The impact of fertility intentions on behavior: the case of sterilization.

In this paper, we take a new approach to the question of whether or not intentions regarding future fertility affect fertility-related behavior. Our approach has three principal features: 1) it takes sterilization as its outcome, rather than pregnancy or birth; 2) it is based on a conceptual model in which fertility-related behavior is seen as determined by a long-range planning process, modified by unanticipated life course contingencies; and 3) it uses data on desired total family size. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we find that achieving one's desired parity has a strong, persistent, and positive effect on the probability of sterilization, supporting our view of the long-term nature of fertility intentions. People do modify their behavior in the face of unanticipated contingencies, but those effects are unexpectedly small.

Like mother, like child: intergenerational patterns of age at first birth and associations with childhood and adolescent characteristics and adult outcomes in the second generation.

A 30-year follow-up of 1,758 inner-city children and their mothers in the Pathways to Adulthood Study revealed significant associations in transgenerational timing of age at 1st birth between mothers and their daughters and sons. Intergenerational age patterns were associated with the children's family and personal characteristics during childhood and adolescence and self-sufficiency at age 27-33. Continuity in teenage parenthood was associated with family and personal characteristics unfavorable for optimal child development and successful adult outcomes. Delay in 1st parenthood to age 25 or older was associated with significantly greater odds of more favorable environmental and developmental characteristics and greater adult self-sufficiency. The authors concluded that age at 1st birth of both mothers and children contributes, but in subtly different ways for daughters and sons, to the children's development and adult self-sufficiency.

Adolescent childbearing revisited: the age of inner-city mothers at delivery is a determinant of their children's self-sufficiency at age 27 to 33.

OBJECTIVES: Data from recent interviews with 1758 inner-city children, born between 1960 to 1965 and followed with their mothers in the Pathways to Adulthood Study to age 27 to 33 years, were used to address two related questions. 1) Is maternal age, across the reproductive age range, a determinant of child's adult outcome? and 2) Do covariates of maternal age at delivery reduce or eliminate the effect of maternal age on child's adult outcome? METHODS: An intergenerational life course model of development identified significant maternal and child characteristics at birth associated with the child's self-sufficient outcomes in adulthood: education (more than or equal to a high school diploma); financial independence of public support; and delay of first birth until age 20 or older. Bivariate and multiple logistic regression techniques were used to identify independent relationships between dependent and independent variables and to adjust the outcomes to compensate for the effect of possible confounding of maternal age at delivery by maternal education, parity, poverty status, and the child's race and gender. RESULTS: Each covariate was independently associated with maternal age at delivery. Adjustment for their effects reduced, but did not eliminate, the association between maternal age at birth and the child's outcome at age 27 to 33 years. As a group, children of the oldest mothers (>/=25 years of age) had the most favorable outcomes, and those of teenage mothers (<20 years of age) had the least favorable outcomes; 22% of daughters and 6% of sons of the oldest mothers versus 38% and 18%, respectively, of the youngest mothers became teenage parents. CONCLUSION: The mother's age at delivery is an independent determinant of the child's adult status.

Self-sufficiency at ages 27 to 33 years: factors present between birth and 18 years that predict educational attainment among children born to inner-city families.

OBJECTIVES: Some inner-city infants grow to be successful, self-sufficient adults. This study is designed to identify characteristics from early childhood that foster or impede favorable outcomes and are useful for formulation of public policy. POPULATION: 2694 children (G-2s), born 1960 through 1965, to 2307 inner-city women (G-1s) enrolled in the Johns Hopkins Collaborative Perinatal Study. DATA: 1) prospective observations (birth through 8 years) of neurologic and cognitive development, health, behavior, and family and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and 2) completed interviews with 1758 G-2s (age 27 to 33) and 1552 G-1s, bridging the period from age 9 to present status. An intergenerational, life course model of development identified significant characteristics and events associated with G-2 outcome (education, physical and mental health, healthy lifestyle, and financial independence of public support, emphasizing educational attainment of a high school diploma or a graduate equivalency degree). Multiple logistic regression equations identified independent, predictive variables during infancy, preschool and early school years, and adolescence. The probability of a good outcome was estimated in the presence of combinations of the six variables most strongly associated with that outcome. RESULTS: Among G-2s, 79% had a successful outcome for education, 60% health, 70% lifestyle, and 76% for financial independence. Black G-2s had more favorable outcomes than white G-2s in education and lifestyle, whites for financial outcome; health did not differ by race. The six variables most predictive of adult education were: G-1 education at G-2 birth and G-2 attainment of honor roll, average or better reading skills at 8 years, avoidance of regular smoking, and pregnancy before age 18, and not repeating a grade in school. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial proportions of inner-city children become successful adults. Attention to improving public education, particularly language and reading skills, and the prevention of smoking and adolescent pregnancy are clearly indicated.

The social and demographic correlates of smoking among young adults in Maryland.

OBJECTIVES: We examine the utility of pooling data from the 1987 through 1994 Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance system (BRFSS) surveys in order to increase sample size, and we investigate the social and demographic correlates of smoking in Maryland among 18-24-year-olds. METHODS: The data are from 1,714 subjects who were between 18 and 24 years of age and the principle method was multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: African Americans are less likely to smoke than Caucasians, and people with some college or more are less likely to smoke than those with a high school diploma/GED or less. Men who are in an informal sexual union (cohabitation) are more likely to smoke than men who are not. There is a negative association between being a student and smoking among all young women, which does not exist for men enrolled in postsecondary schools. There is no gender difference in the level of smoking, despite the fact that the predictors of smoking are somewhat different for men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Pooling data from several BRFSS studies is a useful way to increase sample size. Analyses of the correlates of smoking among people from a narrow age range is a useful way of highlighting the unique correlates of smoking across the life course.

