Illegitimate Births Research Articles

Out-of-Wedlock Births in Israel

Evidence on trends and differentials in out-of-wedlock births in Israel are examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of variation in out-of-wedlock births by selected social-demographic variables associated with immigration patterns and origin groups. The data show that out-of-wedlock births in Israel are concentrated among the least educated, young women residents of large urban centers. However, the relationship between these variables and out-of-wedlock births are complicated by factors of ethnic origin, generation, and recency of arrival in Israel. The Israeli data suggest the need to modify generally held hypotheses about patterns of illegitimate births and point to the importance of investigating variations in out-of-wedlock births for areas where national levels are low as well as areas where levels are high.

The Resolution of Teenage First Pregnancies

First conceptions occuring in tennage women in the U.S., the outcomes of the pregnancies, the marital status of the teenage women at conception and at the outcome, whether the pregnancy was intended or not, and whether contraception was used to prevent the pregnancy are discussed. It was determined that 30% of a cross section of teenage women have had premarital intercourse and 58% of those married had premarital intercourse. Of those experiencing premarital intercourse, 30% were pregnant before marriage, i.e., fewer than 10% of all females 15-19. Twice as many blacks have premarital intercourse than whites, and twice as many of these become pregnant. 35% of those who have a premarital first pregnancy marry before the baby is born. 64% of premarital first pregnancies are unintended. Of those who did not want to become pregnant, 13-16% used contraception to prevent the premarital pregnancy. 86% of births to blacks from first pregnancies are illegitimate compared with 23% for whites. More than 1/5 of the women who do not marry end the pregnancy by induced abortion. White teenagers who do not marry prior to the outcome of the pregnancy are 7 times more likely to have an induced abortion than blacks. 18% of the whites who have illegitimate births from first pregnancies give up their children for adoption compared with 2% blacks. Fewer than 30% of postmarital first pregnancies of teenage women are unintended. Blacks appear to display less anxiety than whites over illegitimate births. It may be that escape via abortion and marriage is less accessible to blacks than to whites both economically and psychologically.

The Effects of Legal Abortion on Legitimate and Illegitimate Birth Rates: The California Experience

The availability of legal abortion in California appeared to affect California fertility in 1971 with a downward trend in both legitimate and illegitimate births. In 1972 legitimate birth rates continued to fall as rapidly as in 1971 but illegitimacy rates declined less rapidly. Unmarried women continued to be the dominant recipients of legal abortion. Illegitimacy remained at a high level, however, and its rise among white teenagers pointed to the phenomena of women deliberately electing unwed motherhood.

Latent morbidity after abortion.

A recent paper by M. Wynn and A. Wynn warns against long-term effects of abortion, designated "latent morbidity." Present practice of a short follow-up period is said to be inadequate. After several years the morbidity rate may be 30%. Increases in subsequent perinatal deaths, premature births, ectopic pregnancies, pelvic inflammation, menstrual disorders, and subsequent sterility are said to follow. A statistically significant increase in premature labors, more frequent postpartum hemorrhage, more spontaneous abortions, rhesus isoimmunization, and even congenital malformations are claimed to result. Since 1970, the number of illegitimate births in Britain are said to have only slightly decreased. Abortion is referred to as being used to replace a contraceptive method. The effect of human behavior is questioned. It may be argued that the case is overstated but the supporters of abortion need to reply.

Unmarried Mothers in Australia: A Review

An increase in both illegitimate births and in the number of single women retaining their offspring has become evident in all Commonwealth industrialized English‐speaking countries. It is shown that women who bear ex‐nuptial children are getting younger, and that about 40 per cent are keeping their children. All States show a gradual increase in ex‐nuptial births, with those in Western Australia and Queensland rising to over 10 per cent of annual live births for the areas. Further research is needed on single women in Australia who keep their children.

A study of premarital pregnancy.

A study of premarital pregnancy was conducted anong all the women under 30 years of age in Whatcom County Washington who married for the 1st time in 1968. Using data from marriage and birth certificates it was determined that 20.4% of the women were pregnant at marriage. The proportion of women who were pregnant at marriage decreased with both age and education. The mean age at marriage for pregnant brides was 1 1/2 years less than for women not pregnant at marriage. Approximately 90% of all marriages were in religious ceremonies and 10% were in civil ceremonies. This proportion held true for both groups with the exception that pregnant brides over 33 weeks pregnant more often chose civil ceremonies. The median time interval between the date of conception and the date of marriage was 13.1 weeks. For the study year the number of illegitimate births totalled about 1.3 of the total premarital pregnancies (the others having been legitimized by marriage). Results of the study point out the necessity for family planning services in the County.

