Data from a national sample of married adults, interviewed four times between 1980 and 1992, do not support the idea that unhappily married couples use childbearing as a strategy to increase solidarity and reduce marital uncertainty. Instead, results indicate that a solid marriage and compatibility between spouses encourage parenthood and…

We examine the assortative mating patterns of new parents who are married, cohabiting, romantically involved and no longer romantically involved. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, we find that relationship status at the time of a birth depends mainly on father's race rather than on whether mother and father's…