PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Many US women have children by more than one man

2011-04-02
(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The first national study of the prevalence of multiple partner fertility shows that 28 percent of all U.S. women with two or more children have children by more than one man.

The study will be presented April 1 in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.

"I was surprised at the prevalence," said demographer Cassandra Dorius, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. "Multiple partner fertility is an important part of contemporary American family life, and a key component to the net of disadvantage that many poor and uneducated women face every day ."

While previous studies have examined how common multiple partner fertility is among younger women, or among women who live in urban areas, the research by Dorius is the first to assess prevalence among a national sample of U.S. women who have completed their child-bearing years.

Dorius analyzed data on nearly 4,000 U.S. women who were interviewed more than 20 times over a period of 27 years, as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The data included detail on individual men in each household, capturing what demographers call "relationship churning." For nonresidential relationships, Dorius triangulated information from mother and child reports to establish common paternity.

She found that having children by different fathers was more common among minority women, with 59 percent of African American mothers, 35 percent of Hispanic mothers and 22 percent of white mothers reporting multiple partner fertility. Women who were not living with a man when they gave birth and those with low income and less education were also more likely to have children by different men.

But she also found that multiple partner fertility is surprisingly common at all levels of income and education and is frequently tied to marriage and divorce rather than just single parenthood.

"I was a year into this project before I realized that my mother was one of these women," Dorius said. "We tend to think of women with multiple partner fertility as being only poor single women with little education and money, but in fact at some point, most were married, and working, and going to school, and doing all the things you're supposed to do to live the American Dream ."

Family researchers first began studying multiple partner fertility by exploring how men 'swap families' after having a child with a new partner, or reduce their financial support and physical involvement with nonresidential biological children when their ex-partners live with, or marry, someone new.

"Raising children who have different fathers is a major factor in the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage," Dorius said. "Juggling all the different needs and demands of fathers in at least two households, four or more pairs of grandparents, and two or more children creates a huge set of chronic stressors that families have to deal with for decades."

###Dorius received support for the study from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Development, and from the Center for Research on Diverse Family Contexts and the Joan Huber and William Form Research Fund.

Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research is the world's largest academic social science survey and research organization, and a world leader in developing and applying social science methodology, and in educating researchers and students from around the world. ISR conducts some of the most widely cited studies in the nation, including the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, the world's largest digital social science data archive. Visit the ISR website at http://www.isr.umich.edu for more information.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The Population Bomb: How we survived it

2011-04-02
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---World population will reach 7 billion this year, prompting new concerns about whether the world will soon face a major population crisis. "In spite of 50 years of the fastest population growth on record, the world did remarkably well in producing enough food and reducing poverty," said University of Michigan economist David Lam, in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America. Lam is a professor of economics and a research professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research. The talk is titled "How the World ...

Manage biological invasions like natural disasters, biologists say

2011-04-02
Biological invasions get less prime-time coverage than natural disasters, but may be more economically damaging and warrant corresponding investments in preparedness and response planning, according to three biologists writing in the April issue of BioScience. Anthony Ricciardi of McGill University and his coauthors point out that species invasions are becoming more frequent worldwide, largely because of international trade. Although many alien species establish themselves in a new location without causing harm, the worst biological invasions may cause multiple extinctions ...

Cat's out of the bag: PUMA contributes to ulcerative colitis

2011-04-02
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease thought to be related to aberrant activation of the immune system in the intestine. Recent research has also suggested that regulated cell death (apoptosis) of the intestinal epithelial cells is a contributing factor to the pathogenesis. However, the molecular mechanisms that control the cellular response to inflammation are incompletely understood. In this paper, Lin Zhang, at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, found that in mice, a protein called PUMA (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis) was responsible ...

Gag order: how DNA silencing can promote cancer

2011-04-02
Cells control which genes they express by multiple mechanisms, one of which is the direct modification of DNA with small molecules. Methylation of genes effectively silences them, and excess DNA methylation, particularly of genes that control the cell cycle, is known to promote cancer formation. However, it is unclear whether the enzymes that modify DNA in this way target specific genes or whether random modifications select cells for enhanced tumorigenic capactiy. In new research, Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues, at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, ...

JCI online early table of contents: April 1, 2011

2011-04-02
EDITOR'S PICK Cat's out of the bag: PUMA contributes to ulcerative colitis Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease thought to be related to aberrant activation of the immune system in the intestine. Recent research has also suggested that regulated cell death (apoptosis) of the intestinal epithelial cells is a contributing factor to the pathogenesis. However, the molecular mechanisms that control the cellular response to inflammation are incompletely understood. In this paper, Lin Zhang, at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, found that in ...

