Manifestations of poverty and birthrates among young teenagers in California zip code areas

Context: Given that many communities are implementing community-wide initia tives to reduce teenage pregnancy or childbearing, it is important to under stand the effects of a community's characteristics on adolescent birthrates . Methodology: Data from the 1990 census and from California birth certificat es were obtained for zip codes in California. Regression analyses were cond ucted on data from zip code areas with at least 200 females aged 15-17 betw een 1991 and 1996, to predict the effects of race and ethnicity, marital st atus, education, employment, income and poverty, and housing on birthrates among young teenagers. Results: In bivariate analyses, the proportion of families living below pov erty level within a zip code was highly related to the birthrate among youn g teenagers in that zip code (r=.80, p<.001). In multivariate analyses, whi ch controlled for some of the correlates of family poverty level, the propo rtion of families living below poverty level remained by far the most impor tant predictor of the birthrate among young teenagers (b=1.54), followed by the proportion of adults aged 25 or older who have a college education (b= -0.80). Race and ethnicity were only weakly related to birthrate. In all th ree racial and ethnic groups, poverty and education were significantly rela ted to birthrate, but the effect of college education was greater among His panics (6=-2.98) than among either non-Hispanic whites (b=-0.53) or blacks (b=-1.12). Male employment and unemployment and female unemployment were hi ghly related to the birthrate among young teenagers in some racial or ethni c groups, but not in others. Conclusions: Multiple manifestations of poverty, including poverty itself, low levels of education and employment, and high levels of unemployment, ma y have a large impact upon birthrates among young teenagers. Addressing som e of these issues could substantially reduce childbearing among young adole scents.