The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #47104

James R. McDonell, DSW, Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, 158 Poole Agricultural Center, Clemson, SC 29634-6281, 864-656-6746, jmcdnll@clemson.edu

The importance of community context on the behavior of adolescents and young adults, particularly as regards early childbearing, is gaining recognition. Sucoff and Upchurch (1998) found that living in a highly segregated community resulted in a 50% increase in birth rates among urban African-American teens, concluding that neighborhood racial composition influences teen birth rates by sealing off participation in the social and economic life of the larger community. Similarly, South and Crowder (1999) found that disadvantaged neighborhoods increased the likelihood of early childbearing among white women, supporting arguments regarding the detrimental effects of concentrated poverty. Yet, there have been few efforts to examine neighborhood level effects on the outcomes of intervention programs intended to improve the health and well-being of low income pregnant and parenting teens, stemming, in part, from the absence of valid and reliable neighborhood distress indicators. Drawing on the work of Coulton and her colleagues (Coulton, Korbin, Su, & Chow, 1995), preliminary findings from an analysis of the effects of neighborhood impoverishment, child care burden, stability, and total distress on the outcomes of a comprehensive, intensively case managed intervention for pregnant and parenting teens living in low-income communities in the rural South will be presented. Among the findings were that, depending on the type of neighborhood distress, teens in the treatment group had fewer repeat pregnancies, greater social support, lower past month marijuana use, lower alcohol severity, and higher educational achievement than did teens in the control group. Implications for policy and research will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• understand issues related to neighborhood distress for pregnant and parenting teens in the rural South;
• understand the impact of neighborhood distress on treatment programs; and
• understand the policy and program implications derived from these findings.

Keywords: Adolescents, Outcomes Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.