and Cristina Bradatan, situates trends in Hispanic families in the context of significant changes in U.S. family life. These trends include the rising age of marriage, an increase in cohabitation, a dramatic shift in the proportion of children born outside marriage, high divorce rates, high rates of female family headship, and a growing share of children with restricted access to their fathers’ resources. Using data from the census, the National Center for Health Statistics, and published sources, the authors document trends in several indicators of family change, systematically comparing Hispanic national subgroups with non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks. They also examine generational variation in family patterns within Hispanic subgroups, paying particular attention to whether the strong family orientation—sometimes termed “familism”—that is part of Hispanic immigrant culture is retained over time and across generations or whether Hispanics are also experiencing what has been termed “family decline.”

Landale, Oropesa, and Bradatan identify several patterns that are consistent with claims that Hispanics are more familistic than non-Hispanics, such as higher fertility (with the exception of Cubans), larger households, and greater prevalence of extended living arrangements in comparison with non-Hispanic whites and blacks. Also, with the exception of Puerto Ricans and Cubans, Hispanic women are more likely to be married at a young age (20-24) than are non-Hispanics. Their analysis also notes signs of declining familism, especially for Mexican-origin Hispanics. On every indicator used, they found that the second and third (or later) generations exhibited less traditional family behavior than the first generation. Most worrisome, say the authors, is the rise of nonmarital fertility for all Hispanic groups and the rising percentage of children living in mother-only families across generations.

Intermarriage is a crucial indicator of assimilation because, by blurring racial and ethnic boundaries or reducing the numbers who self-identify as Hispanic, it has direct implications for the future size and shape of ethnic populations, as well as for the persistence of Hispanic as an ethnic category. Examining racial and ethnic mixing in sexual partnerships of various types, including marriage, cohabitation, and parenthood, Landale, Oropesa, and Bradatan find evidence that as the number of children of mixed ethnic backgrounds grows, boundaries among Hispanic subgroups and between Hispanics and non-Hispanics are weakened. That Hispanics of Mexican origin are less likely to intermarry than other Hispanic subgroups implies fewer exits from the Mexican American population due to mixed racial-ethnic backgrounds of offspring (and consequent identity shifts) compared with other nationalities.