Table 2.
Characteristics of Sample of Births to Unmarried Black Mothers by Proportion Black in Census Tract (N = 1,871)
| Proportion Black in Tract | All Mothers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| < .20 | .20–.39 | .40–.59 | .60–.79 | .80–1.00 | ||
| Child female (%) | 47.8 | 50.9 | 45.1 | 46.4 | 45.3 | 46.3 |
| First birth* (%) | 38.1 | 37.7 | 38.1 | 41.1 | 31.9 | 35.3 |
| Mother’s age* (%) | ||||||
| < 20 years | 22.0 | 20.9 | 19.5 | 26.6 | 23.6 | 23.0 |
| 20 – 34 years | 74.6 | 73.6 | 77.9 | 67.3 | 69.1 | 71.0 |
| 35 years or more | 3.4 | 5.5 | 2.7 | 6.1 | 7.3 | 5.9 |
| Father’s age 35 years or more (%) | 13.7 | 13.2 | 13.7 | 14.5 | 16.7 | 15.3 |
| Mother U.S.-born* (%) | 94.6 | 95.5 | 96.5 | 94.7 | 98.4 | 96.9 |
| Parents’ relationship status* (%) | ||||||
| Cohabiting | 45.9 | 45.9 | 40.7 | 36.9 | 36.5 | 39.2 |
| Romantic, not cohabiting | 36.1 | 40.0 | 40.3 | 50.2 | 44.0 | 43.1 |
| Friends/hardly talk/father unknown | 18.1 | 14.1 | 19.0 | 12.9 | 19.5 | 17.7 |
| Mother’s education* (%) | ||||||
| Less than high school | 28.3 | 40.5 | 35.0 | 33.1 | 38.7 | 36.5 |
| High school or equivalent | 35.1 | 29.6 | 36.7 | 38.4 | 38.6 | 36.9 |
| Any college | 36.6 | 30.0 | 28.3 | 28.5 | 22.8 | 26.6 |
| Father’s education: Less than high school (%) | 27.8 | 28.2 | 29.7 | 28.5 | 35.4 | 36.4 |
| Father employed or in school | 64.9 | 68.6 | 64.2 | 65.0 | 65.3 | 65.5 |
| Mother’s health insurance (%) | ||||||
| Private | 22.9 | 23.2 | 16.8 | 20.2 | 20.2 | 20.4 |
| Public | 74.6 | 74.6 | 79.7 | 73.0 | 76.2 | 75.8 |
| None | 2.4 | 2.3 | 3.5 | 6.8 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
*
Indicates significant (p<.05) differences across neighborhood racial composition categories based on chi-square tests of equal distributions.