2006 Poverty and Health Small Grants
Funded research
Julien Teitler
Mental Health and Transitions to Marriage Among Unwed Parents
Description
One third of births in the United States are to unmarried parents. The proportions are considerably higher among urban and minority parents. Increasingly, public attention has focused on strategies to encourage marriage, particularly among unwed parents. The research community has identified a number of socioeconomic factors that are associated with delayed marriage. Scholars have also investigated the effects of welfare and other policies on marriage.
The role of mental health as a barrier to marriage has received much less attention, despite clear evidence that low-income populations are at disproportionately high risk for poor mental health and that mental health is associated with social functioning and relationships.
The proposed study will use data from three waves of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study that have been augmented with information from the mothers' prenatal medical records to explore the role of mental illness in shaping transitions to marriage among unwed mothers and fathers in 20 large U.S. cities. Using an event history approach, it will assess the effects of mental illness on the likelihood and timing of marriage following a non-marital birth (for both mothers and fathers) and explore the potential mediating roles of economic self- sufficiency and relationship stability.
