Life Course Antecedents of Premarital Conception in Great Britain

Abstract

England and Wales have experienced since the late 1950s continuing increases in the number and proportion of out-of-wedlock births among teenagers. The author employs a life course perspective to examine possible antecedents of premarital and marital conceptions early in the lives of young men and women in Great Britain. Findings are based upon data for 5167 women and 5585 men from the British National Child Development Study. Significant antecedents of premarital conceptions for both sexes include low socioeconomic status low adolescent social adjustment and a family environment characterized by parent-child arguing parental divorce or separation or a family history of nonmarital fertility. Pubertal development is only weakly related to premarital conceptions. The author also compares findings to analyses of marital conception for the same cohort.