IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pri/crcwel/wp18-03-ff.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Racial Differences in Marital Outcomes among Unmarried Mothers: The Influence of Perceived Marital Benefits and Expectations

Author

Listed:
  • Calvina Ellerbe

    (University of North Carolina Pembroke)

Abstract

Family formation in American society increasingly begins with a birth. Given the important benefits that married, biological parents have for children it is important to examine marriage formation among unmarried parents. The present study investigates the influence that perceived marital benefits and marital expectations have on marriage formation among unmarried mothers with an examination of racial/ethnic differences. Large racial differences in perceived marital benefits and marital expectations were present. Black mothers perceived that marriage would be more beneficial than white mothers, but they did not expect that they would develop a marital relationship with their baby's father as often as white mothers. Perceptions and expectations were strong predictors of marriage among black, white and Hispanic mothers and were useful for explaining racial differences in marital outcomes. Positive expectations to marry increased the odds of marriage while positive perceptions of benefits decreased the likelihood of marriage.

Suggested Citation

  • Calvina Ellerbe, 2018. "Racial Differences in Marital Outcomes among Unmarried Mothers: The Influence of Perceived Marital Benefits and Expectations," Working Papers wp18-03-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:crcwel:wp18-03-ff
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/sites/fragilefamilies/files/wp18-03-ff.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick Royston, 2004. "Multiple imputation of missing values," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(3), pages 227-241, September.
    2. Linda Waite, 1995. "Does marriage matter?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(4), pages 483-507, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. G. Miller & Yuriy Pylypchuk, 2014. "Marital Status, Spousal Characteristics, and the Use of Preventive Care," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 323-338, September.
    2. Harald Schoen, 2008. "Identity, Instrumental Self-Interest and Institutional Evaluations," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 5-29, March.
    3. Julia S. Goldberg, 2011. "Identity Salience and Involvement among Resident and Nonresident Fathers," Working Papers 1323, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    4. Miriam Marcén & Marina Morales, 2019. "Live together: does culture matter?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 671-713, June.
    5. Hilde Coffe & Catherine Bolzendahl, 2011. "Gender Gaps in Political Participation Across Sub-Saharan African Nations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 245-264, June.
    6. Ronald Mincy & Jennifer Hill & Marilyn Sinkewicz, 2009. "Marriage: Cause or mere indicator of future earnings growth?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 417-439.
    7. John Bound & Michael F. Lovenheim & Sarah Turner, 2010. "Why Have College Completion Rates Declined? An Analysis of Changing Student Preparation and Collegiate Resources," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 129-157, July.
    8. von Hinke Kessler Scholder S, 2009. "Genetic Markers as Instrumental Variables: An Application to Child Fat Mass and Academic Achievement," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/25, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    9. Audrey Light & Yoshiaki Omori, 2009. "Economic Incentives and Family Formation," Working Papers 09-08, Ohio State University, Department of Economics.
    10. Natalia Krüger & Axel McCallum & Víctor Volman, 2020. "Segregación escolar por nivel socioeconómico: disparidades entre las provincias argentinas," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4362, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    11. Newton, Nicky J. & Ryan, Lindsay H. & King, Rachel T. & Smith, Jacqui, 2014. "Cohort differences in the marriage–health relationship for midlife women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 64-72.
    12. Missinne, Sarah & Colman, Elien & Bracke, Piet, 2013. "Spousal influence on mammography screening: A life course perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 63-70.
    13. Ethan T. Hunt & Bridget Armstrong & Brie M. Turner-McGrievy & Michael W. Beets & Robert G. Weaver, 2021. "Differences by School Location in Summer and School Monthly Weight Change: Findings from a Nationally Representative Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-12, November.
    14. Robert Weech-Maldonado & Michael J. Miller & Justin C. Lord, 2017. "The Relationships among Socio-Demographics, Perceived Health, and Happiness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 289-302, June.
    15. repec:pri:crcwel:wp12-10-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Davi B. Costa, 2021. "Benefits of marriage as a search strategy," Papers 2108.04885, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2021.
    17. Shoham, David A. & Vupputuri, Suma & Kaufman, Jay S. & Kshirsagar, Abhijit V. & Diez Roux, Ana V. & Coresh, Josef & Heiss, Gerardo, 2008. "Kidney disease and the cumulative burden of life course socioeconomic conditions: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1311-1320, October.
    18. Elizabeth Washbrook & Paul Gregg & Carol Propper, 2014. "A decomposition analysis of the relationship between parental income and multiple child outcomes," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 177(4), pages 757-782, October.
    19. Kulic, Nevena, 2013. "The type and duration of family unions and income sharing: The implications for women's economic well-being," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 7-15.
    20. Jennifer March Augustine, 2016. "Exploring New Life Course Patterns of Mother’s Continuing Secondary and College Education," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(6), pages 727-755, December.
    21. Robin S. H�gn�s & Marcia J. Carlson, 2009. "Intergenerational Relationships and Union Stability in Fragile Families," Working Papers 1174, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    expectations; perceptions; marriage; race; nonmarital births;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pri:crcwel:wp18-03-ff. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bobray Bordelon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ccprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.