An Ecological Analysis of Pregnancy Resolution Decisions among African American and Hispanic Adolescent Females

Abstract

Using data from the 1988 National Family Growth Cycle, IV, this study sought to identify specific individual, family, sociocultural, and social structure factors that influence pregnancy resolution decisions of first conception among African American and Hispanic adolescents aged 15 to 21 years. A hierarchial discriminant function analysis was used to determine the extent to which selected variables could distinguish those who terminated their first pregnancy from those who decided to carry their first pregnancies to full term. Three individual factors (age at conception, contraceptive behavior pattern, degree of self-disclosure about the pregnancy), two family-level variables (family sexuality socialization, family income), and each of the selected social structure (access to sexual health care facilities) and sociocultural factors (religious affiliation and church attendance) were found to discriminant between the two groups. However, the discriminating power of these variables differed depending on race/ethnicity.