Marriage and Nonmarital Childbearing: The Role of Neighborhood Factors

Amy C. Butler
308 NH
School of Social Work
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
amy-c-butler@uiowa.edu
Purpose:  During the past several decades, the norm of marriage followed by childbearing has weakened considerably.  Increasingly, women are delaying marriage and are bearing children outside of marriage.  The objective of this study is to understand the factors that influence the choices of young, low-income women regarding marriage and nonmarital childbearing.  Using ideas proposed by William J. Wilson, this study explores the role that neighborhood and local labor market characteristics play in young women's marital and childbearing decisions.
 
Methods:  This study used data for 989 low-income women, age 18 to 24, from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.  These data were supplemented with neighborhood and local labor market data derived from the decennial censuses and the Current Population Surveys.  Multinomial logic analysis was used to determine how various factors influenced young women's decisions to marry, to bear a child prior to marriage, or to remain single and childless.
 
Results:  After controlling for family background factors, characteristics of the neighborhood and the local labor market played a significant role in young, low-income women's decisions regarding marriage and nonmarital childbearing.  Influential neighborhood characteristics included economic factors (i.e., the ratio of employed men to women and median wages of men and women) and role-model factors (i.e., the proportion of adults holding managerial or professional occupations and the proportion of adults with at least a high school education).
 
Implications:  Neighborhood role models and economic opportunities may be points of intervention for policies intended to delay nonmarital childbearing among young, low-income women.  A greater presence of educated, working people in the neighborhood discourages nonmarital childbearing, whereas a greater ratio of employed men to women and higher median male wage rates encourage marriage.