DYNAMIC ANALYSES OF SINGLE MOTHERHOOD

本研究通过关注单身母亲的动态性质来研究单身母亲 家庭经历的复杂性，特别是家庭 儿童和青少年时期的变化影响向性行为的过渡 活动、生育和家庭形成。 我们通过以下方式检查变化：（a） 直接判断关于影响的替代假设 过去和现在的单身母亲风险家庭状况;（B） 使用模型测试关于持久性与瞬时性的假设， 让家庭状况有恒定的，下降的，增加的，或 年龄或持续时间的非单调效应;（c）采用动态模型 阐明选择进入和退出的行为机制， 联合生育率和婚姻状况;以及（d）模拟 利用母亲/青少年进行的弱势代际传递 数据 我们有四个具体目标。 首先，我们使用国家数据。 青年纵向调查（NLSY）和全国家庭和 家庭（NSFH）直接在几个假设之间进行裁决 先前的研究表明， 母性 第二，我们测试了连续性和不连续性的假设 包括直接评估： 儿童早期在不完整的家庭中成长的影响;（B） 儿童在一个时期内经历的短暂影响， 父母离婚、分居或死亡;（c）长期影响，包括 父母离婚、分居或死亡对不同性别的影响; (d)影响持久性或速度的程度的因素， 瞬时效应的幅度下降。 第三，我们研究可能的 选择机制，管理妇女按年龄分级进入的风险， 和退出，共同平等和婚姻状态。 第四，我们研究 使用NSFH数据的单身母亲的代际后果 （a）父母与子女的互动， 特别是儿童和青少年家庭之间的联系 NSFH受访者的经验和他们作为父母的能力， 约束，影响，和监测的性和约会行为， （B）各级选拔机制 使用早期成人的母亲/子女相似性模型的世代 父母和青少年子女的转变。

This research studies single motherhood by focusing on the dynamic nature of family experience and, in particular, the complex ways in which family change during childhood and adolescence affects transitions into sexual activity, fertility, and family formation. We examine change by: (a) directly adjudicating between alternative hypotheses about the effect of past and current family situation on the risk of single motherhood; (b) testing assumptions about persistence versus transience using models that let family situation have constant, declining, increasing, or nonmonotonic effects with age or duration; (c) employing dynamic models to clarify the behavioral mechanisms underlying selection into, and exit out of, joint fertility and marital statuses; and (d) modeling the intergenerational-transmission of disadvantage using mother/adolescent data. We have four specific aims. First, we use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) and National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to adjudicate directly between several hypotheses implicated by previous research as critical antecedents of single motherhood. Second, we test hypotheses on continuity and discontinuity in the life course, including direct assessments of: (a) persistent effects of growing up in a nonintact family during early childhood; (b) transient effects experienced by children during the period following a parental divorce, separation, or death; (c) long-term effects, including gender-specific effects, of parental divorce, separation, or death; and (d) factors influencing the degree of persistence or speed with which a transient effect declines in magnitude. Third, we study possible selection mechanisms governing a woman's age-graded risk of entry into, and exit out of, joint parity and marital states. Fourth, we examine the intergenerational consequences of single motherhood using NSFH data on mothers and adolescents to study: (a) parent/child interactions, in particular, the link between the childhood and adolescent family experiences of NSFH respondents and their ability as parents to constrain, influence, and monitor the sexual and dating behaviors of their adolescent children; and (b) selection mechanisms across generations using models of mother/child similarity in the early adult transitions of parents and their adolescent children.