The Relationship Context of Early Fatherhood

1
The Relationship Context of Early Fatherhood

• H. Elizabeth Peters and Kara Joyner
• Cornell University
• Kathryn Hynes
• Pennsylvania State University
• Special thanks to Child Trends, Felicia Yang
  Deleone, and Sue Eschleman for their help with
  fertility files. This research was supported by a
  grant from the NICHD (P01-HD045610).

2
Emphasis of Studies on Early Transitions to
Parenthood

• Exclusive focus on women
• Examination of factors associated with a
  premarital birth or teen birth
• Analysis of relationship context conditional on
  having a birth

3
Unanswered Questions

• What factors increase chances of having an early
  single, cohabiting, or marital birth?
• Have the determinants changed over time?
• What are the patterns for men?

4
Theoretical Framework

• Early births and their context are a reflection
  of opportunity costs and social norms.
• The opportunity costs of early parenthood may be
  smaller for men than for women.
• The effects of variables across different
  relationship contexts are indicative of whether
  cohabitation is an alternative to singlehood or
  marriage.

5
Data and Periods of Collection

• National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979
  (NLSY79) 1979 2002
• National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997
  (NLSY97) 1997 2002
• National Survey of Family Growth 2002 (NSFG)
  2002

6
First Birth Hazards NSFG Men and Women Born
75-84
7
Birth and Union Context Before 25, by Cohort
NSFG Men and Women
8
Birth and Union Context Before 25, by Cohort and
Race NSFG Men
9
Birth and Union Context Before 25, by Race and
Cohort NSFG Women
10
Competing Risk Models for Transitions to Single,
Cohabiting, and Married Fatherhood

• Discrete-time multinomial logit models of
  outcomes between ages 15 and 24
• No birth (reference group)
• Single birth
• Cohabiting birth
• Married birth
• Independent variables
• Age (yearly dummies), mothers education, mother
  worked when respondent was age 14, race-ethnicity
  (white, black, Hispanic), foreign born, family
  structure at age 14 (2 bio parent, single parent,
  step-parent, other)

11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
Conclusions

• Factors that increase chances of having an early
  nonmarital birth tend to increase chances of
  having a birth in any context, with some
  exceptions.
• Few factors significantly differentiate single,
  cohabiting, and marital births.
• Differences more pronounced for women than for
  men.

16
Directions for Future Analyses

• Address differences in determinants of
  relationship context of birth by age and race.
• Examine the influence of both partners
  characteristics on the relationship context of
  births.
• Consider measurement error in reports of
  cohabitation.
• Include time-varying covariates.