In order to decrease out-of-wedlock births, government policies should be directed toward helping young couples stay together rather than discouraging marriage and focusing almost exclusively on the young mother and her child. Also discussed are attitudes toward marriage, father's role, stability of early marriages, children, and benefits of…

This study was conducted to test the following notions: (1) blacks are less committed to the norm of legitimacy and; (2) black women have less reason and desire than white women to marry--whether or not they are unmarried mothers. The data are drawn from a questionnaire administered to 704 obstetrical patients, 81 percent of whom were black.…

Expanded version of a paper read at the Pacific Sociological Association Convention, April, 1964.

Presents comparative racial data on unwed mothers concerning disposition of offspring and their own marital decisions, and interprets findings in context of more general discussion of marriage reasons among women. Portions of paper presented at Society for the Study of Social Problems, Montreal, 1964. (Author/CJ)

Analysis of four national cross-sectional fertility surveys, 1955-84, documents the decreasing likelihood that single women pregnant with their first child will marry to legitimate the birth. Among recent cohorts, decision to marry was influenced by woman's expectations about the timing of marriage and parenthood, living arrangements, academic…

This article discusses trends in the occurrence of out-of-wedlock births and factors which contribute to or are associated with illegitimate pregnancies. Specifically discussed are the rates of increase of such births, particularly among unmarried teenage mothers, and the ethnic, social, and psychological characteristics of unwed mothers. It is…