THURSDAY, Jan. 23, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Poor, black teenage girls who believe their boyfriends want a baby are 12 times more likely to wish they were pregnant than similar girls who don't feel that pressure from their boyfriends.
A study in the January issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior came to that conclusion after interviewing more than 400 sexually active black teenage girls in Alabama.
The researchers also found the girls in the study who said they wanted to become pregnant were nearly four times more likely to have a male partner who was at least five years older. Girls who wanted to get pregnant were twice as likely to report low self-esteem and low family support.
The study found those girls were also twice as likely to feel their partner would not approve of using condoms when they had sex.
All these factors could be altered by behavioral intervention, meaning they could be important points to consider when creating programs to reduce pregnancy risk in black teenage girls, the researchers say.
The study included interviews and surveys of 462 girls, aged 14 to 18, living in low-income neighborhoods in Birmingham, Ala.
Forty percent of the girls in the study had a previous pregnancy. However, the girls who said they wanted to become pregnant were less likely to report they had a previous pregnancy.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about teenage pregnancy.
