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Title: Outcome of Adolescent First Premarital Pregnancies: The Influence of Family Background
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Cooksey, Elizabeth C. |
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Outcome of Adolescent First Premarital Pregnancies: The Influence of Family Background Ph.D. Dissertation, Brown University, 1988 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Abortion; Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Family Background and Culture; First Birth; Household Composition; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Pregnancy, Adolescent; Simultaneity; Variables, Independent - Covariate This research focuses upon how aspects of family background influence how adolescents in the United States resolve a first premarital pregnancy. Comparatively sparse attention has been paid to adolescent premarital pregnancy resolution, and previous studies that have addressed the issue have been flawed by a number of common problems. Often all three choices (abortion, out-of-wedlock parenthood, or marriage to legitimate the birth) have not been modelled as separate outcomes, and when thvis has been done, the data used have not been from a national sample precluding nationwide generalizability of results. In this research, data from the NLSY are utilized which provide a sufficiently large case base, and a diversity of racial/ethnic, religious and family structure backgrounds. Most importantly, these data reflect a conscious effort to collect quality abortion reports and thus enable the three pregnancy outcome choices to be segregated from one another, but simultaneously modelled. Pregnancies occurring between February 1973 and March 1982 are included in the analysis. Multinomial logistic regression is performed to analyze these data since the dependent variable of pregnancy outcome is comprised of three categories. The independent variables utilized (age at first conception, religious affiliation, race/ethnicity, parental education, family structure, and number of siblings), measure a number of family background characteristics hypothesized to effect how the adolescent resolves her first premarital pregnancy. All of the predictor variables (excluding religious affiliation when not modelled as part of an interaction term with race/ethnicity) were found to be significant predictors of adolescent premarital pregnancy resolution. Some, for example, race/ethnicity, parental education and number of siblings, were found to be especially powerful. The findings of this study may be put to good use in helping to pinpoint areas where services such as counselling to aborters, and provision of advice, and material goods to adolescent parents may be best provided. [UMI ADG88-22487] |
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Bibliography Citation
Cooksey, Elizabeth C. Outcome of Adolescent First Premarital Pregnancies: The Influence of Family Background. Ph.D. Dissertation, Brown University, 1988. |