Original article
Avoiding Adolescent Pregnancy: A Longitudinal Analysis of African-American Youth

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.01.024Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

The timing and social context of pregnancy have significant implications for the well-being of African-American young people. Rarely, however, do studies focus on identifying the developmental processes associated with young people's avoidance of pregnancy until after adolescence.

Methods

We tested hypotheses regarding the factors associated with delayed fertility (no experience of a pregnancy by age 19) among a sample of 889 African-American youth recruited at age 11 and assessed longitudinally through age 19. We hypothesized that, during preadolescence (age 11), health-promoting environmental processes would be linked to nurturant-responsive parenting, which in turn would be linked to youths' conventional future orientations and risky sexual behavior in midadolescence (age 16) and to pregnancy experience by late adolescence (age 19). Hypotheses were tested with logistic structural equation modeling.

Results

Our conceptual model fit the data well. We identified a cascade process whereby protective environments were associated with nurturant-responsive parenting, which was associated with youths' conventional future orientations; conventional future orientations were associated with avoidance of sexual risk behaviors at age 16 and avoidance of pregnancy by age 19. We identified an additional direct effect between nurturant-responsive parenting and avoidance of risky sexual behavior.

Conclusions

The results suggest processes that may be targeted to facilitate delayed fertility among African-American youth.

Section snippets

Study hypotheses and conceptual model

The study hypotheses are summarized in Figure 1. We expect health-promoting environments in preadolescence to support nurturant-responsive parenting, which will promote avoidance of pregnancy by age 19 by increasing conventional future orientations and deterring risky sexual behavior at age 16. These predictions were informed by theory and research on reproductive strategies in adolescence [9]. Using a life history framework, Belsky and colleagues [9] contended that youth who live in

Participants

Study hypotheses were tested with data from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) [18]. The baseline sample included 889 African-American families in Georgia (n = 422) and Iowa (n = 467) that included a child 10 to 12 years of age. Families were selected randomly from 259 census block group areas that represented diverse nonurban neighborhoods. Complete data were gathered from 72% of the families on the recruitment lists. Those who declined participation usually cited a lack of time as

Results

Table 1 presents the correlation matrix, means, and standard deviations for the SEM variables. At age 19, 31% of the participants reported pregnancy experience. A confirmatory analysis of the latent constructs indicated that the measurement model fit the data: χ2 [21] = 39.64, p = .01; χ2/df = 1.89; comparative fit index (CFI) = .98; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .03 (.02, .05). All factor loadings were significant, ≥ .40, p < .01, and in the expected directions.

Figure 2

Discussion

Delaying fertility until adulthood has a profound impact on the course of young people's development; it influences youths' short- and long-term well-being and the likelihood that their offspring will grow up in poverty [28]. We tested hypotheses regarding the influence of protective environmental factors on fertility with a sample of African-American youth, assessed longitudinally from ages 11 to 19 years. The data supported our hypotheses. During preadolescence, environments in which

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Award Number 5R01MH062669 from the National Institute of Mental Health and by Award Number 5R01DA021898 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or the National Institutes of Health. Frederick X. Gibbons is now at the Department of Psychology and the CHIP Research Center,

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