Most demographic studies of fertility use data from surveys of women, not men. These studies have shown that, in the U.S., nonmarital births are more common among women from lower rather than higher socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds and higher among Black than White women. Using panel data, which have been shown to reduce men’s under-reporting of nonmarital births, we show that these generalizations also hold for men. Our analysis of nonmarital births for Black and White men and women distinguishes between nonunion and cohabiting births and shows that nonunion births are predicted by racial and SES disadvantage for both women and men. By contrast, cohabiting births are not higher for Black individuals, and they are higher among women whose mothers had less education only among White, and not Black individuals. The effects of race and mothers’ education on having a nonunion first birth are partly mediated by the income and family structure of one’s family of origin, high school grade point average, and school enrollment. We use NLSY-97 panel data from U.S. men and women born in 1980–1984 and present descriptive statistics, double decrement life tables, and event history models. We conclude that disadvantaged racial and SES backgrounds are strongly predictive of having a nonunion first birth for men as well as women.
Xu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.