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Absence of healthcare and family planning services crucial

"Understanding Trends and Class Differences in Nonmarital Births"

Using birth, marriage, and divorce data from the U.S. Census, this study examines the stability in trends between 1920 and 2008. Our investigation substantiates the reactive nature of family trends to any intervention or change in its environment. We find that changes in family trends, which might have been initiated by changes in policies or other interventions, are permanent and do not fade away by reversing policies or interventions. Hence, family and consumer scientists, policymakers, and practitioners must explicitly allow for unstable trends when researching or targeting the dynamics of birth, marriage, and divorce, and prescribing interventions that they view as stabilizers of family dynamics.

The authors used the 2003 to 2012 American Time Use Survey to examine marital status variation in mothers' leisure time. They found that never‐married mothers have more total leisure but less high‐quality leisure when compared with married mothers. Never‐married mothers' leisure is concentrated in passive and socially isolated activities that offer fewer social and health benefits. Black single mothers have the highest amount of socially isolated leisure, particularly watching television alone. Results suggest that differences in the context and type of leisure are salient dimensions of the divergent and stratified life conditions of married, divorced, and single mothers.

Although the decline in marriage has been cited as a possible contributor to the “despair” afflicting marginalized White communities, these studies have not directly considered mortality by marital status. This paper uses complete death certificate data from the Mortality Multiple Cause Files with American Community Survey data to examine age-specific mortality rates for married and non-married people from 2007 to 2017. The overall rise in White mortality is limited almost exclusively to those who are not married, for men and women. By comparison, mortality for Blacks and Hispanics has fallen or remained flat regardless of marital status (except for young, single Hispanic men). Analysis by education level shows death rates have risen most for Whites with the lowest education, but have also increased for those with high school or some college. Because mortality has risen faster for unmarried Whites at all but the lowest education levels, there has been an increase in the marriage mortality ratio. Mortality differentials are an increasingly important component of the social hierarchy associated with marital status.

Research has documented a negative association between women’s educational attainment and early sexual intercourse, union formation, and pregnancy. However, the implications that school progression relative to age may have for the timing and order of such transitions are poorly understood. In this article, I argue that educational attainment has different implications depending on a student’s progression through school grades relative to her age. Using month of birth and age-at-school-entry policies to estimate the effect of advanced school progression by age, I show that it accelerates the occurrence of family formation and sexual onset among teenage women in Mexico. Focusing on girls aged 15–17 interviewed by a national survey, I find that those who progress through school ahead of their birth cohort have a higher probability of having had sex, been pregnant, and cohabited by the time of interview. I argue that this pattern of behaviors is explained by experiences that lead them to accelerate their transition to adulthood compared with same-age students with fewer completed school grades, such as exposure to relatively older peers in school and completing academic milestones earlier in life. Among girls who got pregnant, those with an advanced school progression by age are more likely to engage in drug use, alcohol consumption, and smoking before conception; more likely to have pregnancy-related health complications; and less likely to attend prenatal care visits. Thus, an advanced school progression by age has substantial implications for the health and well-being of young women, with potential intergenerational consequences.

Intersection of time use, family inequality, and well-being

Andrew Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University; Fran Goldscheider, MPRC

Age at first birth linked with varying opportunities and education level

Student loans have become a social-financial issue in the United States. This study uses a nationally representative dataset to examine the association between financial socialization and student loan borrowing behavior of individuals after controlling a number of different socio-demographic factors. Results show that the financial burdens of college education, such as borrowing and the dollar amounts of a loan, are higher for Blacks, however, their college attendance is significantly lower than Whites. Blacks are more independent and receive less financial support from family and relatives than Whites. The wealth gap that exists between Black and White parents may contribute to the disparity. Additional financial resources for higher education as well as financial education and counseling may be needed to create better academic access for the vulnerable underserved groups including minority students.