Illegitimate birth and deprivation: recent findings from an exploratory study

The association between illegitimate birth and deprivation documented in studies from the 1950s is re-examined using data from an exploratory investigation of three cohorts of illegitimate children born in the 1970s. Because the link between illegitimate birth and disadvantage has been complicated by the complex set of interrelationships between illegitimacy, specific demographic characteristics of the illegitimate childbearing population, familial organization preceding and succeeding illegitimate birth and consequences for the illegitimate child and his mother, recent changes in the incidence, demographic patterning and familial configurations of illegitimacy are outlined before living conditions are described. In addition, control factors have been introduced in the study from which findings are reported to allow separation of the influences of illegitimacy from the impact of correlated demographic and familial variables. An examination of past and current living conditions in terms of housing, income, use of social services and child health reveals a continued association between illegitimate birth and relative deprivation. The persistence of disadvantage is related to the high incidence of single parenthood among illegitimate childbearers and the predominance of illegitimate childbearing among young, single, primiparous, poor women.