Marriage and Health in the Transition to Adulthood: Evidence for African Americans in Add Health.

This paper examines the relationship between early marriage (before age 26), cohabitation, and health for African Americans and whites during the transition to adulthood using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We examine three categories of health outcomes relevant to young adulthood: physical health, mental health, and health risk behaviors. Lagged dependent variable models are used to examine the health effects of early marriage and cohabitation accounting for potential health selection into unions.

Decomposing trends in nonmarital fertility among Latinas.

Context: For Latinos, high rates of nonmarital fertility reinforce economic inequality and slow the pace of social and economic incorporation into American society.

Methods: Changes in the nonmarital fertility ratio--nonmarital births as a percentage of all births (NMFR)--among women aged 15-44 over the period 1994-2005 were partitioned into three components: changes in marital and in nonmarital fertility, and in the proportion of women who were married. Annual birth data were drawn from the national Natality Detail File, and population estimates were drawn from the Current Population Surveys.