Nan Marie Astone

• Fellow at Urban Institute

The goal of this study was to examine the types of social support provided by STRIVE, an inner-city-based workforce development program. Life history interviews were conducted with 20 African American graduates (aged 18–24 years) of the workforce development program. Nearly half of the sample was male (45%). Over half of the sample was employed at...

Objectives: To estimate national need for family planning services among men in the United States according to background characteristics, access to care, receipt of services, and contraception use. Methods: We used weighted data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth to estimate the percentage of men aged 15 to 44 years (n = 10 395...

Preconception care for men focuses on prevention strategies implemented prior to conception of a first or subsequent pregnancy to improve pregnancy and infant outcomes. Little is known about U.S. men in need of preconception care. This analysis describes the proportion of men in need of preconception care and associations of these needs by backgrou...

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global health and human rights issue with individual and social determinants. Youth are considered high risk; national influences include norms, policies and practices. By age, nation, and region, we contrast key GBV indicators, specifically intimate partner violence (IPV) and forced sexual debut among adolescent an...

Social capital is essential for the successful development of young people. The current study examines direct measures of social capital in young people in five urban global contexts.Methods The Well-Being of Adolescents in Vulnerable Environments is a global study of young people aged 15–19 years living in disadvantaged, urban settings. Respondent...

The global adolescent population is larger than ever before and is rapidly urbanizing. Global surveillance systems to monitor youth health typically use household- and school-based recruitment methods. These systems risk not reaching the most marginalized youth made vulnerable by conditions of migration, civil conflict, and other forms of individua...

Research has shown that more traditional masculinity attitudes are associated with risk behavior and healthcare use, yet few studies have explored the relationship between masculinity attitudes and chronic health conditions among men. Further, it is unclear whether this relationship varies by race/ethnicity. Using fourth wave (2008-2010) data from...

Background: African-American young people who reside in inner-city communities are at heightened risk for negative mental and emotional outcomes. The goal of this study was to explore the extent to which a workforce development program could address mental health needs among young adults living in Baltimore, Maryland. This study was carried out in...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Healthy People 2020 call for improvements in meeting men's reproductive health needs but little is known about the proportion of men in need. This study describes men aged 35 to 39 in need of family planning and preconception care, demographic correlates of these needs, and contraception use among...

One of the most important aspects of adolescent health is sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Currently, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) threaten the health of adolescents more than any other age group, and as many as 2.2 million adolescents are living with HIV. Understanding adolescents' SRH needs and how to invest in improving their heal...

Abstract Early adolescence (ages 10-14 years) is among the most neglected stages of development, yet there are few stages during the life course where changes are as dramatic. The present conceptual framework proposes four central goals to be achieved by early adolescence: engagement with learning, emotional and physical safety, positive sense of s...

Understanding the relationship between union status and men's sexual risk behavior in their 30s is important to ensure appropriate reproductive health services for men in middle adulthood. Data from 1,083 men aged 34-41 who participated in the 2008-2010 wave of the National Survey of Adolescent Males were used to examine differentials in sexual ris...

In this presentation, we describe a research project collaboratively developed and designed by the Center for Urban Families (CFUF) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health (CAH). Socioeconomic factors represent the strongest and most consistent predictors of health. Research suggests that the probability of entering poverty is much highe...

Adolescence and young adulthood offer opportunities for health gains both through prevention and early clinical intervention. Yet development of health information systems to support this work has been weak and so far lagged behind those for early childhood and adulthood. With falls in the number of deaths in earlier childhood in many countries and...

Despite the exceptionally large population of young migrants in China, as well as increasing rates of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in recent years, condom use and contraceptive consistency among this population remains critically under-studied. This study examines the association between migration and condom use and contraceptive consist...

Health care providers are challenged to use culturally appropriate, low-technology approaches to improve child health in resource-poor countries. Village fathers’ clubs is one approach used in rural Haiti since 1994. Fathers meet regularly for health education and community-building activities. Our aim was to investigate parenting practices and bel...

In the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), young fathers include heterogeneous subgroups with varying early life pathways in terms of fatherhood timing, the timing of first marriage, and holding full-time employment. Using latent class growth analysis with 10 observations between ages 18 and 37, we derived five latent classes with...

Racial and ethnic health disparities are an important issue in the United States. The extent to which racial and ethnic differences in STDs among youth are related to differences in socioeconomic characteristics and risky sexual behaviors requires investigation. Data from three waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males (1988, 1990-1991 and 1...

In this paper we tested three hypotheses: (a) the transition to fatherhood is associated with an increase in work effort; (b) the positive association (if any) between the transition to fatherhood and work effort is greater for fathers who are married at the time of the transition; and (c) the association (if any) is greater for men who make the tr...

In recognition of the important role that fathers play in the lives of young children in Haiti, a public health organization instituted fathers' clubs in 1994 as a strategy to improve the health outcomes of children. Fathers' clubs focus on child and family health education. To evaluate the effectiveness of fathers' clubs, we examined the health of...

