The role of education level in the intergenerational pattern of adolescent pregnancy in Brazil

Abstract

Context: Adolescent pregnancy has been associated with the early childbearing experience of the mothers of adolescents, and young people's education level is believed to be an important factor in this phenomenon.

Methods: In 2002, a representative household survey collected data from 3,050 young men and women aged 20-24 in three Brazilian cities. The main measures were mother's age at first birth, daughter's age at first pregnancy and son's age when he first impregnated a partner; ages were dichotomized as younger than 20 and 20 or older. The distribution of respondents by both their own and their mothers' reproductive experience was analyzed in relation to various characteristics, and logistic regressions assessed possible associations between these variables and pregnancy experience.

Results: Thirty percent of women reported getting pregnant before age 20, and 21% of men said they were younger than 20 when they first impregnated a partner. Of these groups, 34% of women and 31% of men reported that their mothers had first given birth at the same age. Both women and men were more likely to have had an early pregnancy experience if their mother had had a child before age 20 (odds ratios, 2.0 and 2.3, respectively). Among women, this positive association disappeared in the final model after adjusting for their education level, whereas among men the association remained after similar adjustment (1.8).

Conclusions: Daughters' and sons' level of education appears to be an important factor in the repetition of adolescent fertility across generations. Efforts are needed to increase access to education and to encourage young people to remain in school.