EFFECTS OF FAMILY INSTABILITY, INCOME, AND INCOME INSTABILITY ON THE RISK OF A PREMARITAL BIRTH

In previous work, my colleagues and I reported (1) a strong and statis tically significant association between frequent changes in the number s and types of parental figures a young woman has lived with and her r isk of bearing her first child out of wedlock, and (2) weak and statis tically nonsignificant associations between measures of a young woman' s exposure to a mother-only family during childhood and adolescence an d her risk of a premarital birth (Wu and Martinson 1993). A serious li mitation of these findings is the absence of controls for income. Fail ure to control for income is especially problematic because the positi ve association between frequent changes in family structure and premar ital birth risks could be an artifact of changes in economic circumsta nces that typically accompany family changes. In this study, I use pro spective income histories and retrospective parental histories from th e National Longitudinal Survey of Youth so determine if the effect of family instability on premarital births is an artifact of low, unstabl e, or declining family income. I find that low income, declining incom e, and frequent changes in family structure are associated with signif icantly increased premarital birth risks. The effects of income and ch ange in family structure are largely independent.