|
Births to unmarried women hit
record
USA Today
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
October 28, 2005
WASHINGTON — A record number of babies — nearly 1.5 million
— were born to unmarried women in the U.S. last year. And those moms were
more likely to be 20-somethings than teenagers, according to new federal data
released Friday.
"This is not a teenage issue," says Stephanie Ventura,. a demographer with
the National Center for Health Statistics. "Women in their 20s are accounting
for a huge percentage of these births."
The data show that 35.7% of all births were to unmarried women. Births last
year to both married and unwed mothers totalled more than 4 million.
By age group, almost 55% of the births for mothers ages 20-24 were to
unmarried women. For those between 25-29, almost 28% of the births were to
single women.
Teenagers, who accounted for 50% of unwed births in 1970, accounted for 24%
of unwed births in 2004.
Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy,
says she's thrilled about the decline in teenage mothers, but she worries about
the trend for those ages 20 and above.
"It's not going in the right direction," she says. "The right direction
would be non-marital childbearing in all groups to be going down."
Instead, the numbers of unwed births has increased slightly each year since
1990. But Ventura says "a steep increase in a short period" — the last
two years — "caught our attention."
Between 2002 and 2004, births among unmarried women ages 25-29 jumped more
than 14%. It rose about 7% among the 20-24 age group over the same period.
"There's been a sea change in terms of expectations around marriage and
babies," says Dorian Solot, co-founder of the Alternatives to Marriage Project,
an advocacy organization for the unmarried.
Solot says unmarried mothers present very different scenarios for their
children, depending upon whether they are the single, professional
parent-by-choice, a cohabiting couple, or a poor woman living alone.
Sara S. McLanahan, a sociology professor at Princeton University and
director of the Center for Research on Child Well-Being, says most often unwed
mothers are disadvantaged with a high school degree or less education. She
worries about the children in such relationships, which tend to be less stable
and create more complex families.
"These are relatively unstable relationships, even among older mothers," she
says.
"It's really unfair to children," says David Popenoe, a sociology professor
at Rutgers University who has studied the effects of marriage and cohabitation
on children. He co-directs the National Marriage Project at Rutgers.
"One thing you don't know from these data is whether the births are to lone
women or to a cohabiting women," he says.
Studies have shown cohabitating relationships are less stable and about half
break up within five years. But cohabiting couples are more likely to provide a
healthier environment for children than a single woman alone, the experts
say.
The data also showed:
• Childbearing by women their early 20s showed a decline.
• Births to older women continue to increase.
|