# Declining Teen Fertility and Increasing Population Heterogeneity within the Latino/Hispanic Population Supplement

> **NIH NIH R03** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $78,459

## Abstract

Project Summary
The proposed study focuses on adolescent childbearing among the U.S. Hispanic/Latina
(hereafter: Hispanic) population. Declines in teen fertility in the U.S have been widespread and,
in recent years, have been particularly large among Hispanic/Latina adolescents. Given their
disproportionate share of teen births (over one-third of all teen births in 2017 were to Hispanic
teens), the drop in the Hispanic birth rate accounts for a substantial portion of the recent decline
in the national teen birth rate. Beyond birth data reports, however, there has been no formal
demographic accounting of these unprecedented declines that considers the vast heterogeneity
and significant changes in the Hispanic population. This kind of rich description is an essential,
albeit frequently bypassed, step in the broader tasks of identifying the causes (both proximate
and distal) of the impressive declines in Hispanic teen fertility. We leverage nearly 30 years of
Natality data (1991-2018) to first determine if declines in Hispanic teen birth rates have been
widespread or exclusive to particular sub-groups (cross-classified by different combinations of
region-of-origin, nativity, geographic location in the U.S., age, and marital status). Second, we
employ decomposition analysis to adjudicate between different explanations (i.e. compositional
shifts vs. unobserved behavioral changes) behind any documented declines. Third, via the
proposed administrative supplement, we propose to extend the time frame of our analysis to
cover the pre and post COVID-19 eras. The alarmingly disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on
the Hispanic population motivates our focus on determining how the COVID-19 pandemic has
altered adolescent and early fertility among Hispanic Americans. Together, our approach will
reveal patterns that are essential to a more comprehensive understanding of Hispanic teen
fertility, including how it has (or has not) changed and the reasons for any observed changes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10378373
- **Project number:** 3R03HD102740-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** REANNE FRANK
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $78,459
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-08-10 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10378373

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10378373, Declining Teen Fertility and Increasing Population Heterogeneity within the Latino/Hispanic Population Supplement (3R03HD102740-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10378373. Licensed CC0.

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