Multiplied Disadvantage: Multiple Partner Fertility and Economic Well-Being into the Great Recession

Lindsay M. Monte, U.S. Census Bureau

The “Great Recession” of 2007-2009 pushed many American families into difficult economic circumstances, although there is evidence that the impact of the recession was not uniformly felt. Outside of the context of macro-economic factors, multiple partner fertility, or having children with more than one partner, has been repeatedly linked to economic disadvantage. This paper will look at whether the disadvantage associated with multiple partner fertility was disproportionately exacerbated by the recession. I will look at reported multiple partner fertility in the 2004 and 2008 SIPP panels, and examine correlates of economic well-being, particularly differences in program use, before and during the Great Recession. I will ask whether, controlling for other factors, families with multiple partner fertility were more susceptible to the effects of the Great Recession than were other families.