Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We combined data from three sources, the 2000 Census, the 2001 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study (LAFans), and LA County Birth Records, to explore how neighborhood collective efficacy, a measure of community social cohesion and control, is related to adolescent birth rates. We found that the relationship between collective efficacy and birth rates is conditioned by the concentration of Hispanic residents. In census tracts with less than a 50% Hispanic population,collective efficacy is associated with lower birth rates among unmarried but not married teenagers. In contrast, in census tracts with more than a 50% Hispanic population, collective efficacy is not associated with birth rates among unmarried teenagers but is associated with higher rates among married teen birth rates. Collective efficacy may help reduce rates of teen births in some neighborhoods but not all. An interaction between collective efficacy and Hispanic population concentration suggests cultural variation may play a role in how collective efficacy influences adolescent fertility. Possible explanations for the positive relationship between collective efficacy and married birth rates found in segregated Hispanic neighborhoods include profertility orientations and availability of childrearing networks for young parents. In order to help harness social capital to improve public health outcome, we suggest future studies examine the role of community cultural variation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Research on non-marital fertility has focused almost exclusively on unmarried mothers, due in part to a lack of fertility information for men. The availability of a new dataset that contains fertility histories for both men and women, Cycle 6 of the National Survey of Family Growth, now allows exploration of non-marital fertility among both genders. We begin with a brief descriptive comparison of the characteristics of unmarried first-time mothers and fathers. We then use event history techniques to model second birth hazards for parents whose first birth is non-marital and multinomial logit analysis to examine the distribution of men’s and women’s second births across types of relationships. Our analysis is motivated by theories of mate selection and the “relationship” market, specifically the hypothesis that non-marital fertility is more detrimental to women’s than to men’s status in the relationship market. We find mixed support for this hypothesis.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This project will look at race/ethnic differences in non-marital fertility, and at the role that community context plays in this relationship, paying particular attention to the high levels of non-marital fertility among Mexican American women. Drawing from theory based on black-white differences, I will look at the role that structural and economic factors play in maintaining group differences in non-marital fertility as well as the role of race/ethnic segregation. Additionally I will explore whether a more familistic culture among Mexican Americans protects them from the deleterious effects of neighborhood disadvantage. This research will use the NSFG and the NSFG-CDF to extend research on race/ethnic differences in non-marital fertility by including Mexican Americans. This, in turn, will contribute to the refinement of theory, which is largely based on black-white differences in family formation processes. This research will employ multilevel event history models in order to appropriately identify the effects of macro-level characteristics at the county level.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: With a few notable exceptions, researchers have largely ignored how fatherhood impacts men’s behavior, especially that of unmarried men. In this project, we consider how men’s economic responses to fatherhood varies by the context in which they become fathers. Specifically, our research question is whether the employment response of first-time fathers to fatherhood varies by the relationship of the father to his child’s mother. We consider married fathers, fathers cohabiting with their child and the child’s mother, and fathers living apart from their child and the child’s mother. The data is from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a longitudinal study following a birth cohort of 3700 children born to unmarried parents and a comparison sample of 1200 children born to married parents (Reischman et al 2000). For this analysis, we restrict the sample to first-time fathers and use structural equation models to model trajectories in hours and weeks worked at four timepoints: baseline (the child’s birth), 12 months, 30 months, and 60 months. We find that there are large differences in employment levels among married, cohabiting, and non-resident men in the year before the transition to fatherhood, but that these differences all but disappear by the time the child reaches five years old. We discuss the implications of these findings for our theoretical understandings of the differences between marriage, cohabitation, and non-residential relationships as contexts for parenthood.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines how the temporal context and expectations surrounding marriage affects an individual’s well-being, as measured by depression. I expect that transitions that occur at a time that is non-normative or undesired will have a deleterious effect on an individual's well-being. Additionally, I expect that the non-event of marriage, the expectation of a marriage that does not then occur, will have a negative impact on one's well-being. Data for this project comes from the two waves of the National Study of Families and Households taken from interviews in 1987-8 and 1992-4. I focus on individuals who experienced a transition into first marriage between the two waves and those who did not yet experience the event. By controlling for prior levels of depression and accounting for prior attitudes towards the timing of events, I examine whether the actual timing of marriage, or experience of a non-event, helps to explain variation in well-being. Findings indicate that those who do not experience a marriage between the waves have higher levels of depression than those who experienced an on-time marriage and that this relationship is being driven by those who expect to marry or believe that it is better to marry than remain single.