title: Intention status of U.S. births in 1988: differences by mothers' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.
abstract: The National Maternal and Infant Health Survey provides new data on the prevalence of unintended childbearing in the United States: Thirty-six percent of births in 1988 were mistimed and 7% were unwanted, while 57% were intended. Although the level of unintended childbearing is high in almost all socioeconomic subgroups of women, the proportion of births that were mistimed or unwanted was 50% or more among age-groups 15-17 (78%), 18-19 (68%) and 20-24 (50%), and among never-married women (73%), formerly married women (62%), black women (66%), women living below the federal poverty level (64%) or at 100-149% of the poverty level (52%), women with less than 12 years of education (58%) and women who already had two children (53%) or three or more children (60%). Multivariate analyses indicate that births to unmarried women--whether formerly married or never-married--are less likely than those to married women to be wanted and more likely to be mistimed. Poverty status has no independent effect on the odds that a birth is unwanted or on the odds that a birth to an unmarried woman is mistimed. Among currently married women, those who are poorer are more likely than women above 150% of the poverty level to have a mistimed birth. Black women are more likely than either Hispanic or white women to report a birth as unwanted and are more likely than white women to say a wanted birth was mistimed.
authors.affiliation: Alan Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kost
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Forrest
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D017533:Marital Status; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009042:Motivation; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology