Effects of socioeconomic residential segregation on adolescent reproduction. City of Córdoba, 2001

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical and analytical efforts regarding the effects of socioeconomic residential segregation patterns on adolescent reproduction –percentage of female teenagers 15-19 years who had at least one child birth alive– in the city of Córdoba (Argentina). We use data from the National Census of Population and Housing, at the census track level. The risks of being a mother in adolescence according to the segregation area in which these adolescents reside are estimated from logistic regression models, adjusted for sociodemographic variables. The results obtained in this work suggest that the odds of being an adolescent mother are significantly influenced by the residential context where adolescents live, beyond the differences observed at the individual and household level. In areas with high concentration of households with high educational climate the risk of being an adolescent mother decreased on average by 54% compared with the whole of census track more heterogeneous, by contrast in zones characterized by opposite residential context that increased to nearly 13%. This evidence highlights the importance of including residential contexts in the diagnosis and the design of public policies oriented to reproductive and sexual health of adolescents, since it allows capturing its heterogeneity and cultural diversity.