Table 2.
Self-assessed Health at Age 40 Regressed on Age at First Birth and Covariates by Race-ethnicity: U.S Women Who Had a First Birth between the Ages of 15 and 35 (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979).
| Variable | Self-assessed Health at Age 40 |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Women |
White Women |
Hispanic Women |
||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | |
| Age at first birth (reference = 25–35) | ||||||
| 15–19 | −.35*** | −.26** | −.19** | −.10 | −.18 | −.15 |
| (.09) | (.09) | (.07) | (.07) | (.11) | (.11) | |
| 20–24 | −.28** | −.24* | −.17** | −.15* | −.20 | −.19 |
| (.09) | (.09) | (.06) | (.06) | (.11) | (.11) | |
| Unmarried at first birth (reference = married) | — | −.19** | — | −.39*** | — | −.10 |
| (.08) | (.08) | (.09) | ||||
| R’s mother’s education | .04* | .04* | .05*** | .05*** | .02 | .01 |
| (.02) | (.02) | (.01) | (.01) | (.01) | (.01) | |
| R’s mother had teen first birth | .07 | .08 | .06 | .08 | −.02 | −.01 |
| (.10) | (.10) | (.11) | (.11) | (.15) | (.15) | |
| R used contraception before first pregnancy | .02 | .02 | .01 | .00 | .08 | .08 |
| (.07) | (.07) | (.05) | (.05) | (.09) | (.09) | |
| Home environment age I4a | ||||||
| Lived with both parents | −.13 | −.15 | .11 | .08 | −.14 | −.14 |
| (.09) | (.09) | (.07) | (.07) | (.11) | (.11) | |
| Urban | −.00 | −.01 | −.04 | −.06 | −.08 | −.10 |
| (.07) | (.07) | (.06) | (.06) | (.10) | (.10) | |
| South | −.01 | −.00 | .09 | .10 | .10 | .11 |
| (.08) | (.08) | (.06) | (.06) | (.13) | (.13) | |
| Reading material in home | −.03 | −.03 | .23 | .22 | .00 | .01 |
| (.09) | (.09) | (.12) | (.12) | (.10) | (.10) | |
| Adult female in home employed | .06 | .05 | .04 | .03 | .01 | .00 |
| (.07) | (.07) | (.05) | (.05) | (.09) | (.09) | |
| Adult male in home employed | .03 | .04 | .07 | .05 | .27* | .26* |
| (.09) | (.09) | (.08) | (.08) | (.12) | (.12) | |
| Religion in childhood (reference = Baptist) | ||||||
| Catholic | .01 | −.03 | .13 | .12 | −.14 | −.15 |
| (.12) | (.12) | (.08) | (.08) | (.21) | (.21) | |
| Liberal Protestant | .07 | .05 | .00 | −.00 | .31 | .30 |
| (.10) | (.10) | (.08) | (.07) | (.34) | (.34) | |
| Other religion | −.03 | −.03 | −.05 | −.04 | −.14 | −.15 |
| (.11) | (.11) | (.09) | (.09) | (.28) | (.28) | |
| No religion | .22 | .26 | −.04 | −.02 | −.07 | −.09 |
| (.16) | (.16) | (.12) | (.12) | (.37) | (.37) | |
| Health limitations before Ist birth (reference = no) | −.37** | −.38** | −.34*** | −.35*** | −.60*** | −.59** |
| (.12) | (.12) | (.09) | (.09) | (.18) | (.18) | |
| Constant | 3.27*** | 3.37*** | 2.76*** | 2.87*** | 3.44*** | 3.47*** |
| (.20) | (.21) | (.19) | (.19) | (.28) | (.28) | |
| n | 1,029 | 1,029 | 1,633 | 1,633 | 686 | 686 |
Note: Standard errors in parentheses. R = respondent.
a
Six dichotomous measures of home environment at age 14 coded so that 0 = absence of the characteristic.
*
p <.05
**
p <.01
***
p <.001 (two-tailed tests).