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Low‐Income Childless Young Adults' Marriage and Fertility Frameworks
Author(s) -
Rackin Heather M.,
GibsonDavis Christina M.
Publication year - 2017
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/jomf.12405
Subject(s) - fertility , narrative , qualitative research , psychology , developmental psychology , young adult , demography , gender studies , demographic economics , social psychology , sociology , population , economics , social science , linguistics , philosophy
The authors investigated how low‐income young adults without children understand marriage and fertility. Data come from the Becoming Partners and Parents Study ( N = 69), a qualitative study of African American adults aged 18 to 22 in a mid‐size southern city. This is the first study to analyze young, low‐income, childless, and unmarried Black respondents' frameworks (i.e., internal understandings of the world) of marriage and fertility. In contrast to research conducted on parents, this research on childless adults indicated a narrative in which there were close connections between marriage and fertility and an economic bar adhered to both marriage and childbearing. Respondents also believed that childbearing was meaningful and provided purpose, but that it was morally questionable if the parent was not financially stable. The results suggest that prior findings related to meanings of family formation and childbearing for low‐income parents may not extend to those without children.