Context of Interracial Childbearing in the United States

Abstract

Previous studies often identify multiracial individuals through children born to intermarried parents and overlook those born to unmarried interracial parents. Using natality microdata from National Center for Health Statistics in the United States, we examine patterns and trends of births born to interracial parents regardless of mothers’ marital status. Births born to interracial parents have been increasing steadily from 5% in 1980 to 14% in 2016. Interracial fertility varies greatly by parents’ racial pairing and mothers’ educational attainment and context of childbearing play an important role. Children born to interracial parents of whom one is African American tend to have mothers who are unmarried and do not have completed college education. In contrast, children born to Asian American-white parents tend to have mothers who are married and have completed college. Hispanic-white and American Indian-white parents have the patterns in the middle. Our results show that children born to interracial parents outside marriage are more likely to have mothers with less education than those in marriage. These unmarried parents are most likely to involve a black partner and least likely to involve an Asian American partner. Indeed, social boundaries among multiracial individuals are not created equal and integration of multiracial populations depends on race and ethnicity, context of childbearing, and socioeconomic resources.