James J. Kemple

Introducing the Issue

Nonmarital childbearing increased dramati- cally in the United States during the latter half of the twentieth century, changing the context in which American children are raised. The proportion of all children born to unmarried parents grew tenfold over a seventy-year period—from about 4 percent in 1940 to nearly 40 percent in 2007. The overall impact of these changes has been greatest for African Americans and Hispan- ics, with seven out of ten black babies and half of Hispanic babies now being born to unmarried parents. 1