Karen Benjamin Guzzo

New Partners, More Kids: Multiple-Partner Fertility in the United States

Declining rates of marriage and overall increases in union instability, combined with high levels of unintended and nonmarital fertility, create the possibility for parents to have children with more than one partner, called multiple-partner fertility, or MPF. The unique characteristics of families with MPF present data and other logistical challenges to researchers studying the phenomenon. Drawing from recent studies and updated data, I present new estimates of MPF that show that about 13 percent of men aged 40 to 44 and 19 percent of women aged 41 to 49 have children with more than one partner, with a higher prevalence among the disadvantaged. Compared to parents with two or more children by only one partner, people with MPF become parents at younger ages, largely with unintended first births, and often do so outside of marriage. This article touches on the implications of MPF for families and concludes by discussing the theoretical difficulties in studying MPF and the challenges it presents to public policy.

Understanding the Complexity of Ambivalence Toward Pregnancy: Does It Predict Inconsistent Use of Contraception?

Ambivalence towards future pregnancy is common and may increase the risk of unprotected sex and unintended pregnancy. We propose that ambivalent attitudes toward pregnancy consist of subtypes that are differentially associated with contraceptive use. Using data from a nationally representative survey of unmarried young adults (N = 1,147), we constructed four categories of ambivalence based on attitudes toward a hypothetical pregnancy. Multivariate analyses examined characteristics of ambivalence and the association between ambivalence and contraceptive use. Approximately one third of sexually active unmarried young adults are ambivalent about pregnancy. Having positive ambivalence (important to avoid a pregnancy but would be happy if it occurred) is associated with age, gender, education, and Hispanic origin. Although ambivalence toward pregnancy is associated with lower contraceptive use, this is true only among women with negative ambivalence (not important to avoid a pregnancy but would be unhappy if a pregnancy occurred). Attitudes toward pregnancy are multifaceted, and a more nuanced understanding of women’s attitudes toward pregnancy can help target prevention programs and related policies for women at risk of unintended pregnancy.

Repeat Unintended, Unwanted and Seriously Mistimed Childbearing in the United States

CONTEXT The high level of unintended fertility in the United States is a serious public health issue. Whether unintended fertility occurs across the population or is concentrated among a subset of women who experience multiple unintended births is unclear. METHODS Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth were used to determine levels of unintended, unwanted and seriously mistimed childbearing, and chi-square and t tests were used to identify group differences in these measures, in two cohorts of women (those born in 1958-1962 and those born in 1965-1969). Both births (by ages 33-37) and mothers were used as units of analysis. RESULTS The proportion of births identified as unintended was greater in the 1965-1969 cohort than in the earlier cohort (37% vs. 34%), largely because a higher proportion of births to women in the former cohort were unwanted. In both cohorts, more than a third of women (36-41%) reporting at least one unintended birth had had at least one more, and women reporting unintended or unwanted births had higher overall fertility than others. Levels of repeat unintended fertility were greatest among black women, and the proportion of blacks who reported two or more unwanted births was 94% higher in the 1965-1969 cohort than in the 1958-1962 cohort (19% vs. 10%). CONCLUSIONS Repeat unintended fertility is common, especially among black women, who may differ from other groups in their contraceptive and fertility decisions as well as in their access to and ability to afford family planning services.

Fertility Following an Unintended First Birth

Research on unintended fertility tends to focus on births as isolated events. This article expands previous research by examining the relationship between early unintended childbearing and subsequent fertility dynamics in the United States. Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth show that 27.5% of mothers report an unintended first birth. We use event history methods to show that these women are significantly more likely than women with an intended first birth to have an unintended second birth than to have either no second birth or an intended second birth, net of sociodemographic characteristics. An unintended first birth also increases the risk of having an unintended third birth relative to no birth or an intended birth, independent of the intendedness of the second birth. We conclude that early unintended fertility is a strong signal of high risk for subsequent unintended fertility.

Single Mothers, Single Fathers: Gender Differences in Fertility After a Nonmarital Birth

Research on nonmarital fertility has focused almost exclusively on unmarried mothers, due in part to a lack of fertility information for men. Cycle 6 of the National Survey of Family Growth allows exploration of nonmarital fertility for both genders.The authors compare the characteristics of unmarried first-time mothers (n = 2,455) and fathers (n = 797), use event history techniques to model second-birth hazards, and examine the distribution of men’s and women’s second births across types of relationships. The authors’ analysis is motivated by questions about how selection into nonmarital fertility relates to subsequent fertility behavior and by theories of mate selection and the “relationship” market. The authors found that unmarried mothers are more likely to have a second birth than unmarried fathers, driven largely by a higher hazard of having a noncoresidential second birth.

Fertility and the Stability of Cohabiting Unions Variation by Intendedness

An extensive body of research demonstrates that children increase the stability of marriage, but it is unclear whether the same is true for cohabitation. Marital stability theories often assume fertility is intended, which is less likely to be the case for cohabiting births. Using the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, we find that intended and disagreed-upon pregnancies (but not unintended pregnancies) reduce the risk of dissolution relative to women who have no pregnancy or birth. Relative to nonfertile couples, all pregnancies increase the risk of marriage over staying cohabiting, but there is little difference in the odds of stability or transitions after birth. However, relative to an intended birth, having an unintended or disagreed-upon birth increases the risk of dissolution. These findings suggest that normative pressures influence the union behaviors of cohabitors during pregnancy, whereas selection processes and rational choice considerations play a greater role after a birth.

Shifts in Higher-Order Unions and Stepfamilies Among Currently Cohabiting and Married Women of Childbearing Age

Shifts in union formation and childbearing have undoubtedly altered the prevalence and structure of higher-order unions and stepfamilies, but no study has examined trends over time. Comparing the 1988 and 2011-2013 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth, I produce estimates of repartnering and stepfamily formation among currently partnered women aged 15 to 44 years. The percentage of intact unions that are remarriages stayed stable (around 27% to 28%), but a growing proportion of currently married and cohabiting women had another cohabiting partner in the past. The percentage of intact unions that are stepfamilies increased from 24% to 31%, with an increase in cohabiting stepfamilies from 19% to 39% of all stepfamilies. Furthermore, while the majority of remarriages are stepfamilies, the majority of women’s stepfamilies are no longer remarriages due to union formation among never-married parents. Cohabiting (but not marital) stepfamilies also exhibited changes in which partner had children and in shared childbearing.

Measurement problems in assessing trends in unwanted fertility.

In a recent issue of Journal of Adolescent Health, Kissin and colleagues [1] examined trends in unintended and unwanted childbearing in the United States. They report that the proportion of unwanted births increased between 1995 and 2002, particularly among women under age 25. Kissin and colleagues [1] analyze trends using multiple waves of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). This survey was designed to study change over time. However, recent research suggests that the 1995 and 2002 measures of unwanted fertility are not, in fact, comparable, and that the apparent increase in unwanted fertility is attributable to survey effects. As in all surveys, question wording and sampling procedures in the NSFG vary slightly over time. The effects of these differences can be assessed by comparing measures for periods of time in which the two surveys overlap. In an article presented at the 2008 NSFG User’s Conference, my colleagues and I [2] compared proportions of births reported as unwanted during the period 1990–1994 using both the 1995 and 2002 NSFG. Unwanted birth rates during this period are substantially higher when measured using the 2002 survey than when measured using the 1995 survey. Furthermore, measurement differences are largest for adolescent women. These measurement differences are large enough to completely explain the apparent trend reported by Kissin and colleagues [1]. Using the 1995 NSFG, an estimated 10% of births between 1990 and 1994 to non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and U.S. born Hispanic women age 15–19 were unwanted. Using the 2002 NSFG to measure births to women the same age during the same time period, 20% of births were unwanted. Thus, unwanted fertility in this age group appears more than twice as common when measured using the 2002 survey than when measured using the 1995 survey. The wording of the NSFG question on unwanted fertility was changed during this period. In 1995, and in earlier cycles, the primary question on fertility intentions was ‘‘At the time you became pregnant, did you yourself actually want to have (a)nother baby at some time?’’ In the 2002 survey, the question was changed to ‘‘Right before you became pregnant, did

Marriage and Dissolution Among Women’s Cohabitations: Variations by Stepfamily Status and Shared Childbearing:

Cohabiting unions increasingly involve children, either born during the union and/or from prior relationships (i.e., stepchildren). Drawing from arguments about the institutionalization of cohabitation and stepfamilies as well as the family systems perspective, this article examines dissolution and marriage risks among women’s cohabiting unions by stepfamily status, configuration (which partner has children), and shared intended and unintended fertility using the 2006-2013 National Survey of Family Growth. A minority (32%) of first cohabitations, but the majority of second (65%), and third (75%) cohabitations, are stepfamilies. Stepfamily cohabitations are less likely to transition to marriage compared with nonstepfamily unions, especially among complex stepfamilies (both partners have children), but neither stepfamily status nor configuration affect dissolution. Shared intended and unintended births are associated with dissolution and marriage risks but largely only for nonstepfamily cohabitations, suggesting that shared childbearing is only indicative of the institutionalization for cohabitations that are not stepfamilies.

Is Stepfamily Status Associated With Cohabiting and Married Women’s Fertility Behaviors?

Children from prior relationships potentially complicate fertility decision-making in new cohabitations and marriages. On the one hand, the “value of children” perspective suggests that unions with and without stepchildren have similar—and deliberate—reasons for shared childbearing. On the other hand, multipartnered fertility (MPF) research suggests that childbearing across partnerships is often unintended. Using the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth and event-history models, I examine the role of stepfamily status on cohabiting and married women’s fertility and birth intendedness, with attention to union type and stepfamily configuration. Adjusting for covariates, women in stepfamily unions are more likely to have a first shared birth in a union than women in unions in which neither partner has children from past relationships, but stepfamily births are less likely to be intended than unintended. Further, this association varies by union type: married women have similar birth risks across stepfamily status, but births are less likely to be intended in marital stepfamilies. For cohabitors, women in a stepfamily are more likely to have a birth than women in nonstepfamily unions, with no differences in intendedness. Configuration (whose children and how many) also matters; for instance, women with one child from a past relationship are more likely to have a birth and to have an intended than unintended birth than women with other stepfamily configurations. It appears that children from either partner’s prior relationships influences subsequent fertility decision-making, undermining the utility of the “value of children” perspective for explaining childbearing behaviors in complex families.