Content provided in partnership with

Socioeconomic disadvantage and adolescent women's sexual and reproductive behavior: The case of five developed countries

Family Planning Perspectives, Nov/Dec 2001 by Singh, Susheela, Darroch, Jacqueline E, Frost, Jennifer J

Context: Differences among developed countries in teenagers' patterns of sexual and reproductive behavior may partly reflect differences in the extent of disadvantage. However, to date, this potential contribution has received little attention.

Methods: Researchers in Canada, France, Great Britain, Sweden and the United States used the most current survey and other data to study adolescent sexual and reproductive behavior. Comparisons were made within and across countries to assess the relationships between these behaviors and factors that may indicate disadvantage.

More Articles of Interest: Early sexual initiation and subsequent sex-related risks among urban minority...; effects of early childbearing on schooling over time, The; Young mothers' disadvantage, not their age itself, accounts for their...; Differences in teenage pregnancy rates among five developed countries: The...; Risks and disadvantages are raised for teenage mothers with older adult partners

Results: Adolescent childbearing is more likely among women with low levels of income and education than among their better-off peers. Levels of childbearing are also strongly related to race, ethnicity and immigrant status, but these differences vary across countries. Early sexual activity has little association with income, but young women who have little education are more likely to initiate intercourse during adolescence than those who are better educated. Contraceptive use at first intercourse differs substantially according to socioeconomic status in some countries but not in others. Within countries, current contraceptive use does not differ greatly according to economic status, but at each economic level, use is higher in Great Britain than in the United States. Regardless of their socioeconomic status, U.S. women are the most likely to give birth as adolescents. In addition, larger proportions of adolescents are disadvantaged in the United States than in other developed countries.

Conclusions: Comparatively widespread disadvantage in the United States helps explain why U.S. teenagers have higher birthrates and pregnancy rates than those in other developed countries. Improving U.S. teenagers' sexual and reproductive behavior requires strategies to reduce the numbers of young people growing up in disadvantaged conditions and to help those who are disadvantaged overcome the obstacles they face.

Family Planning Perspectives, 2001, 33(6):251-258 & 289

Over the past two decades, researchers and advocates in the United States have examined the experience of Canada and of countries in western Europe in an attempt to learn why adolescents in those countries have fewer pregnancies and are less likely to acquire a sexually transmitted disease (STD).1 Some researchers suggest that the answers lie in other developed countries' more comprehensive sexuality education, greater societal openness regarding sexuality and adolescents' greater ease of access to reproductive health services.2 In addition, researchers have suggested that cross-country differences in the extent of social and economic disadvantage may contribute to differences in rates of teenage pregnancy, childbearing and STDs.3 However, to date, this potential contribution has received little attention.

Disadvantage has been characterized by such factors as living in poverty; being poorly educated; having poorly educated parents; being raised in a single-parent family or in an economically struggling neighborhood; and lacking educational and job opportunities. In some contexts, such as in Great Britain and the United States, belonging to a racial or ethnic minority group and being foreign-born have strong links to socioeconomic disadvantage. These characteristics frequently are used as proxies for disadvantage or as indicators of disadvantage because of social discrimination.4 The extent to which race, ethnicity or immigrant status indicates social and economic disadvantage ;varies by subgroup and by country, depending not only on economic status, but on factors such as main language spoken, level of education (which is closely linked to occupation and income) and the extent of discrimination.

Disadvantage is associated with several factors that can influence teenage sexual and reproductive behavior and outcomes, including lowered personal competence, skills and motivation; limited access to health care and social services; lack of successful role models; and living in dangerous environments.5 Some researchers have argued that among disadvantaged adolescents in the United States, particularly black adolescents, accepting or even wanting a pregnancy is normative-it is a rational response to their lack of alternative opportunities-and that their families and communities are realistic in accepting adolescent childbearing and in providing social support for young and single mothers.6 However, in other research, the majority of all women who gave birth before age 20 reported that the birth was not wanted at that time (66% of all women, 46% of Hispanics, 67% of whites and 77% of blacks).7

Researchers in the United States have identified several associations between disadvantage and adolescent sexual and reproductive behavior. Whether measured at the individual, family or community level, being disadvantaged is associated with an early age at first intercourse;8 less reliance on or poor use of contraceptives;9 and lower motivation to avoid, or ambivalence about, having a child.10 Once pregnant, disadvantaged adolescents are less likely than other adolescents to have an abortion, and are more likely to have a child and have a premarital birth.11 Exactly how disadvantage affects these behaviors, however, is still not fully understood.

Socioeconomic disadvantage and adolescent women's sexual and reproductive behavior: The case of five developed countries

Family Planning Perspectives, Nov/Dec 2001 by Singh, Susheela, Darroch, Jacqueline E, Frost, Jennifer J

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Health

Most Popular Publications in Health