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  • Title: Social policy and out-of-wedlock births to adolescents.
    Author: Ozawa MN.
    Journal: Adv Adolesc Mental Health; 1990; 4():281-99. PubMed ID: 12317630.
    Abstract:
    Data on births to single adolescents in all 50 US states were analyzed to examine whether Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) policies are linked to out of wedlock birth rates and whether poverty and unemployment in a state affect these rates. Overall neither AFDC payment level (p.05) nor its acceptance rate encourage single teenagers to bear children. States with AFDC for families with unemployed fathers (AFDC-U) (p.01) and those that enforce child support payments (p.001) exhibit lower out of wedlock birth rates among all teenagers. The higher the poverty rate in the state, the greater the out of wedlock birth rate (p.001). Yet unemployment rate has no effect on these births. State payment for abortion tends not to foster out of wedlock births among all teenagers. The direction of the results for white single teenagers basically matches those of all teenagers, except for state payment for abortion. The magnitude of the beta weight for most of the variables are much smaller, however. Statistically significant variables among whites are AFDC payment level (p.05), child support enforcement (p.05), and the poverty rate (p.05). State payment for abortion, AFDC-U, child support enforcement, unemployment, and poverty have the opposite effect on out of wedlock births among black teenagers than it does among whites. Yet the intensity is weaker than it was for whites. State payment for abortion is the only variable that is statistically significant (p.05). It tends not to encourage out of wedlock births among blacks. The proportion of the black population in the state has limited or no influence on out of wedlock birth rates for black teenagers, but it is inversely associated with out of wedlock birth rates for white teenagers (p.001). These results refute the conventional belief that AFDC promotes high birth rates among single teenagers.
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