The Effect of Marital Dissolution on Fertility

Bibliographic Data

ID2586500
AuthorsPatience Lauriat (corresponding author)
Year1969
Volume31
Issue3
Pages484
Publication date1969-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Marriage and the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2445 • E-ISSN: 1741-3737
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/349770
OpenAlexW2334667347
LanguageEN
Citations received15

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that marital dissolution in a society such as ours results in an overall loss in fertility. However, it is also necessary to consider differentials such such as age, color, age at first marriage, and time elapsed since first marriage. Distinction is made between women in continuous and discontinuous marriages, the latter category being divided into those women who remarried and those who did not. In 1960, remarried white women under 30 years, widows under 25, and divorcees under 20 had borne more children than their respective counterparts in continuous marriages. However, the higher fertility for the younger women in discontinuous marriages is demonstrated to be largely a function of lower age at marriage for those women. Age at first marriage is lowest for remarried women. Census data (1960) on cumulative and retrospective birth rates by number of years after first marriage indicate that remarried and divorced white women tend to have higher fertility during the first 18 months after their first marriage than women in continuous marriages. The data also suggest remarried women tend to make up for the fertility they presumably would have experienced had they remained in their previous marriage. Women 35 to 44 years in discontinuous marriages had experienced only 79 percent as much fertility as comparable women in continuous marriages, when age at marriage was held constant and fertility was measured in terms of children ever born per 1,000 women. As expected, the loss was greatest for divorced women who did not remarry, intermediate for remarried women, and least for widowed women

Census · Family planning · Fertility · Marital status · National Survey of Family Growth · Population · Remarriage · Research methodology · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies

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