THE DEMOGRAPHY OF PUERTO RICAN HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE

The proposed research will examine the demographic processes underlying the currently high rate of female family headship among Puerto Ricans. The specific behaviors to be studied are entry into marriage, marital dissolution and out-of-wedlock childbearing. The research will generate basic information on how background characteristics and prior life-course events (such as education, labor force participation and migration) affect the timing and prevalence of marriage and childbearing transitions which eventuate in female family headship. Particular attention will be paid to the role of migration between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland in contributing to family instability. Detailed retrospective histories from two recent surveys of Puerto Rican women residing on the U.S. mainland and on the island of Puerto Rico will be analyzed with continuous time event history methods. The two surveys will be pooled and all analyses will be conducted separately by birthplace. The pooling of the two surveys will allow us to include both migrants and non-migrants in each birthplace group and to produce results which are uncontaminated by migration selectivity. Overall, the primary aim of the study is to shed light on the mechanisms through which the currently high rates of female family headship have arisen.