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Journal Article Using data from the June 1980 Current Population Survey, Morgan, Lye, and Condran (1988) reported that families with a daughter have a higher divorce risk than families with a son. They attribute this finding to the higher involvement of fathers in raising a son, which in turn promotes marital stability. We investigate the relation between gender composition of children and parents' divorce risk with cross-national data from the Fertility and Family Survey. These data, which cover 16 European countries, Canada, and the United States, do not support a general hypothesis that sons contribute…
Teenage childbearing is associated with many adverse consequences for teen mothers, their families, and children. Many of the negative consequences for teen mothers are due to the disadvantaged situations in which many of these girls already lived before having a teen birth. While the disadvantaged backgrounds of most teen mothers account for many of the burdens that these young women shoulder, having a baby during adolescence often restricts economic and educational opportunities, and these disadvantages tend to be passed on to the next generation. Children born to teen mothers are often…