The Price of Parenthood and the Costs of Contraception

• In Event: 470 - Regular Session. Sociology of Reproduction: Reproductive Technologies

Abstract

Drawing on 150 in-depth interviews with African American male and female youth who have spent much of their lives in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, we explore structural and cultural underpinnings of the elevated rate of early and unplanned child bearing among disadvantaged youth. We find that gender asymmetry in perceived opportunity costs, shared social meanings associated with condom use, and perceptions of health risk associated with hormonal and other female forms of birth control such as IUDs—perceptions that may be rooted in a generalized distrust of the medical establishment—are promising explanations not usually considered in the literature on unintended fertility. These three findings offer additional insight on how disadvantaged youth calculate the opportunity costs of childbearing.

Authors

• Monica C. Bell, Harvard University

• Kathryn J. Edin, Johns Hopkins University

• Holly Michelle Wood, Harvard University

• Geniece Crawford, Wingate University