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    Demography. 1996 Nov;33(4):429-42.

    Migration and premarital childbearing among Puerto Rican Women.

    Landale NS, Hauan SM.

    Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA. landale@pop.psu.edu

    This paper examines the relationship between migration and premarital childbearing in a highly migratory Latino subgroup, Puerto Rican women. Using pooled origin-destination data from surveys conducted in Puerto Rico and in the New York metropolitan area, we find that first- and second-generation migrants to the U.S. mainland face substantially higher risks of conceiving and bearing a first child before marriage than do nonmigrants in Puerto Rico. This pattern is due largely to the relatively early transition to sexual activity among mainland women. Given the negative long-term consequences of premarital childbearing for women and their children, our findings call into question the assumption that migrants necessarily experience only positive outcomes as a result of the assimilation process.

    PMID: 8939416 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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