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Divorce, nonmarital childbearing, and cohabitation are reshaping family experience in the United States. Because of these changes, our traditional definitions of families decreasingly capture of the social units of interest. We have noted how a significant proportion of officially defined single-parent families actually are two-parent unmarried families. The present paper expands on this perspective with respect to stepfamilies. We must broaden our definition of stepfamilies to include cohabitations involving a child of only one partner, and must recognize the large role of nonmarital childbearing in the creation of stepfamilies. We find that cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing have been important aspects of stepfamily experience for at least two decades, and that this is increasingly so. To define stepfamilies only in terms of marriage clearly underestimates both the level and the trend in stepfamily experience: when cohabitation is taken into account, about two-fifths of all women and 30% of all children are likely to spend some time in a stepfamily.

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Data from the National Survey of Families and Households for 1987-1988 are used to explore methodological and substantive issues concerning marital dissolution in the United States. "The analysis finds that marital disruptions are seriously underreported by males, making the analysis of male marital histories problematic. Also, the potential impact of reconciliations on the estimates of recent marital disruption based on separation is explored; no upward bias is likely to result from the inclusion of separations that may subsequently reconcile. The impact of a wide variety of factors on the risk of marital disruption is examined using proportional hazard techniques. Among them are included parental background factors, respondent's characteristics at the time of marriage, differences in spouses' characteristics, and joint activity statuses of marital partners in the first year of marriage. The risk of marital disruption is highest among women with young age at marriage, low education, a cohabitation history, and those whose spouse has been married previously. Parental family disruption affects marital stability primarily through age at marriage and cohabitation. Religious and educational heterogamy and male unemployment reduce marital stability."

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Data from the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and Households are used to provide national estimates of cohabitation trends and levels. The rapid increase since around 1970 is documented over both birth cohorts and marriage cohorts. Almost half of the persons in their early 30s and half of the recently married have cohabited. Changes in the proportion ever married are compared with changes in the proportion who have either married or cohabited. Much of the decline in marriage has been offset by increased living together without being married. The stability of unions of various types is compared. Cohabitations end very quickly in either marriage or disruption. About 60 percent of all first cohabitations result in marriage. Cohabiting unions and marriages preceded by cohabitation are much more likely to break up than are unions initiated by marriage. Multivariate analysis reveals higher rates of cohabitation among women, whites, persons who did not complete high school, and those from families who received welfare or who lived in a single-parent family while growing up.

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Data from the National Survey of Families and Households indicate that 10 percent of children born between 1960 and 1968 were born outside of marriage and that before age 16, another 19 percent experienced the dissolution of their parents' marriage. When parental death and other causes of family disruption are also considered, 36 percent of the children in that age cohort had been separated from at least one parent before they reached age 16, compared with 22 percent of children born two decades earlier. In all, 27 percent of nonmarital births between 1970 and 1984 were to cohabiting couples; the proportion was 40 percent for Mexican Americans, 29 percent for non-Hispanic whites and 18 percent for blacks. About two-thirds of cohabiting couples who had children during the 1970s eventually married; however, before these children reach age 16, 56 percent of them are likely to experience the disruption of their parents' marriage, in comparison with 31 percent of children born to married parents. Overall, about half of all children born between 1970 and 1984 are likely to spend some time in a mother-only family, and more than half of these children reach age 16 without having had a stepfather.

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There was an increase from 62.8 to 79.1 million households in the United States during the 1970s. The number of households increased much more rapidly than the population. This paper decomposes this growth in the number of households into components associated with changing age and martial status composition and changing age by marital status-specific propensities to form households. About one-third of the increase in the number of households was due to increased age by marital status propensity to form households, and two-thirds was due to shifts in the age by marital status distribution and population growth. The increased propensity to form households had its major impact at ages under 35, and primarily among never-married persons. The composition component had its primary impact at ages 25-44 as a result of the baby boom, and also because of the increased fractions never married and separated and divorced.

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PIP: 1970-79 US fertility trends among differnet racial, regional, age, educational, parity, and socioeconomic subgroups in the population were examined, using own children data from the 1976 Survey of Income and Education (SIE) and the March Current Population Surveys (CPS) from 1968-80. In addition, cross-sectional differences in fertility for the subgroups were compared for 1970 and 1976, using multiple regression analysis. 1st, the appropriateness of using fertility rates obtained from own children data was assessed by comparing fertility rates obtained from the SIE data with those derived from vital statistic and census data. The comparative analysis confirmed that the SIE data yielded an accurate estimate of period fertility rates for currently married women, provided the subgroup samples were sufficiently large. CPS fertility estimates were also judged to be accurate if data from 3 adjacent survey years was pooled to increase sample size. Fertility trends for 5 educational groups were assessed separately for 1967-73. During this periold, there was a marked decline in fertility for all 5 groups; for the group with 5-8 years of education the decline was only 14%, but for the other 4 groups, which included women with 9-16 or more years of education, the decline in fertility ranged from 26-29%. In assessing the 1970-76 trends, the sample was restricted to own children, aged 3 years or less, of currently married women, under 40 years of age. Among whites, there was an overall 20% decline in fertility between 1970-76 and an overall fertility increase of about 2% between 1976-79. These trends were observed in all 28 white subgroups. A similar pattern was observed for blacks. There was an overall fertility decline of 24% between 1970-76, and this decline was apparent for all subgroups except women with college degrees. Betwen 1976-79, black fertility rates, unlike white rates, continued to decline, but the rate of decline was only 3%. Furthermore, the decline in almost all the black subgroups was markedly less than in the 1970-76 periold, and for many of the subgroups the trend was reversed and fertility increased. In summary, the fertility trends noted for 1970-79 were pervasive for almost all the subgroups for both blacks and whites; i.e., there was a marked decline in fertility between 1970-76 and than a reversal or slowing down of the decline during the 1976-79 for all black and white subgroups. Cross-sectional fertility differences in the subgroups in 1970 and in 1979 were quite similar, and fertility rates differed markedly for the separate subgroups. These differences do not, of course, explain the pervasive trends observed in the analysis of the fertility rates over time. A similar study assessing fertility trends among subgroups for the early 1940's through the late 1960s also revealed the pervasive nature of period fertility trends. Demographers have not as yet been able to explain these shifts in fertility that cut across all subgroups in the US and which also characterize the period fertility rates in other developed countries. Tables provided information on 1) total fertility rates by educational level and by geographical region for 1945-1975; 2) % change in number of own children less than 3 years of age among women under age 40 by maternal age, maternal education, initial parity, geographical region, and husband's income; and 3) mean number of own children less than 3 years of age among women under age 40 by maternal age, education, parity, region, and husband's income.^ieng

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PIP: Using 1965 National Fertility Survey data, the national trends and patterns of breastfeeding among American mothers are examined. A review of the literature finds most results of studies to be inconsistent. In this study the total sample was 4918 mothers with first births. The general conclusion is that breastfeeding has been declining since the turn of the century. 50% breastfed their first child. Black and Latin American mothers are about 7 points above the average. Northwest European (English and German) mothers had higher rates than mothers from Irish, Slavic, French or Italian backgrounds. Being a Catholic makes a mother less likely to breastfeed her first baby for most all nationality groups except Latin American. Farm mothers were much more likely to have breastfed their first baby than nonfarm mothers, 64% to 49%. The South and West geographical districts were 6-8 points above the grand mean while the Midwest and Northeast are below it. Only 40% of mothers in the Northeast breastfeed. By education, the lowest educational category (6 years or less) have the highest breastfeeding rates, 74%, which declines to high school graduates who have a low of 44%, then rises with a college education. The college educated group is the next highest category after the lowest educated group. White collar workers and service employed were the highest groups among occupations of those breastfeeding.^ieng

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The continuous decline in fertility in the United States since 1957, while affecting all elements of the population, has been most pronounced and most rapid among those groups which previously had the highest fertility - blacks, American Indians and Mexican Americans-all of whom experienced fertility declines more rapid than those experienced by urban whites between 1957-1960 and 1967-1970. Among urban whites, fertility decline has been heavily concentrated among those of low income. The decline was especiallyrapid for third and higher order births, suggesting a heavy concentration of completed fertility at two-child families. The rapid decline, and the narrowing of the traditionalfertility differentials among various subgroups have important implications in the areasof poverty, education, the role of women in society and the dynamics of local area growth.

PIP: The fertility decline between 1957 and 1973 for various ethnic, economic, and social subgroups within the U.S. population is detailed by comparing the fertility change of currently married women between the periods 1957-1960 and 1967-1970. In order to analyze differential rates of fertility decline for population groups of greatest interest it was necessary to use an indirect method. Data in this article are taken from the 1960 and 1970 Census of Population which includes the household composition along with age of each member. Measure of fertility was the average number of children under age 3 living in the same household with their own mother, married and under age 40. This approximates the number of births a woman has had in the past 3 years by looking at the number of children under age of 3 living with her in the household, and, in the same way, can identify the number of births each woman had in a previous year from number of children under age of 1 living with her. Shortcomings to this method are listed. Fertility declines have been more rapid during 1957-1960 and 1967-1970 among blacks, American Indians and Mexican Americans -- groups which previously had the highest fertility -- than among urban whites. Among urban whites, fertility decline has been heavily concentrated among those of low income. The decline was particularly rapid for 3rd and higher order births, indicating a possible concentration of completed fertility at 2-child families. The rapid decline and the narrowing of traditional fertility differentials among various subgroups have important implications in the areas of poverty, education, the role of women in society, and the dynamics of local area growth.

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