Fertility, Contraception, and Fatherhood: Data on Men and Women from the
National Survey of Family Growth
For Immediate Release:
May 31,
2006
Contact: CDC
National Center for Health Statistics Press Office(301) 458-4800
E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov
Fertility, Contraception, and Fatherhood: Data on Men
and Women From Cycle 6 (2002) of the National Survey of Family Growth. (PHS) 2006-1978.
156 pp. View/download PDF
3.4 MB
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has issued a comprehensive report on fertility,
contraception, and fatherhood indicators among men 15-44 years of age in the
United States. The data are from the National Survey of Family Growth
conducted in 2002. It’s the latest survey of this type, and--for the first
time--this large-scale, nationwide survey includes men. Whenever
appropriate, the findings for men and women are contrasted. Men’s and
women’s reproductive experiences vary significantly, and often sharply, by
characteristics such as education, income, and Hispanic origin and race.
Teen
fathers - Among non-Hispanic black fathers, 25 percent fathered their
first child before they were 20 years old; 19 percent of Hispanic fathers
also became fathers as teenagers, and 11 percent of non-Hispanic white men
became fathers while they were teens.
Nonmarital
childbearing – About one-half of the men without a high school education
have fathered a child outside of marriage compared with about 6 percent among
college graduates.
Child
support – About three-quarters of the 28 million men who have children
(under age 19) live with those children. Among fathers who live apart from
their children, 85 percent of fathers with higher incomes contributed to
their children’s support on a regular basis, compared with 64 percent of
fathers with income below the poverty level.
Marriage
and divorce - A third of men marry by age 25; almost two-thirds marry by
age 30. Among women, one-half are married by the time they are 25 and
three-quarters by age 30. Overall, men marry later in life than women. The
average woman marries a man 2 years older than she. One-half of the men who
married as teenagers were divorced or separated within 10 years, compared
with 17 percent of men who married at 26 years or over.
Sexual
activity - Men who did not live with both parents at age 14 were more
likely to have had sexual intercourse during the teenage years (19 or
younger) compared with those who lived with both parents at age 14.