Kristi Williams, associate professor, sociology, is the lead author of the first U.S. study to document long-term negative health consequences for unwed mothers and the implications for our society.

Unwed mothers face poorer health at midlife than do women who have children after marriage, according to Williams' nationwide study. Wiliams and her colleagues found that women who had their first child outside of marriage described their health as poorer at age 40 than did other moms. About 40 percent of all births in the United States now occur to unmarried women, compared to fewer than 10 percent in 1960. That suggests there will soon be a population boom in the United States of single mothers suffering middle-aged health problems.

Moreover, the study suggests that later marriage does not generally help reverse the negative health consequences of having a first birth outside of marriage. This calls into question the value of government efforts to promote marriage, among low-income, single mothers, at least in terms of their consequences for these women’s health.

Read more: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/midlifemoms.htm

Press release courtesy of Jeff Grabmeier, director, Ohio State Research Communications

Williams' study appears in the June 2011 issue of the American Sociological Review.