Untangling the health disparities of teen pregnancy.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this secondary analysis is to determine whether a developmental maturity model differentially predicts pregnancy for African American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican inner-city teens.


METHODS
This is a secondary analysis of data from a case control study that tested a model of developmental maturity and teen pregnancy with 183 pregnant and never-pregnant pairs of inner-city teens matched on age, ethnicity, and freshman cohort.


RESULTS
The models differentially predict pregnancy for the separate ethnic groups, with sexual behaviors being the most important factors regardless of ethnicity.


CONCLUSIONS
The health disparities of teen pregnancies may not decrease unless patterns of dating/sexual behaviors are reversed.
Talashek
Marie L
ML
College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. talashek@uic.edu
Alba
Melinda L
ML
Patel
Angira
A
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012741:Sexual Maturation; D012931:Social Environment; D014481:United States