Table 2.
Background characteristics for men in the NLSY
| NLSY Full Sample
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totala
|
Nonmarital Birth
|
Marital Birth
|
No Birth
|
|
| M or % | M or % | M or % | M or % | |
| Time-Varying Characteristics | ||||
| Respondent’s education (all years) | ||||
| Less than high school | 18.7 | 41.6 | 17.7 | 15.7 |
| High school diploma | 38.5 | 40.2 | 36.1 | 40.1 |
| Some college | 22.9 | 14.8 | 23.8 | 23.4 |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 20.0 | 3.4 | 22.5 | 20.7 |
| Enrolled in school (all years) | 24.1 | 25.5 | 32.8 | 17.0 |
| Employed (all years) | 78.9 | 67.5 | 80.6 | 79.5 |
| Predicted earnings (all years) | ||||
| None | 11.0 | 28.7 | 10.2 | 8.7 |
| Quartile 1 (M: $9,927; SD: $8,933) | 17.5 | 21.6 | 13.9 | 19.6 |
| Quartile 2 (M: $22,126; SD: $11,581) | 19.5 | 20.5 | 17.5 | 20.9 |
| Quartile 3 (M: $31,674; SD: $12,219) | 22.3 | 17.8 | 22.4 | 22.9 |
| Quartile 4 (M: $49,428; SD: $15,991) | 29.8 | 11.5 | 36.0 | 27.9 |
| Incarceration | ||||
| Currently | .8 | 2.4 | .3 | 1.0 |
| Ever | 2.4 | 4.2 | .7 | 3.6 |
| Military | 3.4 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 2.6 |
| Region | ||||
| Northeast | 21.6 | 18.6 | 21.1 | 22.5 |
| North Central | 28.7 | 27.5 | 29.5 | 28.1 |
| South | 30.7 | 36.3 | 30.8 | 29.8 |
| West | 18.9 | 17.4 | 18.4 | 19.5 |
| Urban residence | 81.7 | 82.6 | 82.5 | 80.9 |
| Unweighted number of person-years | 57,644 | 6,852 | 20,496 | 30,296 |
| Additional Background Characteristics | ||||
| Frequency of religious attendance (1979) | ||||
| Never | 22.3 | 26.6 | 19.4 | 25.5 |
| Infrequently | 28.0 | 28.3 | 27.6 | 28.4 |
| Once per month | 9.0 | 10.1 | 8.8 | 8.9 |
| 2–3 times per month | 11.1 | 11.4 | 10.9 | 11.4 |
| Once per week | 21.3 | 17.7 | 24.0 | 18.5 |
| More than once per week | 8.2 | 6.1 | 9.3 | 7.4 |
| Traditional family attitudes (mean, range = 1–4) | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.3 |
| (SD) | (.5) | (.5) | (.5) | (.5) |
| Highest grade would like to complete (1979) | ||||
| Less than high school | 1.4 | 3.2 | .9 | 1.5 |
| High school diploma | 34.4 | 49.5 | 32.2 | 31.4 |
| Some college | 12.0 | 11.3 | 13.2 | 10.2 |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 52.2 | 36.1 | 53.7 | 56.9 |
| Expected ability to achieve desired occupation (1979) | ||||
| Poor | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.1 | 5.0 |
| Fair | 22.6 | 26.6 | 21.1 | 23.2 |
| Good | 48.3 | 45.5 | 50.0 | 46.9 |
| Excellent | 24.6 | 22.9 | 24.9 | 24.9 |
| Expected age of marriage (1979) | ||||
| Less than 20 years | 2.5 | 3.8 | 2.5 | 1.7 |
| 20–24 years | 42.1 | 37.9 | 46.6 | 36.4 |
| 25–29 years | 42.0 | 39.0 | 41.5 | 44.2 |
| 30 or older | 10.3 | 13.4 | 7.4 | 13.9 |
| Never | 3.2 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 3.8 |
| Unweighted number of cases (n) | 5,546 | 1,100 | 2,557 | 1,889 |
Notes: Values are percentages unless otherwise indicated. All figures are weighted by national sampling weights. SD = standard deviation.
a
Total for the time-varying characteristics is the person-year average.