Implications of Subdividing Marital Status: Are Unmarried Mothers with Partners Different from Unmarried Mothers Without Partners?

• Activity Number: 475
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 7, 2008 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Robin Young*+ and Eugene Declercq
• Companies: Boston University School of Public Health and Boston University School of Public Health
• Keywords: Marital Status ; Adverse Birth Outcomes ; Unmarried Mothers

Abstract

This study examined the analytic benefits of separating unmarried mothers with and without partners when assessing risk of adverse birth outcomes. Data from Listening to Mothers II, a nationally representative survey of mothers' childbearing experiences categorized marital status as married(71%), unmarried with partner(24%), or unmarried without partner(5%). Unmarried mothers with and without partners were similar in age, education, and parity but differed in method of delivery. Multiple logistic regressions controlling for demographics showed, compared to married mothers, unmarried mothers with partners had increased risk of giving birth to premature or low birth weight infants. Mothers without partners had even greater risk. Among primiparas, unmarried mothers with partners had twice the risk of premature infants and those without partners had 5 times greater risk than married mothers.