Reducing the Number of Teen Pregnancies

No discussion of the problems of young adulthood can be complete without considering teen parenthood. More than one million teenage girls become pregnant each year in the United States, and nearly 470,000 give birth. Teenage pregnancy rates in the United States are significantly higher than in most other industrial countries. It is particularly disturbing that U.S. girls under age fifteen are five times more likely to give birth than young adolescents in any other developed country for which data are available.

Generally speaking, the fact that mothers are teenagers tends to dampen the life prospects of both the mothers and their children. There is evidence that, compared with those who have their children later, early childbearers are much more likely to experience economic hardship and family disruption in later life, to drop out of school, and to fail to find stable and remunerative employment. An increasing proportion of teenage mothers are becoming welfare recipients under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (afdc) program. Moreover, these unmarried young mothers and their children make up the bulk of those who stay on the welfare rolls for extended periods. In 1985 welfare, Medicaid, and Food Stamp costs for families begun by births to teenagers were $16.65 billion.

Although early motherhood clearly affects chances for the socioeconomic success of young women, it by no means dictates the results. A recent study by sociologist Frank Furstenberg tracked teenage mothers for seventeen years in Baltimore, revealing that the best word to describe the subsequent life patterns of teenage mothers is "diverse." These women follow several different paths to recovery from the initial setback to economic self-sufficiency that results from early motherhood. About half eventually make it into the middle class as adults.

Furstenberg's study also found that informal support networks, parental support, and role models were very important elements in teenage mothers' achieving economic independence. Other factors that work in a mother's favor are strong motivation and self-image and staying in or returning to school. Indeed, decisions to complete high school and to postpone additional births are crucial. According to Furstenberg's study, programs such as that of Baltimore's Poe Alternative School and Sinai Hospital, which offer comprehensive medical and social services to improve prenatal and neonatal care, are successful in changing behavior (e.g., using contraception) in ways that increase the mothers' likelihood of staying in school and postponing further pregnancies.

For many young women in the United States, the delivery of a first child leads to their first contact with the social welfare system. If that system provides immediate