ABSTRACT
Data from three fertility surveys are used to examined the probabilities and determinants of adolescent births among Dominican and Puerto Rican women. Young women in the Dominican Republic are the most likely to have had a child by each year of age from 14 through 24, followed by young women on the Island of Puerto Rico; the probability of an early birth is lowest for Puerto Rican women on the U.S. mainland. Eighteen percent of Dominican women have had a child before their 18th birthday, compared with 13% of women living in Puerto Rico, and 10% of Puerto Rican women in metropolitan New York. The cumulative probabilities that Puerto Rican women will have borne a child before their 20th birthday are almost identical, whether the women live on the island or the U.S. mainland, but the difference between Puerto Rican and Dominican women widens. The order is reversed, however, in the analysis of premarital births: The probability of a premarital birth during adolescence is highest for Puerto Rican women in New York, and lowest for Dominican women. In a separate logistic regression analysis, education and age at first sexual intercourse are shown to be important determinants of adolescent fertility in all three populations.
PIP: Researchers analyzed 1980s data on female adolescents including Puerto Ricans in the New York metropolitan area, those in Puerto Rico, and Dominicans in the Dominican Republic to determine the probabilities and determinants of adolescent births among these women. Female adolescents from the Dominican Republic had the highest probability of having delivered an infant by each year from 14-24 years followed by those in Puerto Rico and then Puerto Rican immigrants in the US. For example, the cumulative hazard rate at age 24 was .65 for the Dominicans compared to 0.5 for Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and in the US. Moreover 18% of Dominicans delivered an infant before 18 years old whereas this figure for the 2 Puerto Rican groups was 13% and 10% respectively. Further the cumulative probabilities that Puerto Rican female adolescents will have had a child before 20 years old were essentially equal (37.4% and 37.3% respectively) compared to 56.1% for the Dominicans. On the other hand, the order was opposite for premarital births. Puerto Rican women living in metropolitan New York were at greatest risk of having a premarital birth (cumulative hazard rate at age 24=.2) then those living in Puerto Rico (.1) followed by Dominican women (.05). Age at 1st intercourse was the strongest determinant of adolescent birth in all 3 countries (p=.001). Indeed the younger the adolescent was at 1st intercourse, the greater the likelihood she would deliver a child while an adolescent. Another strong determinant of adolescent birth was dropping out of school (p=.001 in US and Puerto Rico; p=.01 in the Dominican Republic). The fact that most women did not use contraceptives before 1st birth was only significant for the women not living in the US (p=.001). Further research is needed to identify regional and cohort differences in contraceptive use and attitudes toward early sexual activity and childbearing.