What's Behind Racial and Ethnic Fertility Differentials?

Keywords

Female fertility, Fertility, Marriage, Hispanics, Mothers, Men, Adolescents, Family relations, Black people

Abstract

TO DATE, SOCIAL RESEARCH has accounted for some, but not all of the differential in birth rates between various racial and ethnic groups in the United States (Goldscheider and Uhlenberg,1969; Uhlenberg, 1973; Bean and Marcum, 1978; Johnson, 1979; Bean and Swicegood, 1985; Barringer, Gardner, and Levin, 1993; Brewster, 1994; Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994). After controlling for socioeconomic factors and individual characteristics, past studies have often attributed the residual racial effect to "culture." Yet how, or even why belonging to a particular racial or ethnic group influences fertility behavior is still unclear. Little is known about the mechanisms through which race and ethnicity influence fertility behaviors.

Original Publication Citation

Forste, Renata, and Marta Tienda. 1996. “What’s Behind Racial and Ethnic Fertility Patterns?” In: John B. Casterline, Ronald D. Lee, and Karen A. Foote (eds.), Fertility in the United States: New Patterns, New Theories, Population and Development Review, Supplement to Volume 22:109-133, (New York: The Population Council)

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1996

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/5634

Publisher

Population and Development Review

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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