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- Title
THE EFFECT OF UNDERAGE DRINKING AND SOCIOECONOMIC MEASURES ON TEEN LIVE BIRTH RATES.
- Authors
Amato, Louis H.; Stivender, Carol O.
- Abstract
While U.S. teenage live birth rates remain the highest in the developed world, these rates have consistently fallen since 1991. The period of decline corresponds to significant demographic changes, targeted policies to reduce teenage pregnancy, changes in the income distribution and changes in the prevalence of underage drinking. Reasonable arguments can be made for each of these changes as important in reducing teenage live birth rates. We employ an unbalanced state level panel for the years 1991-2017 to investigate factors responsible for the decline. Our model explains slightly more than 80 percent of the reduction in teenage live birthrate. Among the major factors explaining the decline are reductions in underage drinking, increases in high school graduation rates, and increases in the Hispanic proportion of the population. Increases in median household income are positively associated with increased teenage birthrates, a seemingly counterintuitive result unless analyzed in light of Kearney and Levine (2012) findings regarding economic hopelessness among teenage mothers. Rising overall incomes appear to magnify lower income teenage women's feelings of economic marginalization.
- Subjects
UNDERAGE drinking; HUMAN fertility statistics; TEENAGE mothers; HIGH school graduation rates; INCOME inequality
- Publication
Journal of Business & Behavioral Sciences, 2020, Vol 32, Issue 2, p4
- ISSN
1099-5374
- Publication type
Article