Title

Is Marriage Protective for all Children? Cumulative Risks at Birth and Subsequent Child Behavior among Urban Families

Author(s)

Cynthia Osborne Cynthia Osborne (University of Texas, Austin)

Abstract

Today, 37% of all births are to unmarried mothers (Hamilton, Martin, & Ventura, 2006). This represents a doubling in nonmarital childbearing in the past 25 years. Reducing nonmarital childbearing and promoting marriage among unmarried parents have become major policy concerns because, although the increase in nonmarital births has occurred at all education levels and among all race/ethnic groups, the trends have disproportionately affected lower educated and minority women (Ellwood & Jencks, 2004), which is fueling the growing inequality in this country. A concern is that two very different trajectories have been created for children; one for children born to married parents that is largely advantageous and one for children born to unmarried mothers that is beset with multiple risks.

Creation Date

2007-03

Section URL ID

CRCW

Paper Number

WP07-09-FF.pdf

URL

https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/sites/fragilefamilies/files/wp07-09-ff.pdf

File Function

Jel

Keyword(s)

Suppress

false

Series

8