Elizabeth Wildsmith
Biographic Data
| ID | 94584 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elizabeth Wildsmith |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elizabeth |
| FAMILY NAME | Wildsmith |
| SIGNATURE | WILDSMITH E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Child Trends |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 302 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Hard Hit
Mirroring disproportionate impacts on mortality, in the case of fertility, in nearly all states, foreign-born Hispanic Americans experienced pronounced and disproportionately negative impacts on births from December 2020 through February 2021, followed by a baby boomlet through December 2022. Establishing these patterns is a critical piece of a full accounting of the extent of the pandemic's influence on our country's demography, particularly how…
Does Context and Adversity Shape Sexual Behavior in Youth? Findings from Two Representative Samples of Puerto Rican Youth
A Strength-Based Framework for Realizing Latino Young Children’s Potential
Hispanic children experience poverty at rates two to three times higher than white children. Latino households with children, in general, have high parental employment coupled with low levels of parental education and stagnant parental earnings relative to non-Latino peers. While many Latino children live in neighborhoods that do not have access to high-quality early education, Latino children, on average, are raised in a home environment that of…
Parent-Teen Communication about Sexual and Reproductive Health
Parent-teen discussions about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) are associated with delayed sex and higher contraceptive use among teens. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we conducted bivariate and multivariate analyses of different types of parent-teen SRH discussions among two cohorts of teens. We describe differences in patterns for males and females by race/ethnicity and nativity, and test for racial/ethnic interactions within e…
Relationship Characteristics and Contraceptive Use Among Dating and Cohabiting Young Adult Couples
At least for dating couples, contraceptive use is linked to multiple dimensions of relationships, particularly measures reflecting relationship quality-both positive and negative
Relationship Types and Contraceptive Use Within Young Adult Dating Relationships
Classifying short-term relationships as "casual" or long-term ones as "serious" may ignore heterogeneity within these categories that may have implications for contraceptive use. Future qualitative research could provide a better understanding of relationship types and couples' fertility intentions and access to and use of contraceptives
Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Transition To a Teenage Birth in the United States
Differences in the context of adolescence may account for a substantial portion of racial, ethnic and nativity differences in teenage childbearing
Union Transitions Following the Birth of a Child to Cohabiting Parents
Relationship Characteristics and the Relationship Context of Nonmarital First Births Among Young Adult Women
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine whether and how characteristics of the relationship dyad are linked to nonmarital childbearing among young adult women, additionally distinguishing between cohabiting and nonunion births. METHODS: We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort and discrete-time event history methods to examine these objectives. RESULTS: Our analyses found that similarities and differences be…
Teenage Childbearing Among Youth Born to Teenage Mothers
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article examined how early maternal characteristics, an adolescent's family environment, and the adolescent's own attitudes and behaviors were associated with the odds of a nonmarital teenage birth among youth born to teenage mothers. Multivariate analyses indicated that these domains were closely linked. Early maternal characteristics shaped the later family environment of adolescen…
Family environments and the relationship context of first adolescent sex
Nonmarital Fertility, Family Structure, and the Early School Achievement of Young Children From Different Race/Ethnic and Immigration Groups
Working from a life course perspective, this study examined the links between mothers' fertility and relationship statuses and children's early school achievement and how these links varied by race/ethnicity and immigration status. Analyses of nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort revealed that children born to unmarried women scored lower than children of married women on math tests in kin…
Relationship Characteristics and Contraceptive Use Among Young Adults
Prevention programs should address relationship context in contraceptive decision making, perhaps by combining relationship and sex education curricula to foster communication and negotiation skills
Risky Adolescent Sexual Behaviors and Reproductive Health in Young Adulthood
Teenagers' sexual behaviors have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults
Unintended Births
Racial and ethnic differences in childbearing intentions are frequently contingent on relationship context. Differences between whites and blacks are largely attributable to married women. Assessment of childbearing intendedness among Hispanics should take nativity into account
Repeat Unintended, Unwanted and Seriously Mistimed Childbearing in the United States
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
The relationship context of nonmarital childbearing in the U.S
Using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data, we present estimates of nonmarital births in the United States in 2001, both within and outside of cohabiting unions. We additionally examine how mother and father characteristics are associated with the relationship context at birth, and assess racial/ethnic differences in these relationships. We find that 52% of nonmarital births (and 19% of all births) occur within cohabitating unions…
Race-Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility
We use the National Survey of Family Growth to identify race-ethnic differences in nonmarital fertility, paying particular attention to Mexican American women. On the basis of a sample of 9,054 White, Black, and Mexican American women, we use event history methods to explore the role of family background, a woman's own employment and school enrollment, and cohabitation on nonmarital fertility. We additionally determine whether these relationships…
Special Reviewers
The Grass Widows of Mexico
This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual- and community-level U.S. migration experience. In the context of the U.S.-Mexico migration flow, we find that U.S. migr…
Maternal Cohabitation and Educational Success
Despite the dramatic increase in children's experiences in cohabiting families, little is known about how living in such families affects children's academic success. Extrapolating from two theoretical frameworks that have been commonly used to explain the association between parental divorce and educational outcomes, the authors constructed competing hypotheses about the effect of maternal cohabitation on educational expectations, achievement, a…
Race/Ethnic Differences in Female Headship
Objective. This article conducts a comparative analysis of temporal and generational patterns in Mexican‐American female headship compared to patterns for non‐Hispanic whites and non‐Hispanic blacks. These patterns are explored within two frameworks of assimilation, the more general assimilation perspective and the “segmented” assimilation perspective. Methods. Logistic regression analysis looking at female headship is conducted using the 1960–19…
Understanding Mexican‐American Marriage Patterns Using a Life‐Course Approach
Objective. Guided by a life‐course framework that incorporates the interconnection between marriage, migration, and other transitions, we critically examine the familism explanation for the earlier age at marriage among Mexican Americans. Methods. We compare the marriage patterns of Mexican immigrants derived from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to those of women living in Mexico derived from the Mexican Census. We then use data from …
Cohabitation and Children's Family Instability
This study estimates how much children's family instability is missed when we do not count transitions into and out of cohabitation, and examines early life course trajectories of children to see whether children who experience maternal cohabitation face more family instability than children who do not. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, analyses show that adding transitions into and out of cohabitation to those into and o…
Assimilation and intermarriage for U.S. immigrant groups, 1880–1990
Marriage outside one's ethnic or racial group constitutes the ultimate test of assimilation. In this research, we offer a new test of theories of assimilation by examining the choice of marriage partners among Mexican Americans, several European immigrant groups, and natives. Data from the 1880 to 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) are employed, augmented by additional identification procedures developed for the Hispanic populat…
Cohabitation and Children's Family Instability
This study estimates how much children's family instability is missed when we do not count transitions into and out of cohabitation, and examines early life course trajectories of children to see whether children who experience maternal cohabitation face more family instability than children who do not. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, analyses show that adding transitions into and out of cohabitation to those into and o…
The Grass Widows of Mexico
This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual- and community-level U.S. migration experience. In the context of the U.S.-Mexico migration flow, we find that U.S. migr…
Race-Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility
We use the National Survey of Family Growth to identify race-ethnic differences in nonmarital fertility, paying particular attention to Mexican American women. On the basis of a sample of 9,054 White, Black, and Mexican American women, we use event history methods to explore the role of family background, a woman's own employment and school enrollment, and cohabitation on nonmarital fertility. We additionally determine whether these relationships…
Understanding Mexican‐American Marriage Patterns Using a Life‐Course Approach
Objective. Guided by a life‐course framework that incorporates the interconnection between marriage, migration, and other transitions, we critically examine the familism explanation for the earlier age at marriage among Mexican Americans. Methods. We compare the marriage patterns of Mexican immigrants derived from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to those of women living in Mexico derived from the Mexican Census. We then use data from …
Relationship Characteristics and Contraceptive Use Among Young Adults
Prevention programs should address relationship context in contraceptive decision making, perhaps by combining relationship and sex education curricula to foster communication and negotiation skills
Unintended Births
Racial and ethnic differences in childbearing intentions are frequently contingent on relationship context. Differences between whites and blacks are largely attributable to married women. Assessment of childbearing intendedness among Hispanics should take nativity into account
The relationship context of nonmarital childbearing in the U.S
Using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data, we present estimates of nonmarital births in the United States in 2001, both within and outside of cohabiting unions. We additionally examine how mother and father characteristics are associated with the relationship context at birth, and assess racial/ethnic differences in these relationships. We find that 52% of nonmarital births (and 19% of all births) occur within cohabitating unions…
Maternal Cohabitation and Educational Success
Despite the dramatic increase in children's experiences in cohabiting families, little is known about how living in such families affects children's academic success. Extrapolating from two theoretical frameworks that have been commonly used to explain the association between parental divorce and educational outcomes, the authors constructed competing hypotheses about the effect of maternal cohabitation on educational expectations, achievement, a…