Family structure, residential mobility, and school dropout: a research note.

This paper examines the hypothesis that high levels of residential mobility among nonintact families account for part of the well-known association between living in a nonintact family and dropping out of high school. Children from single-parent families and stepfamilies are more likely than children from two-parent families to move during the school year. As much as 30% of the difference in the risk of dropping out between children from stepfamilies and children from intact families can be explained by differences in residential mobility. Previously, mechanisms explaining school failure on the part of children in nonintact families were more plausible for children in single-parent families than for children in stepfamilies; high levels of residential mobility apply to both groups of children. In addition, residential mobility lends itself to manipulation by public policy, with potentially remedial effects for vulnerable children.

Do adolescents want babies? The relationship between attitudes and behavior.

PIP: A prospective study of 313 Black adolescents who were followed for 2 years after presenting for a pregnancy test at an inner-city clinic in Baltimore suggested the need for greater attention to the concept of ambivalence in analyses of adolescent pregnancy. 80% of respondents were 15-17 years of age, 62% were public assistance recipients, and 76% were from female-headed households. Outcome variables, measured at 6-month intervals during the 2-year study period, included contraceptive use, subsequent pregnancy, and childbearing. At baseline, only 8.5% of respondents indicated a desire to become pregnant, 3.3% stated they did not know, and the remainder expressed a desire not to become pregnant. Thus, when a single question was used to assess attitudes toward childbearing, a negligible percentage was unsure. When a multi-item construct was created and inconsistent responses to questions about the outcome variables were treated as ambivalence, the percentage of teenagers falling into that category rose to 47.3%. Added to the construct were perceptions of sexual partner's wishes, perceptions of contraceptive efficacy, and attitudes toward contraception and abortion. In bivariate analysis, a consistent desire to avoid pregnancy had a significant effect on contraceptive usage and avoidance of pregnancy. Adolescents whose responses to the attitudinal measures were coded as ambivalent/inconsistent were at high risk of non-effective use of contraception, pregnancy, and childbearing. For example, among adolescents who delivered a baby, 63% expressed negative attitudes about contraceptive effectiveness, 58% were ambivalent, and 42% expressed positive attitudes. Similarly, of those who carried a pregnancy to term, 54% were opposed to abortion, 57% were ambivalent, and 40% were pro-choice. Based on these findings, it is recommended that pregnancy counselors go beyond a single direct question regarding pregnancy desire, used several probing questions to assess the strength of the commitment to avoid pregnancy, and seek to strengthen that commitment.^ieng

Social and environmental factors influencing contraceptive use among black adolescents.

In 1979 survey among sexually active unmarried black adolescents from Chicago found that 28 percent of the young women and 18 percent of the young men used a contraceptive at first intercourse. Statistically significant differences in such contraceptive use among teenage women were found for three social and environmental characteristics: social class, parents' marital status and neighborhood quality. Thus, 41 percent of the young women from the highest social class used contraceptives at first intercourse, but only 17 percent of those from the lowest class did so. The proportions were 35 percent for young women from neighborhoods of high socioeconomic status and 17 percent for those from ghetto neighborhoods. Thirty-six percent of teenage women whose parents had intact marriages as of the adolescent's 11th birthday used contraceptives at first intercourse, compared with 23 percent of those from single-parent and divorced families. Among males, social class was the only one of these three characteristics that was statistically significant; 32 percent of adolescents from the highest class and 11 percent from the lowest practiced contraception at first intercourse. For teenagers of both sexes, career aspirations were of marginal statistical significance in the practice of contraception. Thirty-six percent of young women with high aspirations used contraceptives at first intercourse and 19 percent of those with low aspirations did so. Only four percent of the young men with low career aspirations used contraceptives, compared with 25 percent of those with high aspirations. Number of siblings, parental supervision of dating and having a sister who had become a teenage mother showed no association with contraceptive use.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

PIP: A survey of 348 sexually active unmarried black females and 124 similar black males conducted in Chicago in 1979 found significant differences in contraceptive use at 1st intercourse among females, depending on 3 social and environmental characteristics. Thus, 41% of the young women from the highest social class used contraceptives at 1st intercourse, but only 17% of those from the lowest class did so. The proportions were 35% for young women from neighborhoods of high socioeconomic status and 17% for those from ghetto neighborhoods. 36% of the teenage women whose parents had intact marriages used contraceptives, compared with 23% of those from single-parent and divorced families. The survey, limited to adolescents ages 13 through 19, found that, among black males, social class was the only one of the 3 characteristics that was statistically significant: 32% of the adolescent males from the highest class practiced contraception at 1st intercourse, while only 11% from the lowest class did so. Overall rates of contraceptive use at 1st intercourse were lower among males (18%) than among females (28%). 25% of the teenage women who did not practice contraception the 1st time did so the 2nd time, and 47% of those who did not practice contraception the 2nd time were practicing by the time of most recent intercourse. Social and environmental variables were found to affect contraceptive preparedness at 1st intercourse only, and not subsequent initiation of contraceptive practice. For teenagers of both sexes, career aspirations were of marginal statistical significance in the practice of contraception.