Self-reports are the standard measure of STD history used in survey research. We explored to what extent self-reports of ever having an STD are recanted in a follow-up data collection. Using the National Survey of Adolescent Males (NSAM), we assessed consistency over time in self-reports of ever having an STD in a sample of young men transitioning...

Although several studies have identified a positive association between recreational facility availability and physical activity, few have examined facility attributes beyond availability and involved minority adolescents. This study examines how both objective and perceived measures of the facility environment are associated with urban adolescents...

Understanding how young men's sexual risk behaviors change during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood is important for the design and evaluation of effective strategies to reduce the transmission of HIV and other STDs. Data from three waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males (1988, 1991 and 1995) were used to categorize 1,880...

Purpose Investigate environmental factors influencing the use of recreational facilities for physical activity by urban African-American adolescents. Design Qualitative in-depth interviews and direct observation. Setting Two public high schools and 24 public recreational facilities in Baltimore, Maryland. Participants Forty-eight African-America...

To examine African American adolescents' perceptions of environmental influences on physical activity and identify physical activity promotion strategies. Concept mapping with 50 adolescents was used to obtain cluster maps of conceptual domains affecting physical activity. Seven domains were identified, including physical activity settings, social...

Introduction: Fathers clubs have existed for over ten years in rural villages in southwest Haiti as part of the primary care program of the Haitian Health Foundation. Fathers meet regularly to learn about how to best care for their families. This research explores the activities of the fathers clubs to determine whether the participation of fathers...

Background: The evidence base is growing to support the impact of the built environment on physical activity. There is, however, limited research involving minority adolescents who have disproportionately low levels of physical activity. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine associations between park use by urban minority adolescen...

The objective of this study was to investigate whether maternal socio‐economic status during childhood and at the time of pregnancy each have unique associations with infant birthweight when biological determinants of birthweight are controlled. The data are from a three‐generation study which contains information on the mothers and grandmothers of...

Using data from Welfare, Children and Families: A 3-City Study, this study explores how change and stability in out-of-school care are associated with changes in problem behaviors among youth from Time 1 (i.e., at ages 10–11) to Time 2 (an average of 16 months later). Girls in at-home, family care or an organized activity at Time 1 and in informal,...

Much research has been done on demographic manifestations of son preference, particularly girls’ excess mortality; however, there is less research that focuses on son preference itself. This paper analyzes the determinants of son preference in rural India. We separate the independent, relative effects of characteristics of individual women and thei...

This paper is an assessment of the impact of child support enforcement and welfare policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood. We derive four hypotheses about the effects of policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood. We propose that teenage motherhood and school enrollment are joint decisions for teenage girls. Base...

While studies of the social networks of injection drug users (IDUs) have provided insight into how the structures of interpersonal relationships among IDUs affect HIV risk behaviors, the majority of these studies have been cross-sectional. The present study examined the dynamics of IDUs' social networks and HIV risk behaviors over time. Using data...

Nearly 300,000 paternity tests are performed in the United States annually to include or exclude a male as the biological father of a child. Little is known about how well the test outcomes could be predicted simply on the basis of the subjects' social background. Our objective is to document the demographic composition of test subjects and to dete...

The dynamics of labor force participation and joblessness during young adulthood influence access to social and material resources and shape exposure to different sources of psychosocial strain. Differences in these dynamics by race, ethnicity, and gender are related to changes in a behavioral determinant of poor health (tobacco use) for young adul...

Few studies have reported interactions between maternal smoking and other maternal characteristics and exposures. We examined maternal smoking in a cohort study for which data from 3 generations were available to examine maternal characteristics and exposures from a life-course perspective. We had data from 3 generations: women enrolled in the U.S....

To examine the association between patterns of out-of-school care over time and the initiation of sex among young adolescents living in low-income urban families. A prospective cohort study (using a 16-month follow-up) examining the predictive value of changes in out-of-school-care arrangements on early sex initiation. By using a multistage stratif...

Building on social ecological research, this study considers whether neighborhood socioeconomic advantage modifies the relationship between parenting practices and sex initiation among young adolescents. Using data on a national sample of 2,559 middle school students, the authors examined two-way interactions between neighborhood socioeconomic stat...

Variations in state welfare policies in the reform era may affect adolescents through two mechanisms: A competing labor market hypothesis posits that stringent state welfare policies may reduce adolescent employment; and a signaling hypothesis posits that stringent welfare policies may promote enrollment. To test these hypotheses, we use a dyn...

This study examined predictors of longevity in a cohort of inner-city African American women. Data were derived from a cohort study of inner-city African American mothers whose median age in 1966 was 31 years. Analyses involved single-decrement life tables and pooled logistic regression. Giving birth for the first time before age 25 and having at l...

This study hypothesizes that stringent state welfare policies may promote enrollment and reduce employment through four mechanisms taking place in the larger society, the local labor market and the family, particularly for adolescents from low-income families. We conduct a rigorous and robust analysis using a dynamic model and separating out the we...

This article reports on a study of the schooling careers of a recent cohort of African Americans that found that 44 percent of the women and 34 percent of the men reentered school at least once. There were few differences in educational credentials at age 27 between those who attained their education in one spell or two spells of enrollment, althou...

