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Marriage following the birth of a child among cohabiting and visiting parents
Author(s) -
Osborne Cynthia
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of marriage and family
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.578
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1741-3737
pISSN - 0022-2445
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-2445.2005.00002.x
Subject(s) - earnings , cohabitation , fragile families and child wellbeing study , independence (probability theory) , psychology , demography , quality (philosophy) , economic independence , developmental psychology , sociology , geography , economics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , accounting , archaeology , epistemology , development economics
Approximately half of nonmarital births are to mothers in cohabiting relationships, and an additional 30% are to mothers in visiting relationships. I use data ( N = 1,945) from the Fragile Families Study to investigate whether the determinants of marriage in the year following a child's birth are similar for cohabiting and visiting parents. The results show that mothers’ education is predictive of marriage for cohabiting parents, whereas mothers’ earnings are predictive of marriage for visiting parents. The findings imply that visiting mothers place a greater emphasis on economic independence and sufficient resources to establish an independent household before transitioning to marriage. No differences in the association of relationship quality or attitudes and marriage are found.