Background on Teenage Pregnancy

The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world – that’s twice as high as in England or Canada. Almost half (48%) of high school teens say they have had sex—an increase of 2% between 2005 and 2007, according to data released in June by the CDC. During the same time period, the proportion of high school teens who say they used a condom the last time they had sex decreased 2%. Still, the teen pregnancy rate hasn’t changed much. As much as 750,000 teenage girls get pregnant every year.  The effects of teen motherhood follow the young parents and children throughout their lives.

Teen Mothers:

• Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school (only one in three receives a high school diploma) and only 1.5% has a college degree by age 30.
• Teen mothers are more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80% of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare).
• Additional births to teens that are already mothers are disturbingly common; nearly 25% of teen mothers have a second birth before turning twenty.

Young Families:

• Teen mothers are less likely to qualify for a well-paying job since few have a high school diploma.
• Two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor.
• Almost 1/2 of all teen mothers and over 3/4 of unmarried teen mothers began receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child.

Children of Teen Mothers:

• Babies of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and at low birth weight, which raises the probabilities of infant death, blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental retardation, mental illness, and cerebral palsy; it also doubles the chance that a child will later be diagnosed as having dyslexia, hyperactivity, or another disability.
• These children are also at greater risk of abuse and neglect.
• The sons of teen mothers are 13% more likely to end up in prison while teen daughters are 22% more likely to become teen mothers themselves.
• If the mother gives birth as an unmarried teen and did not end up receiving her high school diploma, there is a 64% chance that the child will grow up in poverty. A married high-school-graduate’s child has a chance of growing up in poverty of only 7%.

 Sources:

Stay Teen

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Women's Health Channel 

Family First Aid 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention