Niveles subnacionales de la fecundidad adolescente en cuatro países de América Latina y el Caribe

In countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) the trends of adolescent fertility have shown a slow pace of decline compared to global fertility, and its level exceeds, in average, that of most other regions of the world. Since adolescent fertility is considerably affected by social determinants, it is likely to encounter a mixed performance of this component at the country level. Objective: Analyze the differences of adolescent fertility levels in four countries of LAC (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Dominican Republic). Method: This study presents a descriptive analysis of adolescent fertility. The indicators used were the age-specific fertility rate, the share of adolescent mothers, the average-parity, and the retrospective probability of being mother at adolescent ages. Data were derived from Demographic and Health Surveys nationally representative, from 2008. According to conventions, the selected measures were applied to early (15-17) and advanced (18-19) ages of adolescence. Results: In the four countries concerned, the results of adolescent fertility rates are far above the average global rate, irrespective of the subnational area examined. In all cases, there is a high variability at the country-level, consistently expressed through the different indicators applied. At the subnational level, the heterogeneity is higher within the group aged 15-17 than in the one aged 18-19. When comparing results between countries, a growing convergence emerges in the set of subnational areas with lower adolescent fertility levels.