Abstract
In this article, we use newly available data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study to compare a wide range of attitudes related to pregnancy for 961 black and white young women. We also investigate the extent to which race differences are mediated by, or net of, family background, childhood socioeconomic status (SES), adolescent experiences related to pregnancy, and current SES. Compared with white women, black women generally have less positive attitudes toward young nonmarital sex, contraception, and childbearing, and have less desire for sex in the upcoming year. This is largely because black women are more religious than white women and partly because they are more socioeconomically disadvantaged in young adulthood. However, in spite of these less positive attitudes, black women are more likely to expect sex without contraception in the next year and to expect more positive consequences if they were to become pregnant, relative to white women. This is largely because, relative to white women, black women had higher rates of sex without contraception in adolescence and partly because they are more likely to have grown up with a single parent. It is unclear whether attitudes toward contraception and pregnancy preceded or are a consequence of adolescent sex without contraception. Some race differences remain unexplained; net of all potential mediators in our models, black women have less desire for sex in the upcoming year, but they are less willing to refuse to have sex with a partner if they think it would make him angry and they expect more positive personal consequences of a pregnancy, relative to white women. In spite of these differences, black women’s desires to achieve and to prevent pregnancy are very similar to white women’s desires.
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Notes
Because women tend to date older men, even young black women whose cohort-mates do not yet face high rates of imprisonment face a relative shortage of partners.
Some of these measures were replicated from the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle 6 (contraception attitude 1.7 and pregnancy attitude 1), from the National Survey of Adolescent Health Waves I and II (sex attitudes 1.5 and 2; contraception attitudes 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.9, and 1.10; and pregnancy attitudes 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.5, 3.1.6, and 3.1.7), and the Intergenerational Panel Study of Parents and Children (sex attitude 1.1). Other items were created specifically for the RDSL study, some with explicit reference to the prototype/willingness model (Gibbons and Gerrard 1997).
We also estimated OLS models for each attitude measure and added sets of independent variables in the same way they are entered into the Oaxaca-Blinder models (see Table 5 in the appendix). We tested whether decreases in the coefficients across nested models were significant using the method described in Clogg et al. (1995). The results of those analyses were overall quite similar, and the coefficient in the full OLS model (including all controls) was identical to the unexplained part of the race difference after all characteristics were included in the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition models.
The mean race difference can also be decomposed into three parts with the Oaxaca-Blinder method: race differences in endowments (values for the independent variables), race differences in the coefficients, and the interaction between race differences in endowments and coefficients. We present the two-part decompositions for four reasons. First, our hypotheses concern endowments; we have no hypotheses about how family background, adolescent experiences related to pregnancy, or SES differences would have different attitudinal consequences for blacks and whites. Second, there are very few significant race differences in the coefficients for the independent variables, with three exceptions: (1) although religiosity leads to more negative attitudes about sex, this is less true for blacks than for whites; (2) being in a relationship increases expectations of sex for whites, but this is less true for blacks; and (2) whites with two prior pregnancies have less negative attitudes toward contraception and more positive attitudes toward pregnancy than those without prior pregnancies, while blacks with two prior pregnancies have more negative attitudes toward contraception and less positive attitudes toward pregnancy than those without prior pregnancies. Third, for attitudes toward contraception and pregnancy, race differences in individual-level characteristics contribute dramatically more to the mean race differences in attitudes than race differences in coefficients or the interaction between the two types of race differences. In the case of attitudes toward sex, however, race differences in coefficients are more important. We describe those exceptions in the Results section.
We also examined differences between the 571 white and 205 black nonpregnant 18- and 19-year-old women in the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). There were no race differences in responses to the items about sex: “Any sexual act between two consenting adults is all right”; “It is all right for unmarried 18-year-olds to have sexual intercourse if they have strong affection for each other”; and “It is all right for unmarried 16-year-olds to have sexual intercourse if they have strong affection for each other.”
In the NSFG, young black women expected less embarrassment than young white women in response to the question, “What is the chance that it would be embarrassing for you and a new partner to discuss using a condom?” There were no race differences in responses to two questions: (1) “What is the chance that if your partner used a condom during sex, you would feel less physical pleasure?” (a question somewhat similar to the RDSL contraception question 7, except that the RDSL question refers to “birth control” rather than condoms); and (2) “What is the chance that if a new partner used a condom, you would appreciate it?” Thus, NSFG analyses may indicate slightly more positive attitudes toward condoms among young black women relative to young white women; the only RDSL measure that focuses specifically on condom use is item 1.8.
In the NSFG, young black women expressed more positive attitudes than young white women in response to, “If you got pregnant now, how would you feel?” but there was no race difference in response to, “It is okay for an unmarried female to have a child” (similar to RDSL pregnancy question 1). Thus, compared with young white women, young black women have more positive attitudes about the personal consequences of a pregnancy in both data sets but have similar (NSFG) or more negative attitudes (RDSL) about single parenthood in general.
We also estimated three-part Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition models in which the explained difference includes differences attributable to race differences in individual characteristics, race differences in coefficients for the independent variables (i.e., race interactions in the pooled model), and the interaction between race differences in characteristics and race differences in coefficients. These models showed that the race differences in coefficients in models of desire to have sex and willingness to refuse sex account for more of the mean race difference in attitudes than did the race differences in the individual characteristics. However, in a pooled model, none of the coefficients are statistically different for blacks and whites. Thus, the explanatory power of the race differences in coefficients is due to the accumulation of many small race differences that are individually indistinguishable from zero.
However, if the nine measures of general attitudes toward contraception are modeled separately, a more varied picture of race differences emerges. Net of all mediating factors in our models, black women find contraception cheaper and easier to access than white women; in addition, however, they find contraception to be more hassle to use and more likely to make women sick, and they believe that asking for condom use signals distrust. Thus, although the factor analysis strongly suggests that these items measure a single underlying construct for both black and white women, there are clearly race differences within that single construct.
The difference that is net of the mediators in the model is largely driven by net differences in responses to three items: (1) “If you got pregnant now, you would have to quit school,” (2) “If you got pregnant now, your partner would be happy,” and (3) “If you got pregnant now, you could not afford to raise the child.”
We do not give the percentage in order to protect the anonymity of the study location.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by two grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD050329, R01 HD050329-S1, PI Barber), a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21 DA024186, PI Axinn), and a population center grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the University of Michigan’s Population Studies Center (R24 HD041028). The authors gratefully acknowledge the Survey Research Operations (SRO) unit at the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research for their help with the data collection, particularly Vivienne Outlaw, Sharon Parker, and Meg Stephenson. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the intellectual contributions of the other members of the original RDSL project team: William Axinn, Mick Couper, Steven Heeringa, and Yasamin Kusunoki, and the Advisory Committee for the project: Larry Bumpass, Elizabeth Cooksey, Kathie Harris, and Linda Waite. Finally, we thank Lisa Neidert for her expertise in computing the sex ratios with census data, and the anonymous reviewers for important feedback that greatly improved this article. We are particularly grateful to the Editor, who expertly and generously shepherded this article through an extensive review process.
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Barber, J.S., Yarger, J.E. & Gatny, H.H. Black-White Differences in Attitudes Related to Pregnancy Among Young Women. Demography 52, 751–786 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-015-0391-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-015-0391-4