State Policy Initiatives for Reducing Teen and Adult Nonmarital Childbearing: Family Planning to Family Caps

Wertheimer, Richard; Jager, Justin; Moore, Kristin Anderson

doi:10.1037/e686022011-001

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…These were viewed as mechanisms to hold states accountable for teen pregnancy prevention and nonmarital births and to encourage and sustain attention to efforts and approaches that solve problems. Studies of the effects of the specific provisions of welfare reform on teen and nonmarital births have yielded mixed results, with only some studies showing an association (65,75). The lack of direct causality may reflect that the era of welfare reform was also marked by a strong economy and an emphasis on child-support enforcement, as well as the previously noted availability of long-acting contraceptive methods and increased public education about HIV/AIDS (4, 50,53,55,75).…”

Section: The Context and Role Of Policy Directions In Teenage Pregnanmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Studies of the effects of the specific provisions of welfare reform on teen and nonmarital births have yielded mixed results, with only some studies showing an association (65,75). The lack of direct causality may reflect that the era of welfare reform was also marked by a strong economy and an emphasis on child-support enforcement, as well as the previously noted availability of long-acting contraceptive methods and increased public education about HIV/AIDS (4,50,53,55,75). Given the complexity and the kaleidoscopic nature of the problem, policymakers and other stakeholders are fortunate to have a large body of research to draw upon in shaping their initiatives.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A PUBLIC HEALTH SUCCESS: Understanding Policy Changes Related to Teen Sexual Activity and Pregnancy

Brindis

2006

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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Key Words teenage pregnancy prevention, policy strategies, adolescent reproductive health ■ Abstract Teenage pregnancy prevention has long been on the American public health agenda. Over the past decade, a number of concurrent federal, state, and local policies have responded to the myriad and diverse needs of adolescents, from supporting adolescents who have not initiated sexual intercourse to strategies aimed at avoiding a repeat pregnancy among teenage parents. Key policies, including comprehensive family life education, access to contraceptive care, and youth development, have resulted in delays in sexual debut, improved contraceptive use, and have achieved reductions in pregnancies, abortions, and births. Although improvements are documented across all ethnic and racial subgroups, substantial health disparities continue to exist. Synergistic policy approaches represent a substantial change from the past when narrow, single-issue strategies were adopted and were limited in their effectiveness. Renewed efforts to implement narrow policy approaches (e.g., abstinence-until-marriage or restrictions to contraceptive access) need to be considered in light of existing research findings. INTRODUCTIONAfter steadily rising in the late 1980s and peaking in 1991, childbearing rates among teenagers fell steadily throughout the 1990s and early twenty-first century. By 2002, the overall teenage pregnancy rate declined from 111 in 1980 to 83.6 per 1000 women aged 15-19, while the birthrate declined from 53.2 in 1980 to a record low of 41.7 per 1000 women aged 15-19 in 2003 (38, 43, 57) (Figure 1). Thus, there is now some hope that this seemingly intractable problem is beginning to change. In spite of decreases across all ethnic and racial groups, epidemiological data continue to document significant disparities within subgroups of adolescents (20,38,43,57).Young women from all economic and ethnic backgrounds face unintended pregnancies, but poor youth and youth of color are more likely to become 0163- 278BRINDIS adolescent parents (1). For example, 8% of non-Hispanic white teens had a first birth by age 20, compared to 20% of non-Hispanic black teens and 24% of Hispanics ( Figure 2) (1). Overall, there is strong agreement that teen pregnancy and birthrates in the U.S. are still too high and that reducing the number of births to teens remains an important policy goal (28,31,56,62,63). Furthermore, a growing and more ethnically and racially diverse adolescent population, coupled with the current budget crisis, and increasingly narrow policies at the federal and state levels threaten to affect these important declines (14,24). This is especially worrisome as the deleterious effects of early parenthood, especially in poor communities, have been amply documented: poorer health status for mother and her baby, worse educational outcomes, limited future employment opportunities, and greater incidence of poverty (62,63). Early parenthood is also clearly linked to an array of other critical social concerns, including welfare depen...

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Section: The Context and Role Of Policy Directions In Teenage Pregnanmentioning

confidence: 98%

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confidence: 99%

A PUBLIC HEALTH SUCCESS: Understanding Policy Changes Related to Teen Sexual Activity and Pregnancy

Brindis

2006

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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“…Each of the last three years (1999, 2000, and 2001) has been successively the lowest on record. Our earlier brief (Wertheimer et al 2000) documented a dramatic expansion during the 1990s of programs at the state level to prevent teen pregnancy. This brief suggests that this level of effort has been maintained, although not expanded, during the past two years, with the striking exception of an increase in the number of states promoting abstinence for teens.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…As stated in a previous policy brief (Wertheimer, Jager, and Moore 2000), findings on the relationship between welfare provisions and nonmarital childbearing have been mixed. Only some studies find significant associations between nonmarital fertility and either welfare waivers or family caps.…”

Section: State Policy Options For Discouraging Teen and Adult Nonmarimentioning

confidence: 95%

An Update on State Policy Initiatives to Reduce Teen and Adult Nonmarital Childbearing

Wertheimer¹,

Papillo²

2004

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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“…programs to discourage unwed childbearing, while the family adaptive responses to state TANF programs are myriad(Wertheimer et al 2000;Wu & Wolfe 2001).For example, low-income single mothers, by working, may improve their chances of marriage and thus escaping from poverty (McLaughlin & Lichter 1997). Non-working or sanctioned welfare women may move in with boyfriends, relatives, or friends.…”

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confidence: 99%

Welfare Reform: How Do We Measure Success?

2002

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This paper evaluates a burgeoning literature on the effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Our goal is to shift the debate from the current preoccupation with declining caseloads to one focused on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. The welfare literature reveals many positive changes: reduced poverty rates, lower outof-wedlock childbearing, greater family stability, and little indication of more spouse abuse or child neglect. But it is too early to claim success and many questions remain unanswered. Poverty remains high among single mothers and their children, welfare recipients experience serious barriers to stable employment, and poor women and children face an uncertain economic and social future as welfare eligibility is exhausted and the economy wanes. With the welfare debate shifting to family and child well-being, sociology has an important policy role to play as the next phase of welfare reform begins after the 2002 reauthorization.

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State Policy Initiatives for Reducing Teen and Adult Nonmarital Childbearing: Family Planning to Family Caps

Abstract: There is a striking geographic pattern in teen fertility-in a band of southern and southwestern states, birthrates exceeded 40 births per thousand females ages 15 to 17.

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

A PUBLIC HEALTH SUCCESS: Understanding Policy Changes Related to Teen Sexual Activity and Pregnancy

A PUBLIC HEALTH SUCCESS: Understanding Policy Changes Related to Teen Sexual Activity and Pregnancy

An Update on State Policy Initiatives to Reduce Teen and Adult Nonmarital Childbearing

Welfare Reform: How Do We Measure Success?

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