Biomedical subjects
J McCarthy
Publications and source records attributed to J McCarthy.
Adolescent childbearing and high school completion in the 1980s: have things changed?
More adolescent mothers are now graduating from high school than ever before. Since the 1950s, the high school completion rate of women who became mothers at age 17 or younger has nearly tripled--from 19 percent in 1958 to 56 percent in 1986. However, graduation rates did not increase equally for all racial and socioeconomic groups, and the increases did not occur in the same periods for all groups. Black mothers who were school-age when they had their first child made their greatest gains in graduation rates between 1958 and 1975, while their white counterparts made their greatest gains between 1975 and 1986. By 1986, black women who were 17 or younger when their first child was born were more likely to have graduated than similar white women--61 percent and 54 percent, respectively. Nevertheless, when overall levels of high school graduation are considered, white women were more likely than black women to have graduated. Regardless of race, women from more advantaged backgrounds were more likely to be graduates than were those from less advantaged backgrounds, and the younger the women were when their first child was born, the less likely they were to be graduates.
Management. The name game.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Use of contraceptives for birth spacing in a Nigerian city.
This paper examines the use of contraceptives among women aged 15-35 in the urban area of Ilorin, Nigeria, with particular focus on use for the purpose of spacing births. Approximately 19 percent of ever-married women in the sample had used contraceptives at some time and approximately 6 percent were using at the time of the survey. Results suggest that some women have used or are using contraceptives as a substitute for prolonged periods of postpartum sexual abstinence. Whereas all groups of women in the study prefer to maintain an interval of two years between births, less traditional women no longer prefer to observe long periods of postpartum sexual abstinence. For some women, therefore, there is a wide gap between the length of preferred birth interval and the length of preferred abstinence. The magnitude of this gap is significantly associated with both ever use and current use of contraceptives. Other variables found to have a significant independent effect on contraceptive use were total number of children desired, maternal age, and maternal education.
How the number of living sons influences contraceptive use in Menoufia Governorate, Egypt.
Couples in rural areas of many Arab societies, including Egypt, have consistently reported strong preferences for having sons. However, these reported preferences are not always reflected in reproductive behavior. In 38 rural villages in Menoufia Governorate in Egypt, women's responses to a community-based contraceptive distribution program were examined, taking into consideration both the number of living children and the number of living sons each women reported having. Controlling for number of living children, women with more sons were more likely to be using contraception before the distribution program began. Among women not using contraception before the program, those with more sons were more likely to initiate contraceptive use and were more likely to continue use for a nine-month period following the distribution. These findings imply that in addition to obstacles related to contraceptive availability, there are several cultural, social, and economic factors that influence fertility behavior and exert considerable pressure on married couples to have large families, including several sons. Unless the pressure exerted by these factors is changed or reduced, the impact of family planning programs is likely to reach a plateau at a relatively low prevalence level.
Marriage, remarriage, marital disruption and age at first birth.
Out-of-wedlock pregnancy, especially for a teenager, and even more for a black teenager, hastens early marriage. The younger the age at first birth, the likelier that the first marriage will dissolve. White women are more likely than black women to remarry. Women under 20 at first birth are more likely to have their second marriage dissolve.
Population attitudes and fertility.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Sterilization in the United States.
Had no U.S. married couples obtained contraceptive sterilizations, there would have been about 800,000 unwanted births during 1971-1973 in addition to the 8.7 million births that actually occurred. More than half of U.S. couples elect sterilization within 10 years after their last wanted birth, and more than six in 10 are sterilized within 15 years.
Education and childbearing among teenagers.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.