Multipartnered fertility: can it be reduced?

During the past five years, multipartnered fertility has gained recognition as a problem whose importance is perhaps equal to that of nonmarital childbearing, unintended childbearing and childbearing among women younger than age 18. Much of the data onmultipartnered fertility has come from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. In this issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Guzzo and Furstenberg add to the relatively sparse literature by examining the characteristics associated with multipartnered fertility among women who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). These characteristics include childbearing that begins early, outside of marriage and with a partner who has a weak relationship with the mother.