Assimilation and intermarriage for U.S. immigrant groups, 1880–1990
Marriage outside one's ethnic or racial group constitutes the ultimate test of assimilation. In this research, we offer a new test of theories of assimilation by examining the choice of marriage partners among Mexican Americans, several European immigrant groups, and natives. Data from the 1880 to 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) are employed, augmented by additional identification procedures developed for the Hispanic populat…
Repeat Unintended, Unwanted and Seriously Mistimed Childbearing in the United States
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
Union Transitions Following the Birth of a Child to Cohabiting Parents
Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Transition To a Teenage Birth in the United States
Differences in the context of adolescence may account for a substantial portion of racial, ethnic and nativity differences in teenage childbearing
Family environments and the relationship context of first adolescent sex
Risky Adolescent Sexual Behaviors and Reproductive Health in Young Adulthood
Teenagers' sexual behaviors have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults
Relationship Types and Contraceptive Use Within Young Adult Dating Relationships
Classifying short-term relationships as "casual" or long-term ones as "serious" may ignore heterogeneity within these categories that may have implications for contraceptive use. Future qualitative research could provide a better understanding of relationship types and couples' fertility intentions and access to and use of contraceptives
Teenage Childbearing Among Youth Born to Teenage Mothers
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article examined how early maternal characteristics, an adolescent's family environment, and the adolescent's own attitudes and behaviors were associated with the odds of a nonmarital teenage birth among youth born to teenage mothers. Multivariate analyses indicated that these domains were closely linked. Early maternal characteristics shaped the later family environment of adolescen…
Race/Ethnic Differences in Female Headship
Objective. This article conducts a comparative analysis of temporal and generational patterns in Mexican‐American female headship compared to patterns for non‐Hispanic whites and non‐Hispanic blacks. These patterns are explored within two frameworks of assimilation, the more general assimilation perspective and the “segmented” assimilation perspective. Methods. Logistic regression analysis looking at female headship is conducted using the 1960–19…
Relationship Characteristics and Contraceptive Use Among Dating and Cohabiting Young Adult Couples
At least for dating couples, contraceptive use is linked to multiple dimensions of relationships, particularly measures reflecting relationship quality-both positive and negative
Relationship Characteristics and the Relationship Context of Nonmarital First Births Among Young Adult Women
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine whether and how characteristics of the relationship dyad are linked to nonmarital childbearing among young adult women, additionally distinguishing between cohabiting and nonunion births. METHODS: We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort and discrete-time event history methods to examine these objectives. RESULTS: Our analyses found that similarities and differences be…
Assimilation and intermarriage for U.S. immigrant groups, 1880–1990
Marriage outside one's ethnic or racial group constitutes the ultimate test of assimilation. In this research, we offer a new test of theories of assimilation by examining the choice of marriage partners among Mexican Americans, several European immigrant groups, and natives. Data from the 1880 to 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) are employed, augmented by additional identification procedures developed for the Hispanic populat…
Race/Ethnic Differences in Female Headship
Objective. This article conducts a comparative analysis of temporal and generational patterns in Mexican‐American female headship compared to patterns for non‐Hispanic whites and non‐Hispanic blacks. These patterns are explored within two frameworks of assimilation, the more general assimilation perspective and the “segmented” assimilation perspective. Methods. Logistic regression analysis looking at female headship is conducted using the 1960–19…
Understanding Mexican‐American Marriage Patterns Using a Life‐Course Approach
Objective. Guided by a life‐course framework that incorporates the interconnection between marriage, migration, and other transitions, we critically examine the familism explanation for the earlier age at marriage among Mexican Americans. Methods. We compare the marriage patterns of Mexican immigrants derived from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to those of women living in Mexico derived from the Mexican Census. We then use data from …
Cohabitation and Children's Family Instability
This study estimates how much children's family instability is missed when we do not count transitions into and out of cohabitation, and examines early life course trajectories of children to see whether children who experience maternal cohabitation face more family instability than children who do not. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, analyses show that adding transitions into and out of cohabitation to those into and o…
Special Reviewers
The Grass Widows of Mexico
This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual- and community-level U.S. migration experience. In the context of the U.S.-Mexico migration flow, we find that U.S. migr…
Maternal Cohabitation and Educational Success
Despite the dramatic increase in children's experiences in cohabiting families, little is known about how living in such families affects children's academic success. Extrapolating from two theoretical frameworks that have been commonly used to explain the association between parental divorce and educational outcomes, the authors constructed competing hypotheses about the effect of maternal cohabitation on educational expectations, achievement, a…
Race-Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility
