Community Opportunity, Perceptions of Opportunity, and the Odds of an Adolescent Birth

Abstract

The ability of the opportunity cost framework to predict the risk of a teen birth is tested by analyzing the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of opportunity and the odds of a teen birth across levels of community opportunity. Patterns of this relationship are compared across African American, Latina, and White teens and across socioeconomic status (SES) level. High educational expectations protect Whites, Latinas, and low-SES teens from low-opportunity communities from a teen birth.

Homies with Aspirations and Positive Peer Network Ties: Associations with Reduced Frequent Substance Use among Gang-Affiliated Latino Youth

“…Other research has also documented an inverse relationship between future orientation, including educational aspirations, and adolescent pregnancy. 48 This finding also highlights the importance of adolescent pregnancy prevention efforts with gang-involved youth to address both young women and young men and their partners. Though nationally young women constitute about one-fourth to onethird of gang members, many more may be affiliated and exposed to early childbearing peer network norms.…”

Unrecognised Rights, Nonexistent Laws. The Invisibility of Foreign Teenage Mothers: A Challenge for Social Work in Spain

“…This has been, and remains, a view widely held by many authors (Felice et al, 1987;Osofsky, Hann and Peebles, 1993;Koniak-Griffin and Turner-Pluta, 2001) who consider early motherhood in Western society as a problem for its adverse effects at the educational level, but also regarding job placement and possible single parenthood (Panagopoulos et al, 2008, p. 265). By contrast, there are those who believe that family, social and structural factors influence or force, in a sense, early childbearing (Singh, Darroch and Frost, 2001;Kirby, Coyle and Gould, 2001;Lawlor and Shaw, 2002;Driscoll et al, 2005;Dehlendorf et al, 2010). Although it is difficult to establish what the cause-consequence relation is, we believe that environmental, structural and social factors determine this phenomenon more clearly.…”

Predictors of Adolescent Sexual Intentions and Behavior: Attitudes, Parenting, and Neighborhood Risk

“…Another theory used to link behavior to neighborhood factors is the life opportunity cost framework (Murry, Berkel, Gaylord-Harden, Copeland-Linder, & Nation, 2011), whereby individuals forgo short-term gains for later potential success. For example, females in low-income neighborhoods may not perceive much return in an educational investment, which may in turn make the prospect of early childbearing not as tragic (Driscoll, Sugland, Manlove, & Papillo, 2005). However, this theory appears to account only for female behavior and does not consider some of the other important neighborhood elements including unemployment, poverty, and housing instability.…”

“…The direct effects of neighborhood poverty include early sexual initiation and high rates of teenage pregnancy Driscoll, Sugland, Manlove, & Papillo, 2005). Low socioeconomic status has been consistently associated with increased risk of teen pregnancy (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993) and for adolescent males increased poverty is associated with frequency of intercourse, lack of contraceptive use, and, predictably, higher chances of impregnating someone (Ku, Sonenstein, & Pleck, 1993).…”

“…Further, high marks in school suggest protection against unplanned pregnancy as they are associated with a reduced chance of giving birth among adolescent girls (Driscoll, Sugland, Manlove, & Papillo, 2005).…”