The Consequences of Premarital Fatherhood

Abstract

This study which focuses on how marriage and cohabitation explain the socioeconomic effects of premarital fatherhood opens by reviewing the literature on premarital fatherhood. Particular emphasis is placed on the three approaches used to explain why men do not marry the mothers of their children (portraying young men as sexual predators; focusing on the structural aspects of marriage and employment markets that mitigate against marriage; and noting that women have alternatives to marriage). The study hypothesis that premarital fatherhood increases the likelihood of cohabitation is based on the notion that marriage automatically entails significant obligations. The idea that marriage is a form of social capital that confers access to other people for support also helps explain the lower socioeconomic status of unmarried fathers. Data from the first 15 years of the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were used to determine prevalence of premarital fertility among men. Reported findings covered 1) how the likelihoods of marriage and nonmarital cohabitation are conditioned by premarital fatherhood and 2) socioeconomic outcomes in terms of total earnings year-round employment educational attainment and poverty status. It was found that premarital fatherhood is associated with a range of negative socioeconomic consequences as including less schooling lower earnings less employment and greater likelihood of living in poverty. Some of these consequences are the result of self selection effects but many appear to be caused by unmarried fatherhood.