In this paper, we take a new approach to the question of whether or not intentions regarding future fertility affect fertility-related behavior. Our approach has three principal features: 1) it takes sterilization as its outcome, rather than pregnancy or birth; 2) it is based on a conceptual model in which fertility-related behavior is seen as dete...

This research examines the impact of teenage childbearing on secondary school completion, while focusing on the problem of causal ambiguity in the relationships among self-determined behaviours. Techniques for dealing with the teenage childbearing problem are discussed, and results from these methods are compared. Data from the High School and Beyo...

We examine the relationship between fertility intentions and fertility behavior using a sample of 2,812 non-Hispanic Whites interviewed twice by the National Survey of Families and Households. Time 1 fertility intentions are strong and persistent predictors of fertility, even after controlling for background and life course variables. The effect is...

The analytic models used by family demographers would be strengthened by the concept of social capital, placed in the context of social exchange theory. Using that concept to designate resources that emerge from social ties, the authors advance five propositions: 1) social capital is a multidimensional attribute of an individual; 2) the dimensions...

A 30-year follow-up of 1,758 inner-city children and their mothers in the Pathways to Adulthood Study revealed significant associations in transgenerational timing of age at 1st birth between mothers and their daughters and sons. Intergenerational age patterns were associated with the children's family and personal characteristics during childhood...

A 30-year follow-up of 1,758 inner-city children and their mothers in the Pathways to Adulthood Study revealed significant associations in transgenerational timing of age at 1st birth between mothers and their daughters and sons. Intergenerational age patterns were associated with the children’s family and personal characteristics during childhood...

We examine the utility of pooling data from the 1987 through 1994 Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance system (BRFSS) surveys in order to increase sample size, and we investigate the social and demographic correlates of smoking in Maryland among 18-24-year-olds. The data are from 1,714 subjects who were between 18 and 24 years of age and th...

Data from recent interviews with 1758 inner-city children, born between 1960 to 1965 and followed with their mothers in the Pathways to Adulthood Study to age 27 to 33 years, were used to address two related questions. 1) Is maternal age, across the reproductive age range, a determinant of child's adult outcome? and 2) Do covariates of maternal age...

Prevailing theories of fertility behavior do not explain what sustains fertility in industrialized countries. Extending James Coleman's concept of social capital, the authors argue that the social resource value of children is an important factor motivating child-bearing. Data for the United States from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and H...

Some inner-city infants grow to be successful, self-sufficient adults. This study is designed to identify characteristics from early childhood that foster or impede favorable outcomes and are useful for formulation of public policy. Population: 2694 children (G-2s), born 1960 through 1965, to 2307 inner-city women (G-1s) enrolled in the Johns Hopki...

This paper examines the hypothesis that high levels of residential mobility among nonintact families account for part of the well-known association between living in a nonintact family and dropping out of high school. Children from single-parent families and stepfamilies are more likely than children from two-parent families to move during the scho...

This short paper provides some guidelines to help researchers in child and adolescent development procure the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic information that will best determine how to assign youngsters to ethnic or SES groups. These guidelines are necessarily general. They will need to be adapted thoughtfully by each investigator because, as is g...

The topic of this article is the association between grandparental coresidence with adolescent women and early childbearing. The conceptual model is based on that used in social demographic studies of the effect of family structure on children and is expanded to include the presence of extended kin in the household. Grandparental coresidence is ass...

In this paper we evaluate whether family formation—getting married or bearing a child—has interfered with women's secondary school attainment in the United States during the mid-20th century. Examining a sample of 3,055 white and African American women, we find that women who formed a family while still enrolled in high school had an elevated risk...

The central question in this study is: Can the greater likelihood that adolescent mothers are also single mothers account for their relative disadvantage in household income during the 5 years following the birth? The major findings are that single motherhood accounts for a substantial portion of this disadvantage, but not for all of it. In particu...

A prospective study of 313 Black adolescents who were followed for 2 years after presenting for a pregnancy test at an inner-city clinic in Baltimore suggested the need for greater attention to the concept of ambivalence in analyses of adolescent pregnancy. 80% of respondents were 15-17 years of age, 62% were public assistance recipients, and 76% w...

Integrating ideas from child development with sociological models of educational attainment, we examine the relationship between family structure--whether both parents are present in the household--and children's achievement in high school. Using data from the High School and Beyond study, sophomore cohort, 1986, we ask whether differences in achie...

This article uses data from the Urban Poverty and Family Structure Survey of inner-city residents in Chicago to examine the effect of employment on the likelihood that single fathers marry. Our results show that employed fathers are twice as likely as nonemployed fathers to marry the mother of their first child. These results run contrary to Charle...

In 1979 survey among sexually active unmarried black adolescents from Chicago found that 28 percent of the young women and 18 percent of the young men used a contraceptive at first intercourse. Statistically significant differences in such contraceptive use among teenage women were found for three social and environmental characteristics: social cl...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1988. Microfilm.