Trends in Premarital Childbearing: 1930 to 1994

1 1 Demographic CENSUS BUREAUU S C E N S U S B U R E A UHelping You Make Informed Department of CommerceEconomics and Statistics CENSUS BUREAUP23-197 Trends in Premarital ChildbearingSpecial Studies1930 toIssued 1994 October 1999 CurrentPopulationReportsBy Amara BachuIntroductionhistorical data on how quickly womenmarry after having an out-of-wedlock birthOne of the most closely watched indicatorsand identifies the characteristics associatedof fertility over the past 30 years is thewith the likelihood of premaritally pregnantproportion of births occurring outside ofwomen marrying before the birth of theirmarriage. Postponement of marriagesfirst child. First births were chosen foramong never-married women in pursuit ofanalysis as their timing often sets thehigher education and career development,tempo of future childbearing in terms ofalong with increasing numbers of cohabit-ing relationships, have exposed women toDefinitions and Datagreater risk of premaritally conceivedbirths than in earlier categories of births are identifiedPremarital childbearing among women hasin this report: (1) Premarital births been on the rise not only among teenagebirths occurring to women before thewomen but also among older women formother s first marriage, (2) premaritallythe last two decades, only recently levelingconceived births births occurringoff in the mid-1990s1.

2 As a result, thewithin 7 months after the mother s firstissue of Premarital childbearing amongmarriage; (3) and post-maritally con-women of all ages has gained prominenceceived births births occurring 8 oras a national concern not unique to teenag-more months after the mother s firsters. Over the past decades, being unmar-marriage. Even though Premarital birthsried and having a baby has undergoneare also premaritally conceived births,changing levels of acceptance by variousthey are excluded from the secondsocial institutions, such as families,category which designates those birthsschools, and public and private organiza-occurring to women while Prenatal and postnatal classesPregnancy outcomes in this paper referoffered to teenage women in schools andonly to those conceptions ending inthe availability of federal welfare programslive births. Information on conceptionssuch as the Special Supplemental Foodending in stillbirths, miscarriages,Program for Women, Infants, and Children or abortions are not available fromwhich benefit many unwed pregnantthese are a few examples of concernsover out-of-wedlock childbearing andFertility and marital data used to con-efforts to look at the issue from thestruct these indicators were obtained forviewpoint of mothers and their children sall women 15 to 99 years old in 1980health and well were collected only for women 15 to65 years old in the 1995 survey.

3 InThis report examines Trends from 1930 toorder to avoid significant omissions in1994 in the marital status of womenthis analysis of older women throughat the time of their first birth. It presentsmortality or age restrictions in thedifferent surveys, the data were gener-ally limited to first births occurring after1 Ventura, Martin, Curtin and and to women having their firstReport of Final Natality Statistics, 1996, Monthly VitalStatistics Report, 46:11, Table 18. Hyattsville, Md:birth under age Center for Health Statistics, CENSUS BUREAUT able Status of Women 15 to 29 Years Old at First Birth, by Race andHispanic Origin: 1930-34 to 1990-1994 Percent ofpremaritallyPercent of first birthspregnant womenNumberPremaritally Post-maritally marrying beforeof first births Premarital conceivedconceived the birth of theirPeriod of first birth (In thousands)birthbirthbirthfirst child1(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)ALL WOMEN1990-946, , , , , , , , ,004 ,971 ,98 2 ,036 ,279 , , ,33 2 , , ,001 ,774 ,494 ,419 ,473 ,59 2 ,748 ,037 , , ,07 271.

4 2 23. 34 2 ORIGIN2 Hispanic 1990-94 95740. 214. 2 1985-89 1980 -84 63 1975 -79 1970 -74 44 2 2 1965-69 1990-945, 1985-895, 1980 -846, 1975 -796, 1970 -746, 1965-695, : Data for 1975 -79 to 1990-94 are based on the June 1995 Current Population Survey and are shown forfirst births to women residing in the United States at the time of their first child s birth. Data for 1930-34 to1970-74, are based on the June 1980 Current Population Survey, and are for all women regardless of their placeof residence at the time of the first birth. Data for Hispanics are from the June 1995 CPS and are for first birthsto women residing in the United States at the time of their child s Column 5=[column 3/(column 2+ column 3)]*1002 People of Hispanic origin may be of any : Census Bureau , June 1980 and 1995, Current Population of children eventuallyborn.

5 It also signals a fundamentalchange from nonparent to parentroles and determines much of thesocial and health circumstancesthat both mother and child experi-ence for many years, especiallyamong teenage , first births constitute almost6 out of 10 births to women underage 24; regardless of the birthorder of the child, a similar propor-tion of all births to women this ageare also born categories of births areused in this report: (1) Premarital ,(2) premaritally conceived and(3) post-maritally conceived to produce the historicalseries on Premarital childbearingfrom the 1930s to the present wereobtained from fertility and maritalhistory supplements to the June1980 and 1995 Current PopulationSurvey (CPS)3. The month and yearof births and marital events fromthese surveys were used to de-velop the estimates of whetherfirst births occurred before or afterfirst Ventura, Curtin and Births in the United States: Nationaland State Trends , 1990-96, National Vital Sta-tistics System.