Current events and human coitus

Menaker (1970) presented evidence that the daily live-birth conception rate in New York City is about 300-400, and that on the night of the blackout there were possibly 80 (20-25%) fewer. In contrast, he notes evidence that of the City's married couples in the reproductive age range, more than 50% must have been separated on the night in question. So it seems that one copulatory consequence of the blackout was a substantial number of live-birth conceptions to partners not married to one another. One would suppose that births per day in a maternity hospital might roughly form a Poisson distribution. Udry quotes evidence that on one day roughly nine months after the blackout, Mount Sinai Hospital (which averages 11 births per day) had 28. The sum of the terms of the expansion of e-mm/x! for m 11 and x = 28, 29, 30 * * * is 0.000012. So Mount Sinai Hospital was the scene of an unusual occurrence on that day. It seems worth asking whether that hospital has a high proportion of illegitimate births or whether its catchment area contains a large number of women who were, for some reason, at additional risk that night.

Outcome of illegitimate conceptions in a black population.

Pregnancy wastage and illegitimacy have been studied in a sample of 990 urban black females. Education and age are important factors in explaining the percentage of conceptions that eventually become illegitimate births. Relatively few women in the sample appear to have turned to abortion as a means of terminating illegitimate pregnancies. Moreover, few women see the necessity of marrying to legitimize a conception. Thus, pregnancy wastage among urban black females may be less prevalent than is generally assumed.

Social class and season of birth.

In all societies for which data exist, there is seasonality in the incidence of births, a major cause of which in the UK appears to be season ality in sexual activity.In contrast to the findings of Cowgill for earlier periods in other places, there has recently been in Great Britain a greater degree of seasonality in legitimate than in illegitimate births and in upper-class than in lower-class births.Part of the explanation of the change in illegitimate seasonality could be the recent increase in the numbers of illegitimate births. The greater seasonality of upper-class births could be due to longer and more mobile holidays.

Abortion in New York City: The First Nine Months

An analysis of New York Citys experience in providing approximately 47000 abortions in the first 9 months (July 1 1970-March 31 1971) after the states liberalized abortion law went into effect shows that safe prompt terminations of pregnancy can be performed upon women of all socioeconomic groups. The morbidity rate was 5.7% for abortions under 12 weeks and 28% for those over 12 weeks. Hospital admissions for septic abortions and illegitimate births decreased to the lowest point since such data have been recorded. The data indicate that women have sought and obtained abortions earlier in pregnancy and abortion mortality rates have markedly decreased. Legal abortions should help reduce the incidence of infant mortality by reducing the number of high-risk pregnancies encouraging birth spacing and averting unwanted births.

Psychology of the misuse and rejection of contraception

It is obvious from the large number of illegitimate births, legally and illegally induced abortions, and legitimate but undesired pregnancies in this country and abroad that contraceptive measures are commonly ignored or actively rejected by a substantial proportion of coitally active human beings who consciously deny procreative intent. While many of the reasons for misuse or rejection of contraception are included within the commonly discussed areas of contraceptive knowledgeability, acceptability, availability, cost, religious proscription, etc., innumerable other reasons, principally in the psychological and intersonal relationship realms, are also operative, consciously and unconsciously, in both partners. Many of these other reasons have been examined, and their ultimate influence on the concept of control of population growth by contraceptive means is discussed. Even with the future availability of an “ideal” contraceptive, it is probable for reasons of psychology rather than technology that social systems which require or allow volitional and individually initiated contraceptive use as the sole method for population control will fail to accomplish that goal.

NEEDED RESEARCH ON CURRENT POPULATION TRENDS

Modern demography is criticized for its emphasis on reproductive biology and its failure to substantially incorporate the sociological determinents of fertility into attitudinal and contraceptive research. Current studies relate most to psychological theories while the prime factor in classical analysis of fertility declines in Western countries is industrialization which affords new options for social mobility and consequently motivates the more ambitious to reduce family responsibilities. Based in part on market research methods applied to a new type of consumer demand current antinatalist policy concentrates on the availability of contraceptive and family size attitudes. This family planning tactic has effectively cut fertility only where the socioeconomic environment itself generated antinatalist attitudes--e.g. a few atypical countries transitional to economic development (Taiwan South Korea Puerto Rico) and the minuscule westernized elites of the major underdeveloped countries. A crucial example is the failure of Indias 20-year program to completely reduce fertility rates. Research facilitating changes in institutional structures which would be antinatalist in effect includes the following topics: 1) illegitimate births; 2) socialization in family norms; 3) joint and nuclear family structure; 4) nonmarriage; 5) childless marriage; 6) age at marriage; 7) family subsidies; 8) antinatalist payments; 9) working wives.

