TY - JOUR
T1 - Race Differences in Linking Family Formation Transitions to Women’s Mortality
AU - Reyes, Adriana M.
AU - Hardy, Melissa
AU - Pavalko, Eliza
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by an NICHD center grant to the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan (P2CHD041028) and in part by an NIA training grant to the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan (T32AG000221). We acknowledge assistance provided by the Population Research Institute at Penn State University, which is supported by an infrastructure grant by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD041025). As well as research funding from the National Institute on Aging (1 R21 AG033323). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © American Sociological Association 2018.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - We examine how the timing and sequencing of first marriage and childbirth are related to mortality for a cohort of 4,988 white and black women born between 1922 and 1937 from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women. We use Cox proportional hazard models to estimate race differences in the association between family formation transitions and mortality. Although we find no relationships between marital histories and longevity, we do find that having children, the timing of first birth, and the sequencing of childbirth and marriage are associated with mortality. White women who had children lived longer than those who had none, but the opposite was found for black women. The effects of birth timing also differed by race; delaying first birth to older ages was protective for white women but not black women. These results underscore the importance of social context in the study of life course transitions.
AB - We examine how the timing and sequencing of first marriage and childbirth are related to mortality for a cohort of 4,988 white and black women born between 1922 and 1937 from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women. We use Cox proportional hazard models to estimate race differences in the association between family formation transitions and mortality. Although we find no relationships between marital histories and longevity, we do find that having children, the timing of first birth, and the sequencing of childbirth and marriage are associated with mortality. White women who had children lived longer than those who had none, but the opposite was found for black women. The effects of birth timing also differed by race; delaying first birth to older ages was protective for white women but not black women. These results underscore the importance of social context in the study of life course transitions.
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U2 - 10.1177/0022146518757014
DO - 10.1177/0022146518757014
M3 - Article
C2 - 29443635
AN - SCOPUS:85042079547
SN - 0022-1465
VL - 59
SP - 231
EP - 247
JO - Journal of health and social behavior
JF - Journal of health and social behavior
IS - 2
ER -
