a Childbirth
Teen Pregnancy Rates
Teen pregnancy rates matter as they show the effectiveness of a country's policy in the field of sexual education, motherhood and teen pregnancy prevention. Teen pregnancies are costly to the society, but even more so to the mother and baby, as they affect them not only financially, but also physically, emotionally and socially.
Teen pregnancy rates received considerable attention from social scientists. Virtually all research shows that teen pregnancies have bad consequences for the teen mother, the baby and the society. Teen mothers suffer physically as their bodies are still growing and yet need to share the valuable resources to grow with a new human being. Teen mothers have difficulties in finishing school and having a career, they often cannot have a stable family. Teen babies are often of low birth weight, preterm and at greater risks of long-term illnesses, developmentally slow, abused, living in poverty.
What are the facts? Each year about 9% of teens 15-19 year old, get pregnant. Among sexually active teens the percent is almost double -- 17%. Over 850,000 teens become pregnant each year. More than 90% of teen pregnancies are unwanted and half of all teens give birth and do not have an abortion. (Henshaw 2004).
Social data of teen pregnancy rates show that teen mothers are less likely to get employed. They have less advantages to advance in their career. They rarely earn high wages. They are more likely to be in poverty and receive welfare assistance. (Hoffman 2006).
Besides, drug and alcohol use are also linked to unwanted pregnancies in teens. (Urdy et al. 1996).
It is an interesting fact that teen age pregnancies often have an effect on the future generations. Research shows that daughters of teenage mothers or single parent families are prone to have teen pregnancies more than the daughters of older mothers or stable families. A teens likelihood of getting pregnant is related to the years of education of the mother of the teenager.(An et al. 1993).
Live experiences which cause excessive stress to teens such as sexual, psychological and physical abuse are also part of the reason for greater risks of teen pregnancies (Moore et al. 1995).
Image -- courtesy of Jessie Jacobson
References:An, C. -B., Haveman, R., & Wolfe, B. (1993). Teen out-of-wedlock births and welfare receipt: The role of
childhood events and economic circumstances. Review of Economics and Statistics, 75, 195–208.
Henshaw, S. K. (2004). US teenage pregnancy statistics with comparative statistics for women aged 20–24.
New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Hofferth, S. L. (1987). Factors affecting initiation of sexual intercourse. In S. L. Hofferth & C. D. Hayes
(Eds.), Risking the future: Adolescent sexuality, pregnancy and childbearing (pp. 7–35). Washington,
DC: National Academy Press.
Hoffman, S. D. (2006). By the numbers: The public costs of teen childbearing. Washington, DC: The
National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Moore, K. A., Morrison, D. R., & Glei, D. (1995b). Welfare and adolescent sex: The effects of family
history, benefit levels, and community context. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 16, 207–237.
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Urdy, J. R., Kovenock, J., & Morris, N. M. (1996). Early predictors of nonmarital first pregnancy and
abortion. Family Planning Perspectives, 28, 113–116.
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