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Author: Sturgeon, Samuel Woolley
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Sturgeon, Samuel Woolley
The Effects of Welfare Eligibility and Abortion Restrictions on the Pregnancy Decisions of Young Women
Ph.D. Dissertation, Human Development and Family Studies and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University, May 2009
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania State University
Keyword(s): Absenteeism; Family Formation; Family History; Geocoded Data; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; State Welfare; State-Level Data/Policy

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using data on state abortion restrictions, state family formation related welfare policy stringency, and the fertility and pregnancy histories of women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (NLSY97), this project examined whether or not state welfare and abortion policies between 1997 and 2004 are related to one another, and whether these polices affect the decisions of young mothers regarding pregnancy and pregnancy resolution. One of the major goals of the 1996 welfare reforms was to reduce non-marital fertility as a means of reducing welfare dependence. However, some groups feared that efforts to limit non-marital fertility would lead to an increase in abortion. Moreover, economic theory suggests that strict welfare and abortion policies may be working at cross purposes with one another. In general, I find that states with more stringent abortion policies tended to adopt more stringent family formation related welfare polices; however, stringent state welfare and abortion policies were only mildly correlated over this time period ( r = 0.11). Moreover, I find some evidence to suggest that state policy stringency summary scores may be a better means of examining the effects of state policy stringency than estimating the effects of specific individual policies. In general, state welfare and abortion policies did not appear to affect either the likelihood of pregnancy among all of the women in the sample, or the likelihood that the pregnant women in the sample would elect to have an abortion over a live birth. In addition, there was little evidence to suggest that stringent state welfare and abortion polices are working at cross purposes when it comes to women's pregnancy decisions. Overall, the characteristics of the survey sample (e.g. too small, too homogeneous, not representative at the state level, etc.) made it difficult to isolate the effects of state policies on the respondents' pregnancy decisions net of other unmeasured state charact eristics, thus making it impossible to assess the effects of these policies with this data.
Bibliography Citation
Sturgeon, Samuel Woolley. The Effects of Welfare Eligibility and Abortion Restrictions on the Pregnancy Decisions of Young Women. Ph.D. Dissertation, Human Development and Family Studies and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University, May 2009.
2. Sturgeon, Samuel Woolley
The Relationship Between Family Structure and Adolescent Sexual Activity
Special Report No 1, FamilyFacts.org, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, November 2008.
Also: http://www.familyfacts.org/featuredfinding/ff_01.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY97, Young Women
Publisher: The Heritage Foundation
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Adolescent Sexual Activity; Age at First Birth; Contraception; Family Structure; Household Structure; Pregnancy, Adolescent

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper provides a systematic review of the research literature examining the relationship between family structure and adolescent sexual activity. Adolescents from intact family structures tend to delay sexual initiation until a significantly older age than their peers from non-intact family backgrounds. Adolescents from intact families are less likely to have ever had sexual intercourse, have had on average fewer sexual partners, are less likely to report a sexually transmitted disease, and are less likely to have ever experienced a pregnancy or live birth when compared to their peers from non-intact families. However, the effects of family structure on all adolescent sexual outcomes other than sexual debut tend to operate primarily through the delay in sexual debut experienced by adolescents from intact families. Age, race, and gender differences are discussed, as well as methodological challenges associated with the study of family structure and adolescent sexual outcomes.
Bibliography Citation
Sturgeon, Samuel Woolley. "The Relationship Between Family Structure and Adolescent Sexual Activity." Special Report No 1, FamilyFacts.org, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, November 2008.