Doctoral Dissertation Research: Non-Marital Fertility among Mexican Origin Women: Exploring the Role of Social Context

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The rise in non-marital fertility rates, and the persistent race/ethnic differential, is one of the most important changes in the family over the last several decades, raising concern in the political and academic arenas. This project proposes to look at race/ethnic differences in non-marital fertility and at the role that geo-social context plays in this relationship, paying particular attention to the surprisingly high levels of non-marital fertility among Mexican Origin women, a large and rapidly growing segment of the population. Drawing from theory based on black-white differences, this project will look at the role that structural and economic factors, normative beliefs, and race/ethnic segregation at the macro level play in maintaining group differences in non-marital fertility. Additionally, it will explore whether a more familistic culture among Mexican Americans protects them from the deleterious effects of neighborhood disadvantage. The 1995 wave of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the 1995 NSFG contextual data file will be used in a multi-level study to explore whether theories of family formation, developed on the basis of black-white differences, hold when Mexican Americans are included in the analysis. Importantly, this research will distinguish between the native and foreign born Mexican American populations in order to more fully explore this question as well as give us insight into how well this population is doing within the context of the United States. This research will contribute to social science and policy researchers by filling an important gap in the family literature by extending research on race/ethnic differences in non-marital fertility by including Mexican Americans. This, in turn, will contribute to the refinement of theory, which is largely based on black-white differences in family formation processes.