The life histories of American stepfathers in evolutionary perspective

This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of men who become st epfathers, and their subsequent fertility patterns and lifetime reproductiv e success. Because women who already have children are ranked lower in the marriage market than women without children, men who marry women with child ren (e.g., stepfathers) are likely to have lower rankings in the marriage m arket as well. Using retrospective fertility and marital histories from the Panel Study of income Dynamics (PSID), I show that men who become stepfath ers have lower levels of education, less income, and are more likely to hav e been divorced before and to already have children, all characteristics th at lower their rankings in the marriage market Men with one or two stepchil dren are just as likely to have children within a marriage as non-stepfathe rs, although men with three stepchildren show decreased fertility. Among me n age 45 and older, stepfathers have lower lifetime fertility than non-step fathers, although the difference disappears when men's age at first marriag e is controlled for. Additionally, stepfathers have significantly higher fe rtility than men who never marry. The results suggest that some men become stepfathers to procure mates and fertility benefits that they would otherwi se have been unlikely to obtain; for these men, raising other men's childre n serves as a form of mating effort.