Multi-Partnered Fertility among American Men

Karen B. Guzzo, University of Pennsylvania
Frank F Furstenberg, Jr., University of Pennsylvania

Nearly all we know about multi-partnered fertility has come from the Fragile Families dataset. While this data has been a rich source of information, its representativeness, especially for men, is less than ideal. Using the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which interviewed men for the first time, we document the prevalence and correlates of multi-partnered fertility among a representative sample of American men. Nearly 8% of American men aged 15-44 have children with more than one partner, with sharp differences by age, race/ethnicity, and income - over one-third of poor black men aged 35-44 have children with 2 or more mothers, and 16% have children with 3 or more mothers. Multi-partnered fertility is strongly related to the circumstances of births - it is more common among men with unmarried births, teenage births, and who never lived with at least one of their children.