United States and Its Association With Mental Health in Women

“…16 Furthermore, child marriage is associated with lower educational level attainment. 17 It also is associated with black and American Indian/Alaska Native ethnicities, which suggests a racial/cultural dimension. It is more prevalent in southern parts of the United States, which may reflect local legislation authorizing marriages as early as 14 years of age in Texas and 15 years of age in Mississippi and Georgia, under certain conditions.…”

Education and Union Formation as Simultaneous in Italy and Spain

“…Indeed, it has been shown that once an individual enters a union, he or she runs a higher risk of ending school (Davis and Bumpass, 1976;McLaughlin et al, 1986), and that such effects are stronger for women than for men (Marini, 1978;Alexander and Reilly, 1981;Teachman and Polonko, 1988).…”

The impact of first-birth timing on divorce: New evidence from a longitudinal analysis based on the central population register of Norway

“…According to some American researchers, the effect of first-birth timing has not been constant across the marriage cohorts. Billy et al (1986), McLaughlin et al (1986) and O'Connell and Rogers (1984) have observed that the effect is somewhat smaller for recent cohorts than it was some year ago. On the other hand, Castro and Bumpass (1987) observed an increasing influence of a premarital birth over the last ten years.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that women in the latter subgroup run a higher risk of separation than do those in the former subgroup (e.g., Furstenberg (1979)). Several investigators have used the high degree of marital breakup among those who marry someone other than the biological father as one of the explanations for the divorce level of the total group of women with a premarital birth (e.g., Morgan and Rindfuss (1985), McLaughlin et al (1986), Billy et al (1986)). It is one of the main objectives of our study to split up this heterogenous group, and to see whether those who eventually marry the father of the child also have a much higher divorce rate than do women with a more traditional marriage-birth sequence.…”

“…Billy et al (1986) and McLaughlin et al (1986) argue that the birth-marriage sequence has a long-term effect in the United States, whereas Morgan and Rindfuss (1985) found that a 'premarital birth affects the likelihood of marital disruption only at early marital durations'. According to some American researchers, the effect of first-birth timing has not been constant across the marriage cohorts.…”