Relative Resources in Couples and Their Childbearing Behavior in the United States

Abstract

A growing body of research indicates significant variation in the fertility-education relationship by partner education across high income countries. However, little is known on the education-fertility-couple nexus in the US context. The present study fills this gap. It investigates linkages between married couples’ relative socio-economic resources and their first and second birth transitions in the United States, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and a competing risk approach to model birth transitions and union dissolutions competing with first and second births independently. The study presents four findings. First, homogamous tertiary educated couples have the highest first and second birth rate, net of fertility preferences, indicating the relevance of resource pooling for family formation. Second, low-resource hypogamous and hypergamous couples have lower birth rates than most other pairings, underscoring that linkages between heterogamy and family formation may vary by the absolute level of the partners’ resources. Third, family income mediates first birth rate differences between homogamous highly educated couples and most other pairings. Lower first birth rates of hypogamous large distance couples, compared with homogamous tertiary educated couples, however, appear in part rooted in higher union dissolution rates. Fourth and finally, the higher second birth rate of homogamous highly educated couples was not mediated by any of the tested socio-economic mechanisms. More research is needed to investigate the mechanisms underlying this birth rate pattern found throughout high income societies.