The purpose of this study is to identify factors which, in the presence of risk factors for early parenthood, appear to prevent urban adolescent males and females from fathering or bearing a child. The investigators define a protective characteristic not merely as the opposite, or absence, of a predisposing or risk factor; it is a factor which promotes resilience in the presence of one or many risk factors, increasing the probability that undesirable outcomes may be avoided. The investigators use a life course, developmental model focusing on early and adolescent years in the life cycle and on four domains--the individual/biological/cognitive/ emotional domain, the family, the school, and the community-- defined by census tracts of residence. The investigators utilize a data set """"""""Pathways to Adulthood;"""""""" a three generation urban study, including data collected during pregnancy from inner city white and African-American mothers in 1960/65; prospective data on their children--the 1,754 male and female subjects of this study--from birth to age 8; retrospective data on these subjects complete their histories from age 8 to ages 27 to 33. Additional academic and family observations at age 12 are available on a subset of 428 subjects. The investigators utilize data from their birth to age 19 or completion of high school, whichever is first. Batteries of cognitive, behavioral and psychological tests administered to all subjects during the early years, extensive histories thereafter, and information on schools, school achievement and census tracts, permit each area to be explored in depth, over time. The investigators examine the effects on pregnancy and childbearing of variables in each domain, alone and in the context of others. Analytic techniques relate this research to its real-world applications: 1) odds models to suggest how many are at what level of risk and how strong various protective characteristics maybe in the context of odds faced by youth at high, moderate, and low risk in inner-city environments; 2) hazards models to strengthen the regression findings by allowing the protective and risk factors to vary with time; and 3) path models to describe how early in a young person's development risk can be detected, and the protective factors which can redirect a potentially destructive trajectory be identified. Thus, not only optimal interventions but optimal times for intervention may be identifiable in the models. The investigators will address policy and programmatic implications by identifying which risk factors are potentially avoidable, and which protective factors can, realistically, be enhanced.
| Weden, Margaret M; Zabin, Laurie S (2005) Gender and ethnic differences in the co-occurrence of adolescent risk behaviors. Ethn Health 10:213-34 |
