title: Avoiding adolescent pregnancy: a longitudinal analysis of African-American youth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The timing and social context of pregnancy have significant implications for the well-being of African-American young people. Rarely, however, do studies focus on identifying the developmental processes associated with young people's avoidance of pregnancy until after adolescence.
  
  
  METHODS
  We tested hypotheses regarding the factors associated with delayed fertility (no experience of a pregnancy by age 19) among a sample of 889 African-American youth recruited at age 11 and assessed longitudinally through age 19. We hypothesized that, during preadolescence (age 11), health-promoting environmental processes would be linked to nurturant-responsive parenting, which in turn would be linked to youths' conventional future orientations and risky sexual behavior in midadolescence (age 16) and to pregnancy experience by late adolescence (age 19). Hypotheses were tested with logistic structural equation modeling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our conceptual model fit the data well. We identified a cascade process whereby protective environments were associated with nurturant-responsive parenting, which was associated with youths' conventional future orientations; conventional future orientations were associated with avoidance of sexual risk behaviors at age 16 and avoidance of pregnancy by age 19. We identified an additional direct effect between nurturant-responsive parenting and avoidance of risky sexual behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest processes that may be targeted to facilitate delayed fertility among African-American youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA. smkogan@uga.edu
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kogan
authors.forename: Junhan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Man-Kit
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Steven R H
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Beach
authors.forename: Frederick X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Leslie G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Simons
authors.forename: Ronald L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Simons
authors.forename: Gene H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Brody
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D016487:Parenting; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires