Associations Between Teenage Births and Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Characteristics, and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Texas

Date

2010-12

Authors

Zhang, Xiaoning

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Abstract

Teenage pregnancy and childbearing are a major concern to public health worldwide. The United States has higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than any other industrialized country. Texas ranked first in the nation for teenage pregnancy and fourth for teen birth rate with 62 births per 1,000 females in 2005. There were approximately 18,988 births to mothers ages 17 years of age or younger, which represented 4.9% of the total live births to Texas residents. The percent of teenagers 17 years or younger who had births for Hispanic and African Americans are 6.7% and 6.2% of all race specific teenagers respectively, compared to 2.3% for White. The purpose of the study is to investigate if race/ethnicity and socioeconomic factors influence teenage births in the state of Texas and if teenage births are associated with adverse birth outcomes in Texas. This study used the data from the Center for Health Statistics of the Texas Department of State Health Services for teenage births and socioeconomic characteristics in 2005. Data were analyzed using the SPSS PASW Statistics 18. The result of Pearson Chi square test showed that the teen births were significantly associated with race/ethnicity in Texas. The Pearson correlation test found a significant negative relationship between the percent of teen births at the age of 17 years old and younger and per capita personal income (r = —0.430). It indicated that the counties with high percent of teen births were statistically significant correlated with the counties with the low per capita personal income across the state. The results also found that there was significant positive relationship between the percent of teen births at the age of 17 years old and younger and unemployment rate, percent of children 0-17 years old living below poverty, and percent of Medicaid covered births (r = 0.239, r = 0.594, and r — 0.433, respectively). It suggested that high percent of teen births was associated with lower per capital personal incomes, a higher percent of unemployment rate, a higher percent of children who were living in poverty, and a higher percent of births receiving Medicaid assistance. The association of teen births and children 0-17 years old living below poverty was much stronger than that of teen births to any other socioeconomic variables in the analysis (r = 0.594). The unemployment rate was significantly correlated with the teen births across all counties, but the association was weak (r = 0.239). The results showed that the percent of teen births was significantly negatively associated with the percent of pregnant mothers receiving late or no prenatal care. There was a significantly positive relationship between the percent of teen births and the percent of low birth weight infants, but the association was weak (r = 0.149). The results indicated that a high percent of teen births was significantly associated with a high percent of low birth weight and a low percent of mothers receiving late or no prenatal care for all the counties in Texas. Statistical significance level for all tests was set at the P < .05. This study investigated the relationship between the teen births and race/ethnicity, socioeconomic indicators and undesired birth outcomes in Texas. It revealed the following: teenage mothers were more likely to come from minority group; more likely from poor, low income, unemployed families; more likely to receive public assistance; more likely to give births to low birth weight; and less likely to receive appropriate prenatal care. These findings can provide policy makers with information to make better decisions in designing programs to prevent teenage pregnancy and births in Texas. Also, the study could serve as a basis and suggest directions for future research, programs design, and community education aimed to prevent teenage pregnancy and births.

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teenage mothers, teenage pregnancy, socioeconomic characteristics, race, ethnicity

Citation

Zhang, X. (2010). Associations between teenage births and race/ethnicity, socioeconomic characteristics, and adverse birth outcomes in Texas (Unpublished thesis). Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

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