Spatially Varying Predictors of Teenage Birth Rates among Counties in the United States

Carla Shoff, Pennsylvania State University

The goals of this study are to first investigate whether there are spatially varying relationships between the teenage birth rate (TBR) and its predictors, and then examine whether the non-stationary associations differ by metropolitan status in the US counties. Using both geographically weighted regression (GWR) and spatial regime analysis, we visualized the spatial non-stationarity embedded in the associations between TBR and its determinants, but found little evidence to support the significant differences in the magnitude of the effects across metropolitan status, with the exception of the socioeconomic disadvantage index.