title: Untangling the health disparities of teen pregnancy.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. talashek@uic.edu
authors.forename: Marie L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Talashek
authors.forename: Melinda L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Alba
authors.forename: Angira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: 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