Abstract
This study examines what neighborhood conditions experienced at age 15 and after are associated with teen childbearing and fathering among Latino and African American youth and whether these neighborhood effects vary by gender and/or ethnicity. Administrative and survey data from a natural experiment are used for a sample of 517 Latino and African American youth whose families were quasi-randomly assigned to public housing operated by the Denver (CO) Housing Authority (DHA). Characteristics of the neighborhood initially assigned by DHA to wait list applicants are utilized as identifying instruments for the neighborhood contexts experienced during adolescence. Cox Proportional Hazards (PH) models reveal that neighborhoods having higher percentages of foreign-born residents but lower levels of social capital robustly predict reduced odds of teen parenting though the magnitude of these effects was contingent on gender and ethnicity. Specifically, the presence of foreign-born neighbors on the risk of teen parenting produced a stronger dampening effect for African American youth when compared to Latino youth. Additionally, the effects of social capital on teen parenting were stronger for males than females.
Highlights
For nearly three decades, scholars in the United States and Western Europe have highlighted the connection between early parenting and growing up in impoverished neighborhoods [1,2,3]
Our study is distinguished by its use of data from the Denver Child Study [9], a mixed methods retrospective study using a natural experiment in Denver, CO, in which low-income families and their children were quasi-randomly assigned to public housing in an array of socioeconomically and ethnically diverse neighborhoods
We found the immigrant composition of the neighborhood’s population to have an important, inverse relationship with teen parenting; this relationship was strong for African American youth
Summary
Scholars in the United States and Western Europe have highlighted the connection between early parenting and growing up in impoverished neighborhoods [1,2,3]. Spurred by Wilson’s [4] call to consider the influence of spatially concentrated disadvantage on family formation as well as public and political outcry over record high teen childbearing rates in the 1990s, a number of neighborhood effect studies on teen parenting emerged [1,2,5] Despite a promising downward trend in teen childbearing rates since the 1990s, substantial racial and ethnic disparities remain in the. Healthcare 2018, 6, 7 drawing on collective socialization and social control theories, this study investigates the neighborhood contexts associated with teen childbearing and fathering (occurring between the ages of 15 and 19). Our study is distinguished by its use of data from the Denver Child Study [9], a mixed methods retrospective study using a natural experiment in Denver, CO, in which low-income families and their children were quasi-randomly assigned to public housing in an array of socioeconomically and ethnically diverse neighborhoods
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