Pathways to Teenage Pregnancy among Sexual Minority Adolescents: Stigma Management and the Role of Place

• In Event: 378 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: Open Refereed Roundtable. B. Table. 01. Race and Place

Abstract

Previous research has found that sexual minority youth are more likely to report unintended and teen pregnancies compared to their heterosexual counterparts. This paper investigates one mechanism linking sexual minority youth to increased teen pregnancy: positive attitudes about sex and pregnancy. Using Goffman’s Stigma Management Theory and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I use latent class analysis and OLS regression to investigate both gender differences and the role of the social environment on sexual minority youths’ attitudes about sex and pregnancy. Sexual minority girls are more likely to report positive attitudes and diminished negative attitudes about teen pregnancy compared to heterosexual girls. Boys report less positive attitudes about sex and pregnancy than heterosexual boys. These results also vary by the social environment. 

Author

• Bethany Grace Everett, University of Illinois