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  • Title: Nonmarital childbearing in the United States: a government report.
    Author: Hollander D.
    Journal: Fam Plann Perspect; 1996; 28(1):29-32, 41. PubMed ID: 8822413.
    Abstract:
    This article summarizes a 1995 report to the US Congress from a working groups at the Department of Health and Human Services. This paper describes trends in nonmarital childbearing by age, race, education, residence, and parents' background. Several explanations are provided for the observed changes in nonmarital fertility. Pregnancy outcomes are described. Other issues are discussed pertaining to subsequent fertility, public assistance, and a comparison with international trends. It is argued that a narrow view of the problem obscures the key issues. Although 66% of nonmarital childbearing occurs among women aged older than 20 years, most research and programs target adolescent nonmarital childbearing. In 1993 there were 1.2 million infants born to unmarried women, a substantial increase over several decades. The increase was highest during the 1970s. Trends stabilized in the 1990s. The rate of nonmarital childbearing was the highest among women aged 20-24 years in 1993, followed closely by women aged 18-19 years. Nonmarital childbearing included 30% of births to teenagers, 54% to women aged in their 20s, and 16% to women aged 30 years and older. In 1970 teenage nonmarital childbearing comprised the largest proportion of nonmarital births (50%); 42% of births were to women aged 20-29 years. Hispanic women were found to be more likely to have nonmarital births. Over 60% of nonmarital births were to White women (42% to White women aged 20-29 years). Declines in marriage explained most of the growth during 1968-84 for Black women; thereafter increases in the rate of nonmarital births and the proportion of women married accounted for the Black nonmarital birth ratio. For White women during 1968-93, the deciding factors have been the same factors as for Blacks after 1984. Other trends include the lesser likelihood of both married and unmarried women to terminate pregnancies. About 80% of children receiving public assistance lived in families headed by never married mothers.
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