Birth-timing and Perceived Personal Control among Recent First-time Mothers

• In Event: 546 - Section on Sociology of Population Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Families and Health

Abstract

Women who experience a first birth before age 20 have a higher risk of mortality in mid-life and a higher risk of depression over the life course compared to other women. Personal control, i.e. perceived control over one’s life, may buffer the relationship between stress and health, but little is known about differences in levels of person control among mothers based on first-birth timing. The aim of this study is to test mothers who experienced a first birth in their teens have a different level of perceived personal control and perceived closeness to reaching their goals than mothers who did not experience first-births as teenagers. I also test differences in the outcomes among “teen” mothers, distinguishing between those with an early-teen and a late-teen birth.
Data are from the 2001-2003 National Survey of American Life (NSAL) (N=6082) and the analytical sample consists of black and non-Hispanic white, recent, first-time mothers (N=325) using OLS regression. The findings suggest that women who became mothers in their teens have a higher level of personal control than women who became pregnant after their teen years, controlling for other factors. However, this difference is driven by mothers who became mothers in their late teens. These results suggest that improving personal control may be especially important for women who became mothers in their early teens.

Author

• Theresa Marie Simpson, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers