Welcome
The Nonmarital Childbearing Network is an international group
of researchers organized to study the development of nonmarital
childbearing and family change more generally. Over the past several
decades, nonmarital childbearing has increased dramatically in
Europe, Australia, and the U.S., and yet few studies outside of
the United States have focused on this issue. In order to examine
how and why nonmarital childbearing has increased, this project
will study the trends and correlates of nonmarital childbearing
from a number of analytic levels and methodological perspectives.
The project aims to: advance our understanding of the development
of nonmarital childbearing in diverse contexts; contribute to
debates on the underlying causes of this increase; employ innovative
statistical techniques to analyze and classify patterns across
countries; and develop a new theoretical framework for understanding
the diffusion of family change. Using a unique database of comparative
nationally representative surveys, the project will provide insights
into the reasons why women give birth within different types of
partnerships: cohabiting or marital, or as single mothers.