Effects of childhood foster care and adoption on adulthood childbearing

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), latent growth curve modeling was used to examine the trajectories of adulthood childbearing. Respondents consisted of 195 subjects who were raised by an adoptive family, 78 who raised by a foster family for 4 months or more, 200 who were raised by stepparents for 4 months or more, and 200 who were raised by both biological parents until age 18. In the first-stage analyses, foster-parented respondents showed significantly greater linear increases in the number of childbirths per year and significant deceleration in childbirth, as compared with biological- and adoptive-parented respondents. In the second-stage analyses, there were significant differences between the groups in the effects of education on the initial level of childbirth, with step- and adoptive-parented respondents having significantly more negative relationships for education than did biological-parented respondents. Likewise, adoptive-parented respondents showed a significantly more positive relationship between persistent poverty status and the initial level of childbirth, as compared with biological- and foster-parented respondents.