Teenage childbearing in Great Britain and the spatial concentration of poverty households

Study objective-To investigate the association between the spatial concentr ation of deprived households and teenage nonmarital childbearing. Associati ons with area deprivation are tested before and after allowing for levels o f personal deprivation. Design and setting-The individual data are derived from the 2% sample of an onymised records (SA from the census of 1991 in Great Britain, and are comb ined with area data from the 278 districts of residence identifiable in the SAR. Participants-Sample is restricted to unmarried women living at home (with a t least one parent) and aged 16 to 19. Main results-The results suggest generally higher risk of teenage childbear ing for women who are economically inactive, women from households with no access to a car or households resident in local authority accomodation. Wit hout adjusting for personal circumstances, the risk of teenage pregnancy sh ows a clear, significant and approximately linear association with social d eprivation of area of residence in 1991. Residual analysis shows that many urban areas have much higher levels of teenage childbearing than expected. When adjustment is made for personal disadvantage the simple association wi th local area deprivation is attenuated. A higher risk of teenage childbear ing is still seen in urban areas while the areas having the highest negativ e differentials are heterogeneous. Conclusions-Both individual and spatial characteristics are important in in fluencing levels of teenage childbearing. Teenage childbearing shows an ass ociation with residence in more deprived areas. The association seems to be largely because residence in more deprived areas is associated with person al disadvantage, which increases the risk of teenage childbearing. Area cha racteristics are of lesser significance in determining teenage nonmarital c hildbearing than individual and household characteristics.