In European American families, parental separation during childrearing years confers unique risk for early-onset sexual intercourse apart from parental alcoholism, findings supported in both survival and propensity score analyses. While European American children of separated parents appear to be at high risk, and thus a potential focus of targeted pregnancy prevention, we know little regarding effects, if any, of parental separation on African American children. Only with better methods, where matching on unmeasured confounds is successful, can we trust results of regression-based analyses comparing intact and separated African American families, and only then can such findings inform culturally-appropriate prevention.
