Long-term socioeconomic outcomes of women who avoided teen parenthood through abortion

Citation

Everett, B.; Sanders, J.; Myers, K.; & Turok, D. (2018). Long-term socioeconomic outcomes of women who avoided teen parenthood through abortion. Contraception. vol. 98 (4) pp. 345

Abstract

Objectives: The long-term socioeconomic status (SES) of women who delay childbearing through the use of abortion services is an understudied area. We investigated SES in young adulthood among women who reported a teen pregnancy and had an elective abortion compared with those who reported a live birth. Methods: Data come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a prospective cohort study of middle and high-school students in the United States that began in 1994 (baseline mean age=16.1). Young adulthood (mean age=28.9) SES measures are having graduated high school, completed college, reported income and reported assets. Pregnancy roster data from Wave IV were used to determine if respondents reported having had a pregnancy before age 18 and whether that pregnancy ended in abortion (n=406) or a live birth (n=1300). Multivariate logistic and Poisson models adjusted for baseline parent SES, family structure, age, race/ethnicity, substance use, sexual orientation, depression, college expectations and attachment to school. Results: Regression model results showed that compared with women whose teen pregnancy ended in a live birth, women who had an abortion were five times as likely to have graduated high school (OR, 4.9; 95% CI, 2.2–10.9) and twice as likely to report graduating from college (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.3–3.3). Women whose teen pregnancy ended in abortion also had higher incomes (RRR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.3–3.3) and more assets (RRR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3–2.4) than women who reported a live birth. Conclusions: Women who avoid teen parenthood through the use of abortion services have better socioeconomic outcomes than those reporting a live birth in adolescence.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2018.07.050

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Contraception

Author(s)

Everett, B.
Sanders, J.
Myers, K.
Turok, D.

Year Published

2018

Volume Number

98

Issue Number

4

Pages

345

DOI

10.1016/j.contraception.2018.07.050

Reference ID

9303