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Title: Teenage Childbearing and AFDC Duration
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Afxentiou, Diamando |
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Teenage Childbearing and AFDC Duration Ph.D. Dissertation, West Virginia University, 1990 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; First Birth; Modeling, Probit; Mothers; Racial Differences; Sexual Activity; Teenagers; Variables, Independent - Covariate; Welfare A theoretical background concerning teenage birth is developed based on the New Home Economics Model. An empirical investigation, using the probit model, is performed on the likelihood of a teenage birth as a function of a large set of independent variables for the year 1982. The dependent and independent variables are extracted from NLSY data. The probability of teenage birth depends on the teenager's sexual activity, thus a recursive model is estimated as well. The factors affecting teenage and nonteenage birth were examined and found to be different. A cross-sectional study concerning teenage birth is applied to the state of West Virginia. Data are extracted from the Statistical Abstract Supplement, County and City Data Book, 1983 and 1988. The dependent variable is the rate of teen birth by county. The regression analysis shows that educational attainment is the only significant variable with a negative effect on teenage birth. The AFDC duration for women who had their first child as teenagers is measured using NLSY data from 1979-85. Descriptive statistics and a hazard function model show that most individuals have short AFDC spells. Black and never married mothers have lower exit probabilities than non-black and ever-married mothers. Exit probabilities are estimated using Cox's Proportional Hazard Regression Model. Race, education, work experience, and age affect significantly the probability of exiting the AFDC rolls. This study suggests that the teenager's personal and family background characteristics, as well as the probability of sexual engagement are the factors that significantly affect childbearing. Never married and black mothers are the ones that stay longer on AFDC. Nonblack, ever married women with educational and previous work experience are likely to have shorter welfare spells. These findings suggest that in order to reduce the welfare duration, the focus should be on unmarried mothers and on mothers without previous work experience. |
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Bibliography Citation
Afxentiou, Diamando. Teenage Childbearing and AFDC Duration. Ph.D. Dissertation, West Virginia University, 1990. |