The Social Significance of Interracial Cohabitation: Inferences Based on Fertility Behavior
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The Social Significance of Interracial Cohabitation: Inferences Based on Fertility Behavior Kate H. Choi 1 & Rachel E. Goldberg 2 # Population Association of America 2020
Abstract Interracial couples cohabit at higher rates than same-race couples, which is attributed to lower barriers to interracial cohabitation relative to intermarriage. This begs the question of whether the significance of cohabitation differs between interracial and samerace couples. Using data from the 2006–2017 National Survey of Family Growth, we assessed the meaning of interracial cohabitation by comparing the pregnancy risk, pregnancy intentions, and union transitions following a pregnancy among women in interracial and same-race cohabitations. The pregnancy and union transition behaviors of women in White-Black cohabitations resembled those of Black women in same-race cohabitations, suggesting that White-Black cohabitation serves as a substitute to marriage and reflecting barriers to the formation of White-Black intermarriages. The behaviors of women in White-Hispanic cohabitations fell between those of their samerace counterparts or resembled those of White women in same-race cohabitations. These findings suggest that White-Hispanic cohabitations take on a meaning between trial marriage and substitute to marriage and support views that Hispanics with White partners are a more assimilated group than Hispanics in same-race unions. Results for pregnancy intentions deviated from these patterns. Women in White-Black cohabitations were less likely than Black women in same-race cohabitations to have an unintended pregnancy, suggesting that White-Black cohabitations are considered marriage-like unions involving children. Women in White-Hispanic cohabitations were more likely than White and Hispanic women in same-race cohabitations to have an unintended pregnancy, reflecting possible concerns about social discrimination. These findings indicate heterogeneity in the significance of interracial cohabitation and continuing obstacles to interracial unions. Keywords Racial/ethnic differences . Fertility . Cohabitation . Intermarriage
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-02000904-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Kate H. Choi [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
K.H. Choi, R.E. Goldberg
Introduction The United States has experienced an unprecedented rise in interracial marriages over the past five decades. The share of marriages involving spouses of a different race or ethnicity has increased more than fivefold, from less than 3% in 1967 to 17% in 2015 (Livingston and Brown 2017). These changes partially reflect more accepting attitudes toward interracial marriages. The share of U.S. adults who reported that they would oppose the intermarriage of a family member dropped from 31% in 2000 to 10% in 2017 (Livingston and Brown 2017). Although attitudes toward interracial marriages have become more
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