Alexander Ray Salmeron - 570 words (without titles)
This week I read two articles, "Recent Changes in the Trends of Teen Birth Rates, 1981–2006" by Phyllis A. Wingo, Ruben A. Smith, Heather D. Tevendale, and Cynthia Ferré and "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006" by Mamadi Corra, Shannon K. Carter, J. Scott Carter, and David Knox. Both articles deal with the topic of marriage and family issues.
In "Recent Changes in the Trends of Teen Birth Rates, 1981–2006", Phyllis A. Wingo, Ruben A. Smith, Heather D. Tevendale, and Cynthia attempt to assess the hyperactive imprint of race and gender on marital happiness over the course of nearly four decades. Data from this study was provided by the General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS provided researchers with a sample of English-speaking U.S. citizens over the age of 18. The data observed derived from the years between 1973 and 2006. A single GSS questionnaire question(including responses) which prompted respondents to describe their marriage served as the dependent variable of this study. Answers such as "I do not know" were not used as measurable responses. Linear regression models were calculated and observed. A social location measure distinguished four groups including White husbands, White wives, Black husbands, and Black wives. Other independent variables included employment status, divorce rates, total number of children in household, religion, age, employment status of spouse, education level of respondents. Age was categorized as a continuous variable and was dispersed into six age ranges (from ages 18-74). Employment status was categorized as an ordinal variable. Findings of this study show that the main groups reporting outstanding happy marriages were all Whites and Black husbands. The groups who reported unsuccessful marriages were Black spouses.
In "Recent Changes in a Trend of Teen Birth Rates, 1981-2006", Phyllis A. Wingo, Rubén A. Smith, Heather D. Tecendelle, and Cynthia Ferré attempt to identify repetitive trends in annual teen birth rates by observing demographics. Researchers examined every birth from the years 1981-2006. Only U.S. residents and individuals within the 10-20 year old range were observed. Data was gathered from the branch of National Vital Statistics System within the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. The core variables of the study included race, education level, marital status, political party, and age of the teenage mothers observed. The racial backgrounds observed included White, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic Blacks, non-Hispanic Whites, and Hispanics. Birth certificates were analyzed in order to obtain the race and origin of birth givers. The birth certificates displayed that race and origin were mutually exclusive for all racial backgrounds except Hispanics. Joinpoint regression analysis allowed researchers to observe changing trends in birth rates over the course of four decades (1970-2000's). Trends were identified by annual percentage changes (APC). The education level of each mother was obtained only by states which used the 1989 model of the U.S. birth certificate in 2006. Birth rates were defined as the number of live births per 1,000 females. Findings show that the top number of live births happened in 1990 with over 530,000 births. The lowest number of of live births happened in 2003 with 420,000 births. There was a vast decline in teenage birth rates declined from 1973 to 2003, with an APC of 8.03% for 10-14 year olds. There was also a decline in tonnage birth rates from 1991 to 2004, with an APC of 2.37% for 18-19 year olds. Whites and a Pacific Islanders within the 18-19 year old age range also saw a decline throughout the years. The only race group which saw an increase in teenage birth rates were Hispanics.
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