Chapter 12To Parent or Not to Parent

Fertility Trends in the United Sates The Decision to Parent or Not to parent Three Emerging Options Preventing Pregnancy: History and Issues

Chapter 12To Parent or Not to Parent

Pregnancy Outside Marriage Abortion Involuntary Infertility and Reproductive

Technology Adoption Deciding to Relinquish a Baby

Children’s Value to Parents

Give their parents lives meaning and are associated with having a close family unit.

Emotional significance has increased as their economic value has declined.

Potential means of support when parents are unable to care for themselves.

Add liveliness to a household.

Costs of Having Children

Cost of raising a child born in 2000 to the age of 18, including college - $165,630.

Parents forego income and investment when they raise their children.

Parents work additional hours and have less leisure time.

Three Emerging Options

Choosing to remain childless Postponing parenthood Having a one-child family

Pregnancy Outside Marriage

40% of total births to unmarried women in 1999 were to white mothers.

In 2000, 69% of African American births, 43% of Hispanic births, and 22% of non-Hispanic white births occurred outside marriage.

Teen Pregnancy

In 2,000, 12% of all births were to teen mothers.

79% of teen births occur outside of marriage. Teen birth rate is half of what it was at peak in

1957.

Adoption

There is no federal agency that collects data for adoption statistics.

About 2% of 2 parent families contain adopted children.