Religion and fertility: understanding adolescent pregnancy and religion in São Paulo

José Vilton Costa, Núcleo de Estudos de População (NEPO) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Leonardo Freire de Mello, Núcleo de Estudos de População - Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Ricardo Ojima, Núcleo de Estudos de População - (NEPO) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas

The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the adolescence pregnancy issue that is currently becoming more important and significant in Brazil. Our approach is based on a spatial analysis of the demographic phenomenon, mapping its distribution all over São Paulo State’s administrative microregions and trying to identify possible linkages between this spatial distribution and another not less relevant social phenomenon, the weakening of catholic religion’s hegemony that is taking place in Brazil since the 1970’s. This process is being accompanied by the increase of the number of members of other religions, particularly the neo-evangelic ones. We assume that the family’s declared religion and the sexual and reproductive behavior of the adolescents are connected. Our main research focus is the 15 to 19 years old age group’s girls, distributed according to the family’s hegemonic declared religion, using the Brazilian censuses available data.