A DIGEST OF THREE PAPERS BY JOSEPH D. BEASLEY*

2 family planning programs operating in New Orleans and Lincoln Parish Louisiana between 1965 and 1967 are reviewed to refute the concept that indigent women and those who have experienced out-of-wedlock pregnancies are uninterested in fertility control. Studies conducted prior to the inception of both programs determined a lack of reproductive and contraceptive knowledge among lower socioeconomic couples rather than a lack of motivation. The population of rural Lincoln Parish is 41.8% black and the median annual family income ranges between $2000 and $3000. 50% had delivered out-of-wedlock the median age was 23.6 years and the majority displayed low parity. In the New Orleans program annual family incomes were below $4500 and 95.7% of the patients were black (primarily because poor whites were unwilling to attend integrated clinics). Birth records from public and charity hospitals were used to identify patients and priority contact was given to current postpartum patients followed by high-risk mothers who had delivered in the past 2 years. Low-risk women were contacted last. Contact with postpartum mothers was made 1 or 2 days after birth by a program nurse and included an individual education session literature and the offer of an appointment 4 to 6 weeks later. High and low-risk women were contacted by family planning auxiliary workers selected from the indigent population and trained in reproductive physiology contraceptive techniques and program orientation. Auxiliary workers were responsible for the program follow-up system which increased the total number of first admissions by 22% in New Orleans. Patients received a call or letter after missing their first appointment and a home visit after a second cancellation. Data from the Lincoln Parish programs second year of operation showed a significant decrease (47%) among indigent illegitimate births and other pertinent indices. In New Orleans 96% of the first admissions accepted some form of birth control. Oral contraceptives were chosen by 62% of the women and the IUD was chosen by 20% compared to previous usage levels of 24% and .2% respectively. 88% of the first admissions remained with the program over an 18-month period. Both Louisiana programs demonstrate that successful acceptance of family planning by indigents depends upon the design and provision of adequate maternal health services which stress privacy freedom of choice and sustained personal contact.

Do conception delays explain some changes in twinning rates?

The probability of a twin birth depends strongly and almost equally on the age of the mother and on the number of children she has had. Even when these variables are held constant, the frequency of twinning varies between countries or geographic regions and between years or decades. This variation has been thought perhaps to result from economic and environmental factors, but another explanation can be suggested.Bulmer (1959) found that twins are frequent among the earliest conceptions after marriage. Eriksson and Fellman (1967) found twins to be frequent among illegitimate births and suggested that the mothers of twins conceive more easily than other women; in other words, that they are more fecundable. We can present some new evidence for this hypothesis, and we believe that high fecundability in the mothers of twins can account for variations in the twinning rate.Fig. 1 shows the wide range of twinning rates in the US white population, in different parts of the country and for three periods, centering on 1937, 1954 and 1964. The nine geographic divisions are shown in descending order according to the twinning rates in 1937. The two regions at the right, with the lowest rates in 1937, had nearly stable twinning rates over the three time periods. They are the oldest and most urban parts of the country.

Standardization procedures in the analysis of cross-national variations in illegitimacy measures.

SummaryAlthough an interest in illegitimacy as a societal phenomenon is often limited by the scarcity of data, we may utilize recognized procedures of standardization in estimating illegitimacy ratios and rates where none are reported.When we know only the age-specific marital status of women in the childbearing years (15 to 44) we may utilize age-specific legitimate and illegitimate fertility rates of the high and low illegitimacy countries, Jamaica and Japan, to estimate the range within which a national ratio would fall. In all there are sixty-eight major countries of the world for which we have that minimum data on age and marital status of females.Some of those countries also report the number and percentage of illegitimate births but offer no information on age-specific rates. In those cases we may compare the ratios produced by the four model sets of rates (run against actual age and marital status for the sixty-eight nations) with the ratio actually reported by individual countries. Where the ratio produced by a model matches the reported ratio, with similar crude birth rates, we may assume similar age-specific legitimate and illegitimate fertility rates. Even where there is no perfect match we still learn something of the general pattern of rates.Finally, the output of the standardization procedure also allows a comparison of the relative importance of marital status versus differential illegitimate fertility rates in determining the percentage of births out of wedlock.While we must recognize the problems inherent in international comparisons of illegitimacy, the subject is of such significance that we cannot and we need not wait for more, or more perfect, data to be available. Rather, an increased interest in maximizing whatever comparative data we do find, may, in itself, aid in the improvement of methods and reliability of collection and publication of relevant information.

Assessment of a Family Planning Program: Contraceptive Services and Fertility in Atlanta, Georgia

From 1963 to 1968 clinic enrollment in the Emory University Family Planning Program at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta doubled. The Program serves almost two-thirds of the contraceptors served by the 4 Atlanta family planning agencies. Contraceptors in the Program who were from the Fulton County part of Atlanta were studied. These contraceptors could be characterized as largely Negro women (91.7%), in the age group 15-24 (57.3%), and unmarried slightly more often than married (51.3%). Over the 3-year period from 1965 to 1968 whites and Negroes in Atlanta in Fulton County had average yearly declines in crude birth rates of 5.5% and 6.2% respectively. From 1960-1967 there was a 133.2% total increase in illegitimate births for whites of all age groups. Among the Negroes there was a slight increase for those under 20 (7.2%) but decreases of 12% and 17.4% for the age groups 20-29 and over 30 as compared to increases of 106.7% and 147.9% for the whites in the same age groups. It seems fertility decline in Atlanta is at least partly due to the Grady Hospital Program.

Family planning in Baltimore City--1960-1966.

Data were collected on the 12000 women (representing 2% of the white and 16% of the nonwhite women of reproductive ages in the city) who received oral or intrauterine contraception between June 1960 and May 1966 from the 16 public clinics in Baltimore (6 City Health Department clinics 6 hospital clinics and 4 Planned Parenthood clinics) and analyzed to determine the characteristics of receivers and the impact of the program on the citys birth rate. Of the total group 84% were nonwhite; 1/2 were under 25 years of age with nonwhites significantly younger than whites (all significance levels = .01% and oral users younger than IUD users. 45% had 2 children or less nonwhites having more children than whites and IUD contraceptors having larger families than oral users. Over 1/2 the women came from the lower 2 socioeconomic fifths and those accepting oral contraception were from lower socioeconomic levels than those accepting IUDs. 28% were unmarried which included 32% of the nonwhites and 8% of the whites and IUDs were accepted by a higher proportion of these women than were pills. Of the 3 services the City Health Department was especially effective in reaching women who needed contraception the most as suggested by their socioeconomic levels young ages and high parities. Continuation rates for IUDs (63% still using after 1 year) were high compared to those for oral contraception (54% still using after 1 year). The necessity of frequent return visits for oral contraceptors and ease of discontinuance of the method were 2 suggested explanations for this difference. The characteristics of acceptors suggest that the citys birth rate may have been affected by these services. Although the rate has been declining since 1957 it has dropped particularly fast recently: from 19.3 and 30.9 per 1000 population for white and nonwhites respectively in 1964 to 15.6 and 25.3 in 1967. The program has probably been ineffective in preventing first illegitimate births among teenagers although once a woman has had a child she is reached regardless of her marital status. Statistics of new acceptors for the first 3 years have suggested a quick increase followed by a leveling off.

Recent Trends and Differentials in Illegitimacy

The steady increase in the annual number of illegitimate births since 1940 has led to a widespread public concern for the causes and consequences of illegitimacy. Trends and differentials in the incidence of illegitimacy since 1940 are described in this paper. The analysis is based principally on the illegitimacy rate, which is the number of illegitimate births per 1,000 unmarried women 15-44 years of age. This measure is particularly useful because it relates illegitimate births to the population at risk. All of the measures indicate that the prevalence of illegitimacy has increased over the past 26 years, but there have been several distinct intervals in this period. The illegitimacy rate, for example, nearly doubled from 1940 (7.1) to 1950 (14.1). The rate continued to rise rapidly until 1957 (21.0); since then it has risen only slightly and now appears to be declining. By 1966, the rate was 23.4, or only 11 percent higher than in 1957. The differences in illegitimacy between the white and nonwhite population are wide. Although the measures of illegitimacy have always been higher for the nonwhite than for the white population, this differential has been declining in recent years. Other important differentials in illegitimacy can be seen when the births are classified by age of mother and live-birth order. Socioeconomic status is considered an important factor in accounting for differentials in illegitimacy. Our inability to account satisfactorily for the increasing prevalence of illegitimacy or for the differentials in illegitimacy clearly demonstrates the need for more research.

Explaining Divorce to Children

In the current decade, 25% of marriages in this country end in legal divorce. Two of every three divorces involve offspring, thus affecting more than half a million children. Some 300,000 desertions and 250,000 illegitimate births annually add to these statistics. One of every four minor children lives in a broken home. The problem looms ominously large. Edited by Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, who has also contributed a prologue and the most poetic chapter in the book, this brief volume fulfills a distinct need, although somewhat imperfectly. Contributors from all relevant ranks have written thoughtful, often moving essays. All emphasize preference for secure, one-parent households over striferidden, overwrought homes with two parents. Fewer disturbed children, less juvenile delinquency, and greater emotional security occur in the former milieu. Divorce is better than a hate-ridden, quarrel-filled marriage. However, if at all possible, divorce even though ultimately inevitable, should be postponed until the

Demographic analysis of data on illegitimate births.

Demographic analysis of data on illegitimate births.