6 Hyattsville, Md: National Cen-ter for Health Statistics, Since these data are from surveys, they maynot accurately reflect past fertility events oc-curring decades before the interview datedue to the respondent s inability to recallevents and the subsequent mortality and mi-gration of women after a birth has data only reflect the experiences ofwomen who are living at the time of the sur-vey. To the extent that the experiences of thedeceased or migrants who left the UnitedStates are different from the surveyed popu-lation, the estimates are biased. In addition,women who are still in their childbearingyears also have incomplete marital historieswhich would affect the analysis of estimatesof eventual marriages to women with out-of-wedlock first births which would occur afterthe date of the To avoid misreading fertility Trends becauseof the inclusion of births to immigrantwomen which occurred when they lived out-side of the United States, first birth data fromthe June 1995 CPS in this report were limitedto women who were living in the UnitedStates at the time of their child s birth.

7 SeeM. O Connell and L. Miller, Whose VitalEvents are They? The Effect of Immigration onthe Estimation of Fertility and Marital Historyfrom Retrospective Survey, Journal of Eco-nomic and Social Measurement,20(1994) CENSUS BUREAUP remarital childbearingFigure 1 clearly shows the chang-since the 1930sing family circumstances experi-enced by first-born children inOne in six first births to womenthe United States since the15 to 29 years old in 1930-34 was1930s. During the Great Depres-either premaritally born or con-sion, most of these This proportion increasedchildren were conceived post-to one in two births in 1990-94maritally (about 82 percent)(Table 1). The principal componentcompared to 47 percent of firstof the increase in this proportionbirths in the the increase in the proportionof Premarital births. In the earlyWhat do these statistics tell us1930s, the proportion of birthsabout the changing likelihood thatwhich were either premaritally bornpremaritally pregnant women willor premaritally conceived birthsmarry before the birth of their firstwere not significantly differentchild?

8 The last column in Table 1from each other. A sharp increasetracks the propensity of couples toin the proportion of first birthsmarry before the birth of aborn premaritally occurred betweenpremaritally conceived child. Itthe early 1930s and the earlyshows that between the 1930s1990s (8 percent to 41 percent).and 1960s, about 50 percent toA comparatively smaller increase60 percent of women with ain the premaritally conceivedpremaritally conceived birthcomponent (from 10 percent tomarried before their child was12 percent) was recorded for thisborn. Because some cohabitingentire may have planned tomarry even before the child was5 The statistics shown for 5-year periods inconceived, not all of these mar-this report represent the average for the en-riages were forced or hurried by atire specified period. For example, the pro-portion for the period 1930-34 includes allpremarital years from 1930 through major decline in this statisticoccurred between 1960 -64 and1980-84 a period of great socialchange among young people inthe United States.

9 During thisperiod, the availability of veryeffective birth control measuresincreased, educational attainmentimproved, and the abortion lawswere Despite thesechanges which one would associ-ate with declines in out-of-wedlockchildbearing, these decades werealso characterized by delays in firstmarriage and increases in thesexual activity of single women,especially this 20-year period, theproportion of premaritally pregnantwomen marrying before the child sbirth fell by half from 60 percent inthe early 1960s to 29 percent inthe early 1980s. Declines in thepropensity to marry to avoid anout-of-wedlock birth by thisgeneration of women may alsoreflect the questionable stabilityof a forced marriage, especially ifthe father of the child may notbe able to maintain the familyafter the marriage. The declinesnoted in the proportion of womenmarrying before the birth of theirpremaritally conceived child mayalso reflect the opinion of somewomen that they may be better offin the long run by relying more onthe support of their parents andrelatives for financial and emo-tional assistance than by entering a6 Current estimates prepared by AlanGuttmacher Institute indicate that about one-half of abortions obtained by women 15 to44 years old in 1994-95 were to unmarriedwomen.

10 It is not known, however, what pro-portion of unmarried women having an abor-tion would have married before their child sbirth in the absence of legal provisions foran abortion. See S. Henshaw and K. Kost, Abortion Patients in 1994-95: Characteris-tics and Contraceptive Use, Family PlanningPerspectives, 28(1996): Census Bureau, Current Population Re-ports, Series P-20, No. 450, Marital Statusand Living Arrangements: March 1990, Printing Office, Washington, DC,1991, Table B; S. L. Hofferth, J. R. Kahn andW. Baldwin. Premarital Sexual ActivityAmong Teenage Women Over the PastThree Decades, Family Planning Perspec-tives, 19(1987) Status of Women 15 to 29 Years Old at First Birth: 1930-34 to 1990-94(Percent)701379412015246715811631 491353 18121756171017 Year of first birthSource: Census Bureau, June 1980 and 1995, Current Population birthPremaritally conceived birthPostmaritally conceived CENSUS BUREAU potentially unstable marriageduring the 1990-94 period (Tableundertaken solely to prevent an1).