Mate Availability and Unmarried Parent Relationships

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
PARC Working Paper Series
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Shortage of males
Marriage market
US Census
Unmarried couples
Fragile Families study
Nonmarital birth
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Family, Life Course, and Society
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Contributor
Abstract

Theoretically, a shortage of males in a local marriage market may influence the formation, quality, and trajectory of unmarried parent relationships. To test these hypotheses, I combine city-level sex ratio data from the U.S. Census with microdata on unmarried couples who recently had a child from the Fragile Families study. A shortage of men in a marriage market is associated with lower relationship quality for unmarried parents. Male shortages are associated with lower rates of marriage following a nonmarital birth, and this is in part because of the mediating influence of relationship quality. A shortage of men is not significantly related to the economic quality of male, nonmarital childbearing partners.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2008-06-23
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Harknett, Kristen. 2008. "Mate Availability and Unmarried Parent Relationships." PARC Working Paper Series, WPS 08-03.
Recommended citation
Collection