Facts for Families©series is developed and distributed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).

The National Campaign To Prevent Teenage Pregnancy

Teen Moms: The Pain and the Promise by Evelyn Lerman. The text represents two years of interviews with 50 teens who were either pregnant or had children.

Teenage Pregnancy

One of the major issues the United States faces today is teenage pregnancy. America may be in denial, but teen pregnancy is here in full effect. As the number increases every year, we are still trying to figure out a way to prevent teen pregnancy.

When children are having children, not only is the child at risk, but also the teenage mothers themselves are at risk for problems. Babies born in the U.S. to teenage mothers are at risk in major areas of life, including school, failure, poverty, and physical or mental illnesses.

As America tries to figure out the cause of increase in teenage pregnancy, we may be blind by the fact that it goes way deeper than unplanned parenthood.

• Some may want a baby for idealized and unrealistic ways.

• Some may view the creation of a child as an achievement and not recognize the serious long-term effect.

• Some may want a baby to have someone to love and for someone to love them in return.

• Some may feel depressed and may not know which direction to turn.

When children have children teenage mothers fail to realize that they are placing the baby at a high risk for neglect and abuse. Young mothers can be uncertain about their roles and may be confused and frustrated by the continuous and unexpected demands of caring for another human being. Teenage girls are most likely to drop out of high school to take care of their babies, and often don’t return. In this case, pregnant teens lose the opportunity to learn skills necessary for employment and self survival as adults.

Teen pregnancy rates

4 in 10 teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age 20, resulting in more than 900,000 teen pregnancies a year. At this level the United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the fully industrialized world.

Teen mothers are less likely to complete school and more likely to be single parents. Less than one-third of teens who begin their families before age 18 ever earn a high school diploma.

Young adolescents (especially those under age 15) experience a maternal death rate 2.5 times greater than that of mothers aged 20-24.

Common medical problems amongst teen mothers are poor weight gain, hypertension, anemia, sexual transmitted diseases, and depression .

The proportion of babies with low birth weights born to teens is 28 percent higher than the proportion for mothers age 20-24 .

Children born to teen mothers are at higher risk of poor parenting because their mothers and often their fathers as well are typically too young to master the demanding job of being a parent.

Children of teens are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade; they perform much worse on standardized tests; and ultimately they are less likely to complete high school than if their mothers had delayed childbearing .

Most teen mothers are unmarried, and many end up poor and on welfare. Each year the federal government alone spends about $40 billion to help families that began with a teenage birth.

Asisat did research on this topic.