Adolescent pregnancy

Alternative names:

pregnancy - teenage; teenage pregnancy

Definition:

Pregnancy occurring in young women 19 years old or younger.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

The issues related to teenage pregnancy are politically controversial, emotionally charged, and numerous. Many factors must be examined in addition to the obvious cause, which is that adolescents are having sexual intercourse without adequate contraception. Since no form of contraception is 100% effective, abstinence is the only sure way to prevent pregnancy.

Statistics show that 18% of U.S. teenagers have experienced sex prior to the age of 15. That figure grows to 66% of unmarried teens having sex by the age of 19 years. Studies have shown that by the age of 20 years, 75% of American females and 86% of American males are sexually active. Why teenagers have sex, and do so without effective methods of contraception, is a topic of heated debate. Suggested reasons follow.

Adolescents become fertile approximately 4 to 5 years before they reach emotional maturity.

Adolescents today are growing up in a culture where peers, TV and motion pictures, music, and magazines often transmit either covert or overt messages that unmarried sexual relationships (specifically those involving teenagers) are common, accepted, and at times expected, behaviors.

Education about responsible sexual behavior and specific, clear information about the consequences of sexual intercourse (including pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and psycho-social effects) is frequently not offered in the home, at school, or in other community settings. Therefore, much of the "sex education" that adolescents receive filters through misinformed or uninformed peers.

Adolescents who choose to be sexually active are frequently limited in their contraceptive options by peer, parental, financial, cultural, and political influences as well as their own developmental constraints (that is, achieving physical before emotional maturity).

The incidence of adolescent pregnancy is growing. The percentage of births to unmarried teens in the U.S. increased 74.4% from 1975 to 1989. There were 521,826 live births to adolescent mothers in 1990, representing 12.5% of all births in the U.S. for that year. Of those teen mothers, 19.4% had already given birth once and 4.0% had given birth twice before. When compared to other industrialized nations, the United States has the highest rates of pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth among teenagers, despite similar or higher rates of sexual activity in the other countries. It is estimated in the U.S. that by the age of 20 years, 40% of white women and 64% of black women will have experienced at least 1 pregnancy.

Potential risk factors for teenage girls to become pregnant include: early dating behaviors (dating at age 12 is associated with a 91% chance of being sexually involved before age 19, and dating at age 13 is associated with 56% sexual involvement during adolescence); early use of alcohol and/or other drugs, including tobacco products; dropping out of school; lack of a support group or few friends; lack of involvement in school, family, or community activities; perceiving little or no opportunities for success; living in communities or attending schools where early childbearing is common and viewed as the norm rather than as a cause for concern; growing up under impoverished conditions; having been victims of sexual abuse or assault; or having mothers who were 19 years or younger when they first gave birth.