Marriage patterns among unwed mothers
Before and after PRWORA
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11684591 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Deborah Roempke Graefe (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), D T Lichter (0000-0002-0292-1415, Cornell University) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 479-497 |
| Publication date | 2008-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0276-8739 • E-ISSN: 1520-6688 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/pam.20352 |
| OpenAlex | W2103791061 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 48 |
The promotion of marriage and two‐parent families became an explicit public policy goal with the passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Marriage has the putative effect of reducing welfare dependency among single mothers, but only if they marry men with earnings sufficient to lift them and their children out of poverty. Newly released data from the 2002 cycle of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), along with data from the 1995 cycle, allow us to compare pre‐ and post‐PRWORA differences in (1) cumulative marriage rates among unwed mothers, and (2) patterns of marital choice (that is, differences in characteristics of the men these mothers marry, such as their education and employment status). Overall, our results show that unwed childbearing is associated with lower marriage rates and marital quality. Difference‐in‐difference models show that welfare reform was not strongly associated with pre‐ and post‐welfare reform changes in marriage among nonmarital birth mothers, even among the most disadvantaged mothers. Compared with other women, nonmarital birth mothers also were less likely than other women to marry “economically attractive” men in the post‐welfare reform period. The success of marriage promotion initiatives may depend heavily on whether women themselves are “marriageable” and whether potential spouses have the ability to support a stable family life. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Coparenting · Demographic economics · Developmental psychology · Disadvantaged · Earnings · Economic growth · Economics · Educational attainment · Family planning · Fertility · National Longitudinal Surveys · National Survey of Family Growth · Political science · Population · Poverty · Promotion (chess · Public assistance · Single mothers · Sociology · Survey data collection · Survey of Income and Program Participation · Welfare · Welfare reform · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges
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| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2025 (21) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |