Delinquency as a Risk Factor in Teenage Pregnancy

• NCJ Number: 128027
• Journal: Sociological Focus Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1990) Pages: 89-100
• Author(s): M D Pugh; A DeMaris; P C Giordano; H T Groat
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 12 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH 29095
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The relationship between juvenile delinquency and adolescent pregnancy was examined using data from interviews of 197 North Carolina youths when they were first 14 or 15 and then 18 or 19 years old.

Abstract

The sample included both males and females who lived in private households in a metropolitan region, selected through a multistage modified probability process to be representative of the area's racial composition and average housing value. Information was gathered on the age of first sexual intercourse, use of contraceptives, teenage pregnancy, involvement in delinquency, and family background. Regression analysis showed that both race and delinquency independently predicted the age at first sexual intercourse, but that socioeconomic status, controlled for race, did not. Further analysis showed that intercourse without contraceptives was predicted by both age at sexual debut and early delinquency. With these variables controlled, however, neither socioeconomic status nor race was predictive of contraceptive risk-taking. Finally, contraceptive risk-taking emerged as a substantial predictor of pregnancy. Tables and 28 references (Author abstract modified)