OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between public health system network density and organizational centrality in public health systems and public health governance, community size, and health status in three public health domains. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING During the fall and the winter of 2007-2008, primary data were collected on the organization and composition of eight rural public hea...

As comprehensive sex education curricula have been promoted in the schools, clinics have been established to provide teens greater access to birth control information and devices. Proponents cite studies that supposedly demonstrate the effectiveness of these clinics on teen sexual behavior. Yet a more careful evaluation of the statistics involved suggests that school-based health clinics do not...

BACKGROUND Sexual activity may be less likely to occur during periods of school enrolment because of the structured and supervised environment provided, the education obtained and the safer peer networks encountered while enrolled. We examined whether school enrolment was associated with teen pregnancy in South Africa. METHODS Using longitudinal demographic surveillance data from the rural Ag...

This study builds on the peer effects in adolescent fertility literature by examining close friends and using miscarriages as a natural experiment to reduce potential confounding due to peer selection, simultaneity of peer influence, and shared environment. Our identifying assumption is that, conditional on a friend’s pregnancy, the occurrence of a friend’s miscarriage is an exogenous negative ...

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to evaluate the relative contribution of treatment intensity, family sociodemographic risk, and family resources to health-related quality of life (QOL) of 102 adolescents in treatment for cancer. METHODS Adolescents and parents completed self-report measures of teen QOL, family functioning, and parent-child bonding. Based on parent report of family sociodem...

This study explores the role of cortisol and early life experiences in the regulation of maternal behavior and mood in teen and adult mothers. Primiparous mothers (n=119) (teen mothers < 19 years, n=42), young mothers (19-25 years, n= 4), and mature mothers, (>25 years, n=43) were assessed for their maternal behavior, mood, and hormonal profile at approximately 6 weeks postpartum. Outcome measu...

UNLABELLED Pregnancy during adolescence represents a challenge to society as a whole. Its incidence is increasing and brings about social and medical consequences to both the teen mothers and their children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate pregnant teenager involvement in sexual activity and the social context. The group studied comprised 152 pregnant teenagers attending the Departmen...

Researchers seeking to understand teen sexual behaviors often turn to age norms, but they are difficult to measure quantitatively. Previous work has usually inferred norms from behavioral patterns or measured group-level norms at the individual level, ignoring multiple reference groups. Capitalizing on the multilevel design of the Add Health survey, we measure teen pregnancy norms perceived by ...