Kristen Harknett

Racial and ethnic differences in marriage after the birth of a child

This article uses new data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to examine the reasons why white, Mexican American, and other Hispanic parents are approximately 2.5 times more likely than African American parents to marry within the 30 months after a nonmarital birth. Combining Fragile Families microdata with 2000 U.S. Census data shows that marriage market conditions exert a large influence on marriage decisions, even among couples that already have formed a romantic relationship and had a child together. The findings also show that an undersupply of employed African American men can explain a large portion of the racial and ethnic differences in marriage after a nonmarital birth. The current findings support the theory that marriage markets are influential not only during the search for romantic partners but also in determining whether romantic relationships, once formed, will lead to marriage.

Neighborhood Disadvantage, Residential Stability, and Perceptions of Instrumental Support Among New Mothers:

Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey (N = 4,211), this study examines neighborhood disadvantage and perceptions of instrumental support among mothers with young children. The authors find that (a) living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with less instrumental support, particularly financial assistance, from family and friends; (b) residential stability is associated with stronger personal safety nets irrespective of neighborhood quality; and (c) mothers who move to a more disadvantaged neighborhood experience a small but significant decline in perceived instrumental support compared with those who do not move. In interpreting these results, the authors suggest instrumental support may be either a cause or consequence of living in an advantaged neighborhood, but in either case, neighborhood and social network disadvantages go hand in hand.

Parenting Across Racial and Class Lines: Assortative Mating Patterns of New Parents Who Are Married, Cohabiting, Dating or No Longer Romantically Involved

We examine the assortative mating patterns of new parents who are married, cohabiting, romantically involved and no longer romantically involved. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, we find that relationship status at the time of a birth depends mainly on fathers race rather than on whether mother and fathers race/ethnicity differ. Crossing race/ethnic lines does not appear to have much effect on relationship transitions following a birth. Rather, parents are less likely to marry after a birth if one parent is black, and the relationships of Hispanic couples are particularly stable. Crossing educational lines has little effect on relationship status at birth, but same-education couples had a slightly lower risk of divorce following the birth.

Mate availability and unmarried parent relationships

Theoretically, a shortage of males in a local marriage market may influence the formation, quality,and trajectory of unmarried parent relationships. To test these hypotheses, I combine city-level sex ratio data from the U.S. census with microdata on unmarried couples who recently had a child from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. A shortage of men in a marriage market is associated with lower relationship quality for unmarried parents. Male shortages are associated with lower rates of marriage following a nonmarital birth, in part because of the mediating influence of relationship quality. A shortage of men is not significantly related to the economic quality of male, nonmarital childbearing partners.

Racial and Gender Differences in Kin Support: A Mixed-Methods Study of African American and Hispanic Couples

This article uses qualitative and quantitative data for a recent birth cohort from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to compare kin support patterns between African Americans and Hispanics. It focuses on financial and housing support from grandparents and other kin during the transition to parenthood. Qualitative analysis (n = 122 parents) uncovers distinctions in the way African American and Hispanic parents discuss their family networks, with African Americans emphasizing relations with female kin and Hispanics emphasizing a more integrated system. Consistent with these findings, quantitative analysis (n = 2,472 mothers and n = 2,639 fathers) finds that compared with Hispanic parents, African American parents are more likely to receive financial and housing support from grandmothers and less likely to receive support from both grandparents. Contrary to expectations that fathers would be the primary support recipients in Hispanic households, the authors find that mothers are the more common recipients of support among African Americans and Hispanics.

A Comparison of Two Welfare‐to‐Work Case Management Models

An experiment in Columbus, Ohio, randomly assigned clients in a mandatory welfare‐to‐work program to one of two case management models. A traditional model required clients to interact with two staff members: an income maintenance worker who processed welfare benefits, and an employment services worker who enrolled clients in work activities. An integrated model required clients to interact with one worker for income maintenance and employment services. The study examined effects on program participation, welfare receipt, employment rates, and earnings. Over 2 years, clients in the integrated group had significantly higher rates of participation in program activities and significantly lower welfare payments but had similar employment rates and earnings to clients in the traditional group.

How an earnings supplement can affect union formation among low-income single mothers

Using data from an experimental evaluation in two Canadian provinces, we found that offering an earnings supplement to single mothers in place of welfare altered rates of marriage and cohabitation, but that the direction of the effects varied by province. Our findings suggest that research on the relationship between women’s economic well-being and marital decisions at the national level is likely to mask important variation at the local level. After eliminating several explanations for the opposite effects in the two provinces, we propose that local labor markets and local policy contexts are potentially important mediating characteristics of marriage and cohabitation.

Working and Leaving Welfare: Does Race or Ethnicity Matter?

This article analyzes differences in welfare and labor market participation among white, African‐American, and Hispanic welfare recipients in Riverside, California. In the absence of a welfare‐to‐work program intervention, African Americans and Hispanics worked as much or more than whites but were less likely to leave welfare. This might be explained in part by their lower marriage and cohabitation rates and, perhaps, by less financial assistance from social networks and child support. Even with the help of a well‐run program, about half of welfare recipients relied on welfare after 2 years, and African Americans and Hispanics remained overrepresented in the welfare population.

Does Receiving an Earnings Supplement Affect Union Formation? Estimating Effects for Program Participants Using Propensity Score Matching:

This article demonstrates a novel application of propensity score matching techniques: to estimate nonexperimental impacts on program participants within the context of an experimental research design. The author examines the relationship between program participation, defined as qualifying for an earnings supplement by working full-time, and marital union formation among low-income mothers in two Canadian provinces. The author finds that receipt of an earnings supplement substantially increased union formation in one province but not the other. A subgroup analysis based on propensities of program participation revealed that the positive effect on unions was concentrated among relatively disadvantaged participants. The techniques demonstrated in the article are broadly applicable to studies in which take-up is less than 100% among those randomly assigned to a program group.

The gap between births intended and births achieved in 22 European countries, 2004-07

Using data from the 2004 and 2007 waves of the European Social Survey (ESS), we find that for every 100 births intended, about 60 births occur, on average, across 22 countries. This shortfall in fertility masks substantial heterogeneity between subgroups within the populations surveyed. Motherhood status, age, partnership status, and the strength of fertility intentions moderate the relationship between womens childbearing plans and births measured at the country level. Individual-level analyses using data from three countries included in the 2005 and 2008 waves of the Generations and Gender Survey are consistent with our country-level analyses. We demonstrate that repeat cross-sectional data can be used to analyse the correspondence between childbearing plans and births when longitudinal data are lacking.