Migration and premarital childbearing among Puerto Rican Women.
This paper examines the relationship between migration and premarital childbearing in a highly migratory Latino subgroup, Puerto Rican women. Using pooled origin-destination data from surveys conducted in Puerto Rico and in the New York metropolitan area, we find that first- and second-generation migrants to the U.S. mainland face substantially higher risks of conceiving and bearing a first child before marriage than do nonmigrants in Puerto Rico. This pattern is due largely to the relatively early transition to sexual activity among mainland women. Given the negative long-term consequences of premarital childbearing for women and their children, our findings call into question the assumption that migrants necessarily experience only positive outcomes as a result of the assimilation process.
Landale
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Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA. landale@pop.psu.edu
Hauan
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D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D015406:Single Parent; D014481:United States