TIMING OF REPRODUCTIVE LIFE STAGES

Objective: To identify typical ages at which women pass through reprod uctive transitions and to ascertain whether they differ by poverty sta tus, race, and ethnicity, and from men's transition ages. Methods: Usi ng the 1982 and 1988 National Surveys of Family Growth, the 1988 Natio nal Survey of Young Men, and the March 1988 Current Population Survey, the timing of transitions between stages was measured by the ages at which respondents had passed specific milestones. Results: By age 17.4 , half of the young women surveyed and by age 16.6, half of the young men had had intercourse. The length of time the typical woman spent be ing sexually active before marriage increased by more than 1.5 years, to nearly 7 years, between 1982 and 1988. Half of all women surveyed h ad become mothers by age 26 and by age 30 half intended to have no mor e children; half were sterile for contraceptive or noncontraceptive re asons by age 35.7. Non-Hispanic white and higher-income women typicall y married before their first birth, whereas half of black women became mothers almost 6 years before a similar proportion had married. Lower -income and Hispanic women demonstrated smaller but similar gaps. Conc lusions: Differences among subgroups and the broad age ranges at which women move between stages highlight the importance of focusing servic e delivery and education according to the stage of a woman's reproduct ive life, not just her age. Current patterns of timing are not prescri ptive, but provide a framework for directing efforts to provide women and men with needed information and services and to assess the possibl e effects.