Teen Pregnancy

Each year in the U.S. almost one million teenagers become pregnant--at huge costs to themselves, their children, and society. While the facts are clear, the issues of teenage pregnancy are complicated by our conflicting attitudes and behaviors. Talk of sex fills the hallways at school; younger and younger girls are portrayed as sex objects; and sex is used to sell everything from clothing to news. Yet we are shocked at the rising numbers of teens who are sexually active. If we are truly concerned about the well-being of babies, children and adolescents, we must move beyond the moral panic and denial that so often distort the discussion. Designing effective solutions will require the thoughtful separation of fact, assumption and wishful thinking and an honest acknowledgment that much is still not fully understood about the causes of teenage pregnancy.

The burdens of early childbearing on disadvantaged teens are undeniable. Trying to untangle the factors which contribute to teenage pregnancy from its effects, however, leads to a "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" dilemma. Educational failure, poverty, unemployment and low self-esteem are understood to be negative outcomes of early childbearing. These circumstances also contribute to the likelihood of teen pregnancy. For example, recent studies suggest that most adolescent mothers have already dropped out of school before they become pregnant. On the other hand, adolescents still enrolled in school when they give birth are as likely to graduate as their peers. It is not clear how well the adolescents with the most problems would have fared in the future even without early parenthood.

It may surprise some to learn that the teen birth rate was 50% higher in 1957 than it is now. Today's widespread concern over teenage pregnancy may have less to do with actual numbers and more to do with the growing percentage of teen mothers who are unmarried. Teens who have babies outside of marriage fit within a broader nationwide trend--unmarried women of all ages are having babies in increasing numbers. Births to single teens actually account for a smaller percentage of all non-marital births than twenty years ago.

While the sexual experiences of teens are very different, the fact remains that most will become sexually active during their adolescent years, and many will become pregnant or father a child. Consequently, the goals for programs addressing teenage pregnancy must

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