Out of Sequence: The Timing of Marriage Following a Premarital Birth

Abstract

Estimates of the time elapsed between premarital birth and subsequent marriage are presented using data from the 1973 National Survey of Family Growth. This study is a multistage area probability cross-sectional sample of households in the contiguous US. About 9800 women 15-44 years of age who had ever been married or who had children of their own living in the household were included. Variables include premarital birth cohort; age at premarital birth: education; geographic region; and race. Life table probabilities of not having married following a premarital birth at selected months for whites and blacks respectively are shown. Overall about 24% of white women marry within 6 months of premarital birth; 1/2 marry before 24 months; and over 3.4 marry before 48 months have passed. The median length of time between premarital birth and marriage for white women is 22.2 months. The results for white women with respect to education and region are not statistically significant. The results for black women show that they wait on the average much longer between premarital birth and marriage than do white women with a median of 46 months. The black-white differential increases with time. With respect to premarital birth cohort members of the 1955-9 cohort were the quickest to marry (a median of 43.0 months) but with little difference between members of other cohorts (medians of between 48 to 50 months). Considering education black women show dramatic differentials with women having more than 12 years of education marrying soonest. There is a differential between the South (median--42.6 months) and the Northeast (median--60 months). A proportional hazards model was constructed.