Assari Shervin, Boyce Shanika, Bazargan Mohsen, Caldwell Cleopatra H
Department of Family Medicine, Charles Drew University, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, Charles Drew University, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
Reprod Med (Basel). 2020 Sep;1(2):62-76. doi: 10.3390/reprodmed1020005. Epub 2020 Jul 1.
Brookings Institution has identified postponing childbirth from teenage to adulthood as a major strategy that is needed for upward social mobility of women. However, according to the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs), the associations between aspirations, investments, behaviors, and socioeconomic position (SEP) may be diminished for marginalized groups such as African Americans.
To extend the existing knowledge on the MDRs, the current study had two aims: First to compare White and African American women for the association between postponing childbearing to adulthood and SEP in a national sample of American women. Second, to test correlates of postponing childbearing to adulthood and SEP at birth with long term outcomes 15 years later when the child was 15 years old.
For this longitudinal study, data came from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCWS), a national longitudinal prospective study in the United States (US) that followed an ethnically diverse sample of women from childbirth for 15 years from 1998 to 2016. For the first aim, this study included 2679 women composed of 723 Whites and 1956 African Americans. For the second aim, among 1842 individuals who had available data 15 years later, we measured various economic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes when the child was 15 years old. For aim 1 we ran linear regression. Postponing childbearing to adulthood was the independent variable. The dependent variable, SEP (poverty) was treated as a continuous measure with higher score indicating more poverty. Confounders included marital status and delivery characteristics. For the aim 2, we ran Pearson correlation test (exploratory analysis) to test if baseline SEP correlates with future outcomes.
Postponing childbearing from adolescence to adulthood was associated with higher SEP in adulthood, net of all confounders including marital status and education. We found a significant interaction between postponing childbearing from adolescence to adulthood and race on SEP, suggesting that the economic reward of postponing childbearing may be weaker for African American women than for White women.
Although postponing the age at childbirth is a recommended strategy for women who wish to maximize their chance of upward social mobility, this strategy may be associated with smaller economic returns for African American women than White women. The results can also be interpreted as MDRs in investments in terms of a postponing childbearing. In a fair society, the same investment should be similarly rewarded across diverse racial groups. In the reality, however, the US society differently rewards White and African American women who postpone childbearing. Research should explore the roles of social stratification, blocked opportunities, and concentrated poverty in explaining the unequal return of such an investment for African American and White women.
布鲁金斯学会已将推迟生育年龄从青少年期至成年期确定为女性实现社会向上流动所需的一项主要策略。然而，根据少数群体收益递减（MDRs）理论，对于非裔美国人等边缘化群体而言，抱负、投资、行为与社会经济地位（SEP）之间的关联可能会减弱。
为扩展关于少数群体收益递减理论的现有知识，本研究有两个目标：其一，在美国女性全国样本中，比较白人女性和非裔美国女性在推迟生育至成年期与社会经济地位之间的关联。其二，检验在孩子15岁时，推迟生育至成年期及出生时的社会经济地位与15年后长期结果之间的相关性。
对于这项纵向研究，数据来自脆弱家庭与儿童福利研究（FFCWS），这是美国一项全国性纵向前瞻性研究，从1998年至2016年对不同种族的女性样本从分娩起跟踪了15年。对于第一个目标，本研究纳入了2679名女性，其中包括723名白人女性和1956名非裔美国女性。对于第二个目标，在15年后有可用数据的1842名个体中，我们测量了孩子15岁时的各种经济、行为和心理健康结果。对于目标1，我们进行了线性回归。推迟生育至成年期是自变量。因变量社会经济地位（贫困）被视为连续变量，分数越高表明贫困程度越高。混杂因素包括婚姻状况和分娩特征。对于目标2，我们进行了Pearson相关性检验（探索性分析），以检验基线社会经济地位是否与未来结果相关。
在扣除包括婚姻状况和教育程度在内的所有混杂因素后，从青春期推迟生育至成年期与成年期较高的社会经济地位相关。我们发现从青春期推迟生育至成年期与种族在社会经济地位方面存在显著交互作用，这表明推迟生育对非裔美国女性的经济回报可能比对白人女性更弱。
尽管推迟生育年龄是建议给希望最大程度提高社会向上流动机会的女性的一项策略，但该策略对非裔美国女性的经济回报可能比对白人女性更小。这些结果也可解释为在推迟生育方面投资的少数群体收益递减。在一个公平的社会中，相同的投资在不同种族群体中应得到类似的回报。然而，在现实中，美国社会对推迟生育的白人女性和非裔美国女性的回报有所不同。研究应探索社会分层、机会受阻和集中贫困在解释这种投资对非裔美国女性和白人女性回报不平等方面的作用。
