Why Do Hispanic Women Have more Positive Feelings around Unintended Pregnancies?

Caroline Sten, University of Pennsylvania

Hispanic women in the U.S. are much more likely to be happy about a pregnancy they did not intend, compared to White and Black women. OLS and logistic regression are used to evaluate the relative impacts of immigrant status, partner intentions, religiosity, and labor force participation on pregnancy happiness. Immigrant status appears to play an important role in explaining the racial-ethnic difference, as Hispanic immigrants are much more likely than US-born Hispanic women to be happy about a mistimed pregnancy. Discordant partner intentions, which affect Hispanic women more than others, do not have a statistically significant effect on happiness, but do operate in the expected direction. Religiosity and labor force participation do not seem to play a role in explaining the difference between Hispanic women and their White and Black counterparts. Important cultural differences remain after accounting for a range of factors.