Racial-Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fatherhood in Early Adulthood

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Emerging Forms of Fatherhood

Abstract

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, this paper evaluates nonmarital fatherhood among 2,907 men – 1,597 White, 740 Black, and 570 Hispanic – ages 16 to 25. Young Black and Latino men are more likely to experience nonmarital fatherhood and disparities cannot be reduced to economic explanations. The results also highlight the differential influence of school enrollment and cohabitation on White, Black, and Latino men’s risk of fatherhood outside of marriage. Decomposition analyses partition racial-ethnic disparities in nonmarital fatherhood into parts explained by observed racial-ethnic inequalities in social, economic, and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that compositional factors moderately contribute to the racial-ethnic variation in nonmarital fatherhood, and the differences are due more to sex behaviors and family background than young men’s economic capacities. Characterized by disadvantage, early nonmarital fatherhood not only adversely influences the well-being of men and their children but exacerbates racial-ethnic inequalities.

Author

• Kimberly Turner, Cornell University