We use the National Survey of Family Growth to identify race-ethnic differences in nonmarital fertility, paying particular attention to Mexican American women. On the basis of a sample of 9,054 White, Black, and Mexican American women, we use event history methods to explore the role of family background, a woman's own employment and school enrollment, and cohabitation on nonmarital fertility. We additionally determine whether these relationships…
Unintended Births
Racial and ethnic differences in childbearing intentions are frequently contingent on relationship context. Differences between whites and blacks are largely attributable to married women. Assessment of childbearing intendedness among Hispanics should take nativity into account
Repeat Unintended, Unwanted and Seriously Mistimed Childbearing in the United States
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
The relationship context of nonmarital childbearing in the U.S
Using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data, we present estimates of nonmarital births in the United States in 2001, both within and outside of cohabiting unions. We additionally examine how mother and father characteristics are associated with the relationship context at birth, and assess racial/ethnic differences in these relationships. We find that 52% of nonmarital births (and 19% of all births) occur within cohabitating unions…
Nonmarital Fertility, Family Structure, and the Early School Achievement of Young Children From Different Race/Ethnic and Immigration Groups
Working from a life course perspective, this study examined the links between mothers' fertility and relationship statuses and children's early school achievement and how these links varied by race/ethnicity and immigration status. Analyses of nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort revealed that children born to unmarried women scored lower than children of married women on math tests in kin…
Relationship Characteristics and Contraceptive Use Among Young Adults
Prevention programs should address relationship context in contraceptive decision making, perhaps by combining relationship and sex education curricula to foster communication and negotiation skills
Risky Adolescent Sexual Behaviors and Reproductive Health in Young Adulthood
Teenagers' sexual behaviors have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults
Union Transitions Following the Birth of a Child to Cohabiting Parents
Relationship Characteristics and the Relationship Context of Nonmarital First Births Among Young Adult Women
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine whether and how characteristics of the relationship dyad are linked to nonmarital childbearing among young adult women, additionally distinguishing between cohabiting and nonunion births. METHODS: We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort and discrete-time event history methods to examine these objectives. RESULTS: Our analyses found that similarities and differences be…
Teenage Childbearing Among Youth Born to Teenage Mothers
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article examined how early maternal characteristics, an adolescent's family environment, and the adolescent's own attitudes and behaviors were associated with the odds of a nonmarital teenage birth among youth born to teenage mothers. Multivariate analyses indicated that these domains were closely linked. Early maternal characteristics shaped the later family environment of adolescen…
Family environments and the relationship context of first adolescent sex
Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Transition To a Teenage Birth in the United States
Differences in the context of adolescence may account for a substantial portion of racial, ethnic and nativity differences in teenage childbearing
Relationship Types and Contraceptive Use Within Young Adult Dating Relationships
Classifying short-term relationships as "casual" or long-term ones as "serious" may ignore heterogeneity within these categories that may have implications for contraceptive use. Future qualitative research could provide a better understanding of relationship types and couples' fertility intentions and access to and use of contraceptives
Relationship Characteristics and Contraceptive Use Among Dating and Cohabiting Young Adult Couples
At least for dating couples, contraceptive use is linked to multiple dimensions of relationships, particularly measures reflecting relationship quality-both positive and negative
Parent-Teen Communication about Sexual and Reproductive Health
Parent-teen discussions about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) are associated with delayed sex and higher contraceptive use among teens. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we conducted bivariate and multivariate analyses of different types of parent-teen SRH discussions among two cohorts of teens. We describe differences in patterns for males and females by race/ethnicity and nativity, and test for racial/ethnic interactions within e…
A Strength-Based Framework for Realizing Latino Young Children’s Potential
Hispanic children experience poverty at rates two to three times higher than white children. Latino households with children, in general, have high parental employment coupled with low levels of parental education and stagnant parental earnings relative to non-Latino peers. While many Latino children live in neighborhoods that do not have access to high-quality early education, Latino children, on average, are raised in a home environment that of…
Does Context and Adversity Shape Sexual Behavior in Youth? Findings from Two Representative Samples of Puerto Rican Youth
Hard Hit
Mirroring disproportionate impacts on mortality, in the case of fertility, in nearly all states, foreign-born Hispanic Americans experienced pronounced and disproportionately negative impacts on births from December 2020 through February 2021, followed by a baby boomlet through December 2022. Establishing these patterns is a critical piece of a full accounting of the extent of the pandemic's influence on our country's demography, particularly how…
Demography (21 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (18 works) · Geography (17 works) · Psychology (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Population (16 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Family planning (13 works) · Demography (12 works) · Ethnic group (11 works)