Fertility Intentions of African American Adolescent Males from Low-Income Backgrounds

Emily Yen, University of California, Los Angeles

The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate among Western industrialized nations. Moreover, poverty is positively correlated with teenage pregnancy. To examine the issues of poverty and pregnancy in more detail, over 10,000 youths aged 10 to 19 were enrolled in the Mobile Youth Study, a multi-cohort longitudinal study on risk behavior between 1998 and 2008. Surprisingly, in my analyses, African American adolescent males from highly impoverished neighborhoods in Mobile, Alabama, were more desirous of impregnation than their female counterparts. A stratified random sample of 100 13-19 year old males were surveyed and interviewed about their fertility intentions. 66% of adolescent males indicated on their surveys that they would be at least slightly happy if they impregnated someone during the next year. According to the regression model, reported age of first intercourse, female partner’s pregnancy desire, and low level of literacy were statistically significant predictors for impregnation desire.