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Strand two: Age of mother as a predictor of economic circumstances

Table 7 considers the presence of a partner at interview, the obverse of lone motherhood.
This indicator mostly reflects processes of partnership dissolution, although un-partnered
motherhood, where it occurs, is also more likely amongst younger women as shown in
the data on lone mothers who had never lived with the cohort child’s father in table 2
above. The first model of table 7 considers just the pattern by age at first motherhood
also evident in the first row of table 2. Relative to those who entered motherhood up to
18 years of age, all the other groups are more likely to have a partner at the time of the
MCS survey. However this is not a linear pattern, positive terms increase up to the age of
31 -33, but later mothers, at 34 onwards, have less of a positive chance of being
partnered. If there is a positive effect of delaying motherhood on the chances of being in
a two-parent family at the time of the interview, it would appear to tail off at the highest
ages.

In model 2 we include the antecedent variables. The inclusion of these antecedent
variables reduces the age at motherhood terms in all cases; but the pattern remains, with
those who entered motherhood at 31 - 33, still most likely to have a partner. The terms
for ethnic group reflect the contrasting family structures of communities from the Indian
subcontinent (more likely than whites to be married) and of the two Black groups, less
likely to be partnered. In model 3 we include variables describing the current situation.
The age at first motherhood terms are reduced further in size but the relative pattern of
the coefficients on the 3 year age bands and their statistical significance remain. This

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