Sugar-grain sized meteorites rocked the climates of early Earth and Mars, according to new study

2011-04-02
Bombardments of 'micro-meteorites' on Earth and Mars four billion years ago may have caused the planets' climates to cool dramatically, hampering their ability to support life, according to research published today in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Scientists from Imperial College London studied the effects of the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), a period of time in the early Solar System when meteorite showers lasting around 100 million years barraged Earth and Mars. This bombardment discharged sulphur dioxide into the upper atmospheres of both planets and ...

Smyrna, GA Dentist Reaches Out to Patients Through New Website

2011-04-02
Leading dentists in Smyrna, Dr. James C. Pitts and Dr. Joseph M. Pitts, are pleased to introduce patients to a new avenue for communication and education through the launch of the practice's innovative website. The new informative website was created in order to enhance patient awareness of dental health care. The new website for this dentist in Smyrna offers a wide array of valuable tools and information that patients can use to better inform themselves of various dental health care topics. Patients can visit this Smyrna dentist's website via the Internet at any moment ...

From science fiction to research breakthrough

2011-04-02
Focusing on interdisciplinary research is now leading to breakthroughs in bio nanotechnology research. A new method for drug development has become a reality. Four years ago, the biologist Karen Martinez almost didn't believe in the research project herself when she started with her team working on it, but now it has been proven. Together with colleagues at the Nano-Science Center, her team has been able to combine nanoscale materials and technologies that are traditionally used for electronic devices with individual living cells. The researchers have shown that cells ...

Progress toward the clinical application of autologous induced pluripotent stem cells and gene repair therapy for treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia

2011-04-02
Study shows, for the first time, the successful reprogramming of diseased human hepatocytes into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).1 Results also found differentiation into mature hepatocytes was more efficient than that with fibroblast-derived iPSCs. The generation of diseased hepatocyte-derived human iPSC lines provides a good basis for the study of liver disease pathogenesis. Such technology could give a potentially unlimited reservoir of cells for the treatment of human liver diseases: generating genetically corrected liver cells via auto-transplantation of ...

Dentist in West Orange, NJ Offers Patients Opportunity to Learn About Other Patients' Experiences

2011-04-02
Skilled West Orange dentist, Dr. Paul Feldman, allows patients to submit reviews of himself, his practice and his staff. The reviews are easily accessible via the practice's website and allow patients to view how other patients' experiences were. Patients can visit the website for this West Orange, NJ dentist to read reviews from previous patients who have received treatment from Dr. Feldman. "It is important that I know what my patients concerns are and what I am doing correctly. I value their opinion and the patient review section allows me to find out what they think, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Scripps Research scientists unlock new patterns of protein behavior in cell membranes

Panama Canal may face frequent extreme water lows in coming decades

Flash Joule heating lights up lithium extraction from ores

COMBINEDBrain and MUSC announce partnership to establish biorepository for pediatric cerebrospinal fluid and CNS tissue bank

Questionable lead reporting for drinking water virtually vanished after Flint water crisis, study reveals

Assessing overconfidence among national security officials

Bridging two frontiers: Mitochondria & microbiota, Targeting Extracellular Vesicles 2025 to explore game-changing pathways in medicine

New imaging tech promises to help doctors better diagnose and treat skin cancers

Once dominant, US agricultural exports falter amid trade disputes and rising competition

Biochar from invasive weed shields rice from toxic nanoplastics and heavy metals

Rice University announces second cohort of Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows

Soil bacteria and minerals form a natural “battery” that breaks down antibiotics in the dark

Jamestown colonists brought donkeys, not just horses, to North America, old bones reveal

FIU cybersecurity researchers develop midflight defense against drone hijacking

Kennesaw State researcher aims to discover how ideas spread in the digital age

Next-generation perovskite solar cells are closer to commercial use

Sleep patterns linked to variation in health, cognition, lifestyle, and brain organization

University of Oklahoma researcher awarded funding to bridge gap between molecular data and tissue architecture

Nationally-recognized pathologist Paul N. Staats, MD, named Chair of Pathology at University of Maryland School of Medicine

The world’s snow leopards are very similar genetically. That doesn’t bode well for their future

Researchers find key to stopping deadly infection

Leafcutter ants have blind spots, just like truck drivers

Tayac receives funding for community engagement project

Parker receives funding for Elementary Education Program Professional Development School (PDS)

Physicists uncork a message in a bottle from another star

Sanders receives funding for project aimed at enabling prostheses for children with lower extremity amputation

Engineers develop solid lubricant to replace toxic materials in farming

Repurposing gemstone polishing waste to create smart cement

Patient-physician messaging by race, ethnicity, insurance type, and preferred language

Unrecognized motor difficulties and developmental coordination disorder in preschool children

[Press-News.org] Many US women have children by more than one man