Family factors in unwed pregnancy

Carolyn Moynihan
20 Mar 2011
Reproduced with Permission
MercatorNet

Family structure and religion are factors that significantly influence whether a woman has an unwed pregnancy, a new report from the Family Research Council shows.

Patrick Fagan and Scott Talkington of the FRC's Marriage and Religion Research Institute (Marri) analysed data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and found that one in five (19 per cent) young women who grew up in an intact married family have had an unwed pregnancy, and that weekly religious practice brought that figure down to 16 per cent.

Rates of unmarried motherhood in women from other family structures rose from 26 per cent where parents had cohabited but stayed together, to 54 per cent among women whose mothers had always been single.

When family structure and religious practice were combined, the range of unmarried pregnancy was from 18 per cent among always intact married families who worshipped weekly, to 40 per cent among all other family types who never worshipped.

Follow this link to read more and see the graphs.

The Marri site has lots of other useful resources on marriage and religion, including downloadable Power Point presentations.

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