03/17/97 LOTS OF OLDER UNWED MOMS

LOTS OF OLDER UNWED MOMS
The intriguing question they raise
With nearly one out of every three U.S. births occurring outside of marriage, a common perception is that such births are primarily a teenage phenomenon. But as sociologists Daphne Spain and Suzanne M. Bianchi note in a book just published by the Russell Sage Foundation, teens account for only 30% of nonmarital births today, compared with 50% in 1970. Indeed, birthrates for unmarried women of all ages and races are up sharply since 1980.
The trend, say the authors, raises an intriguing question: To what extent does it reflect a growing ability of women to live independently, and to what extent is it occurring because men feel they can no longer afford to marry the mothers of their children?
By GENE KORETZ