Understanding the determinants of adolescent fertility attitudes

Citation

Hayford, Sarah R.; Guzzo, Karen B.; & Kusnoki, Yasamin (2018). Understanding the determinants of adolescent fertility attitudes. Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Denver, CO.

Abstract

Adolescent attitudes toward pregnancy and childbearing predict fertility outcomes, even net of explicit intentions to have children. Although most young women express negative attitudes about early childbearing, a small but sizeable group have more positive outlooks, and this variation is patterned by race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status. However, the determinants of fertility attitudes are not well-understood. In particular, it is not clear whether attitudes reflect specific evaluations of the consequences of pregnancy – in which case they would be expected to change as individual circumstances change – or more stable values about pregnancy and parenting. This paper uses longitudinal data from two surveys that measure fertility attitudes in adolescence and early adulthood, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study (RDSL). We estimate hybrid (between-within) regression models to evaluate the role of fixed- and time-varying characteristics in predicting pregnancy attitudes.

URL

https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/webprogrampreliminary/Paper21276.html

Keyword(s)

fertility attitudes pregnancy attitudes pregnancy

Reference Type

Conference proceeding

Book Title

Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America

Series Title

Fertility intentions: Causes and consequences

Author(s)

Hayford, Sarah R.
Guzzo, Karen B.
Kusnoki, Yasamin

Year Published

2018

City of Publication

Denver, CO

Reference ID

8361