ABSTRACT
Many have heard the saying that the first child can come anytime, but the second one takes nine months. This is a reflection of the phenomenon of premarital conception. Once the conception has occurred, couples will often tend to marry for the benefit of the child. In the United States, these marriages have been referred to as “shotgun” weddings, in which it was believed that the father of the pregnant daughter brandished a shotgun to ensure that the son-in-law marries his daughter. However, with the sexual revolution in the United States, fewer couples decide to marry just because of a premarital conception. For instance, in the United States, with increases in cohabitation and nonmarital fertility, Bianchi and Spain (1996:11) estimate that “thirty-five percent of cohabiting households include children under the age of 15 in 1994, compared with 27 percent in 1980.” This indicates a steady rise in the United States of having children outside marriage (Graefe and Lichter 1999).
