Cohabitation is an integral part of family research; however, little work examines cohabitation among teenagers or links between cohabitation and teenage childbearing. Drawing on the National Survey of Family Growth (2006-10), we examine family formation activities (i.e., cohabitation, marriage, and childbearing) of 3,945 15-19 year old women from the mid 1990s through 2010. One-third (34%) of ...

Substance abuse poses significant health risks to childbearing-aged women in the United States and, for those who become pregnant, to their children. Alcohol is the most prevalent substance consumed by childbearing-aged women, followed by tobacco, and a variety of illicit drugs. Substance use in the preconception period predicts substance use during the prenatal period. Evidence-based methods f...

A model is proposed in which women change the timing of childbearing and duration of time not working following childbearing in order to mitigate any adverse effects of the demographic cycle upon their lifetime wages. The authors explore the reduced-form empirical implications of their model and estimate the importance of the responses using data from three cohorts of the National Longitudinal...

Fertility preferences are an essential component of family planning program evaluation; however, doubts about their validity in sub-Saharan Africa exist and little methodological assessment has been carried out. This study investigates prospective fertility intentions in terms of their temporal stability, intensity, degree of spousal agreement, and association with future childbearing in northe...

The role of adult men in adolescent childbearing has received heightened attention in recent years, and a new policy efforts have focused on statutory rape laws as a way to reduce adolescent childbearing. Analyses of the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey indicate, however, that these policies would not apply to most teenage births. Among mothers aged 15-17 who had a child in 1988,...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Adolescent childbearing in the United States continues to occur at high rates compared with other industrialized nations, despite a recent decline. Adolescent mothers and their offspring are at risk for negative outcomes. Recent literature exploring the consequences of teenage childbearing and interventions to ameliorate these consequences are presented. RECENT FINDINGS Nega...

In modern societies, the proportion of women who delay childbearing beyond the age of 35 years has greatly increased in recent decades. They are falsely reassured by popular beliefs that advances in new reproductive technologies can compensate for the age-related decline in fertility. Yet age remains the single most important determinant of male and female fertility, either natural or treated. ...

We document a negative association between nonmarital childbearing and the subsequent likelihood of first marriage in the United States, controlling for a variety of potentially confounding influences. Nonmarital childbearing does not appear to be driven by low expectations of future marriage. Rather, it tends to be an unexpected and unwanted event, whose effects on a woman's subsequent likelih...

Statistical analysis of a large and unique longitudinal data-set demonstrates that childbearing after age 35 or 40 is associated with survival and healthy survival among very old Chinese women and men. The association is stronger for women than for men. The estimates are adjusted for a variety of confounding factors: demographic characteristics, family support, social connections, health practi...