Investigating recent trends in the U.S. teen birth rate

Kearney, Melissa S.; Levine, Phillip B.

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.01.003

Cited by 90 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…However, changes in frequency of sexual contact as well as contraceptive utilization during the 1990s and 2000s points to more plausible proximate pathways through which teen childbearing declined. The proportion of sexually active teens witnessed sizeable declines from 37.9% in 1995 to 30.6% in 2006–2010 (Abma & Sonnenstein 2001; Kearney & Levine 2015; Martinez et al 2011;) and the percentage of sexually active teens who report using contraception at last intercourse increased from 70.7% in 1995 to 85.6% in 2006–2010 (Abma & Sonnenstein 2001; Kearney & Levine 2015; Martinez et al 2011;).…”

Section: Approaches To Understanding the Decline In Teen Childbearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To contextualize recent declines in the teen birth rate during the 1990s and 2000s from a more macro-level perspective, prior research has identified three possible distal determinants – economic opportunity, demographic composition, and state-level policies (Kearney & Levine 2015; Moore et al 2014). …”

Section: Approaches To Understanding the Decline In Teen Childbearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, of these three distal determinants, shifts in state-level policies seem to account for the greatest proportion of recent declines in teen childbearing. Policies designed to increase access to family planning services, improve access to and funding for high quality education, and restrict welfare benefits and accessibility appear to be most strongly associated with falling rates of teen births, while policies tailored to restrict access to comprehensive sex education or abortion services do not appear to explain much, if any, of recent declines in teen childbearing (Beltz et al 2015; Kearney & Levine 2015). Second, the association between economic opportunities and teen childbearing remains unclear and depends on the type of measure used as well as the specific population under study.…”

Section: Approaches To Understanding the Decline In Teen Childbearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has primarily been accomplished by using waivers to expanding Medicaid coverage to include family planning services (Kearney & Levine 2015). Different types of waivers exist.…”

Section: Potential Joint Explanations For Recent Trends In Crime Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some expand coverage to women whose benefits ran out due to time limits while others expand coverage to women whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid but below a standard federal poverty threshold. However, prior studies suggest that compared to duration-based waivers, income-based waivers are more strongly associated with fluctuations in the teen birth rate (Kearney & Levine 2009; 2015).…”

Section: Potential Joint Explanations For Recent Trends In Crime Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Declines in Crime and Teen Childbearing: Identifying Potential Explanations for Contemporaneous Trends

2016

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Objectives The previous 25 years have witnessed remarkable upheavals in the social landscape of the United States. Two of the most notable trends have been dramatic declines in levels of crime as well as teen childbearing. Much remains unknown about the underlying conditions that might be driving these changes. More importantly, we do not know if the same distal factors that are responsible for the drop in the crime rate are similarly implicated in falling rates of teen births. We examine four overarching potential explanations: fluctuations in economic opportunity, shifting population demographics, differences in state-level policies, and changes in expectations regarding health and mortality. Methods We combine state-specific data from existing secondary sources and model trajectories of violent crime, homicides, robberies, and teen fertility over a 20-year period from 1990 to 2010 using simultaneous fixed-effects regression models. Results We find that 4 of the 21 predictors examined - growth in the service sector of the labor market, increasing racial diversity especially among Hispanics, escalating levels of migration, and the expansion of family planning services to low-income women – offer the most convincing explanations for why rates of violent crime and teen births have been steadily decreasing over time. Moreover, we are able to account for almost a quarter of the joint declines in violent crime and teen births. Conclusions Our conclusions underscore the far reaching effects that aggregate level demographic conditions and policies are likely to have on important social trends that might, at first glance, seem unrelated. Furthermore, the effects of policy efforts designed to target outcomes in one area are likely to spill over into other domains.

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Section: Approaches To Understanding the Decline In Teen Childbearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Approaches To Understanding the Decline In Teen Childbearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Approaches To Understanding the Decline In Teen Childbearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has primarily been accomplished by using waivers to expanding Medicaid coverage to include family planning services (Kearney & Levine 2015). Different types of waivers exist.…”

Section: Potential Joint Explanations For Recent Trends In Crime Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Joint Explanations For Recent Trends In Crime Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Declines in Crime and Teen Childbearing: Identifying Potential Explanations for Contemporaneous Trends

2016

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The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence

2020

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To date most studies of the impact of school-based sex education have focused either on specific, local interventions or experiences at a national level. In this paper, we use a new cross-country dataset to explore the extent to which laws on sex education affect teenage pregnancy rates in developed countries. We find some evidence that laws mandating sex education in schools are associated with higher rates of teenage fertility. Parental opt out laws may minimise adverse effects of sex education mandates for younger teens. The estimated effects of mandatory sex education are robust to some but not all of our specifications designed to tease out causality. Taken together, changes in national laws relating to sexual health are unable to explain the significant declines in teenage pregnancy rates, which have been observed in many developed countries in recent years.

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Subdermal contraceptive implants and repeat teenage motherhood: Evidence from a major maternity hospital‐based program in Uruguay

Ferre,

Triunfo,

Antón

2023

Health Economics

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Teenage fertility is a social problem because of its private and public costs in countries of different development levels. Reductions in adolescent birth rates do not necessarily follow drops in overall fertility due to the demographic transition model. This paper analyses the impact of a subdermal contraceptive program on repeat teenage motherhood. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the intervention reduced mothers' likelihood of having another child in the next 48 months by 10 percentage points. This reduction is not random, and we also identify small positive selection in subsequent births.

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Investigating recent trends in the U.S. teen birth rate

Cited by 90 publications

References 32 publications

Declines in Crime and Teen Childbearing: Identifying Potential Explanations for Contemporaneous Trends

Declines in Crime and Teen Childbearing: Identifying Potential Explanations for Contemporaneous Trends

The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence

Subdermal contraceptive implants and repeat teenage motherhood: Evidence from a major maternity hospital‐based program in Uruguay

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