Teenage pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy results from women under the age of 20 having sexual intercourse and becoming pregnant. Barring medical and physical concerns, problems of teenage pregnancy arise from individual, family, and social factors. These include but are not limited to culture, religion, moral values and beliefs, law, education, economic circumstances, lack of support structures (including access to care and other resources), and mental and emotional well-being. Data supporting teen pregnancy as a social problem in industrial nations include lower educational levels, higher rates of poverty, and other poorer "life outcomes" in children of teenage mothers.

Age and moral issues are often conflated in views of the problem of teenage pregnancy. Many believe that teenagers (and others) should not engage in sexual activity until marriage. Teenage pregnancy in industrial nations is usually outside of marriage, and it carries a social stigma in many communities and cultures for that reason. The rates of teenage pregnancy also vary widely within many countries. For example, in the UK, the 2002 teenage pregnancy rate was as high as 100.4 per thousand young women in the London Borough of Lambeth, and as low as 20.2 in the Midlands local authority area of Rutland.

It appears that such laws have a minimal effect on teenage pregnancies with one study citing a reduction of only 0.9%.

Sex and relationships education

Health educators have long argued that sex education (about contraception and safer sexual behaviours) would effectively reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. Countries that do use progressive sex education at a young age, such as the Netherlands, do have a much lower rate of teenage pregnancy than the United States and the United Kingdom. However, there are many confounding factors such as ethnicity, available social support systems and contraception, and so forth that make comparisons difficult. Proponents of progressive sex education hold that providing young people with sexual information allows them to make their own choices about whether or not to have sex, not to be rushed into having sex without realizing the consequences, and to be able to use contraception when they eventually do choose to have sex.

Abstinence

Many U.S. Christian religious groups and UK family values oriented groups advocate an abstinence approach, preferring and preaching a lifestyle of no sex before marriage. These groups (and others) push for the adoption of abstinence programs in school curriculums. Studies vary in showing the effectiveness of abstinence programs and all such studies are disputed because of the contentious level of debate.

A joined-up approach: England’s teenage pregnancy strategy

(Please note: this is a devolved issue, so the policy applies only to England and not to Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) In the UK, the Social Exclusion Unit, set up by the new Labour Party government after their election in 1997 to look at particularly difficult social problems, produced a report in 1999 which led to the creation of a dedicated England-wide teenage pregnancy strategy. The strategy has two targets: to halve the teenage conception rate by 2010, and to get 60% of teenage mothers into education, training or work by 2010. The teenage pregnancy strategy, run first from the Department of Health and now based in the Children, Young People and Families directorate in the Department for Education and Skills, works on several levels to reduce teenage pregnancy and increase the social inclusion of teenage mothers and their families:

• joined up action, making sure branches of government and health and education services work together effectively;
• a national campaign to make sure that young people can get information about sex and relationships through the ruthinking phoneline and website;
• prevention of teenage pregnancy through better sex and relationships education, improving contraceptive and advice services for young people, involving young people in service design, supporting the parents of teenagers to talk to them about sex and relationships, and targeting high-risk groups;
• better support for teenage mothers, including help to return to education, advice and support, work with young fathers, better childcare and increasing the availability of supported housing.

The teenage pregnancy strategy has had mixed success and some argue that it's been a dismal failure. The 2003 conception statistics show a reduction of 9.8% in England’s under-18 conception rate and of 9.9% in the under 16 conception rate since 1998. [1] However, although teenage pregnancies have fallen overall, they have not fallen consistently in every region, and in areas have increased. There are also questions about whether the 2010 target of a 50% reduction on 1998 levels can be met. Moves to increase the participation of teenage mothers in education, training or work have also met with mixed success. Schemes such as Care to Learn, which pays for childcare for teenage mothers in education, and Sure Start Plus, which provides every teenage mother in the pilot areas with a dedicated personal advisor, have been popular and have been successfully evaluated. However, just 29.7% of teenage parents were in education, training or work in 2002-04 compared with 23.1% in 1997-99, [2] which leaves a long way to go to meet the 2010 target of a 60% participation rate.

Becoming a teenage mother

Being a teenage mother can be difficult. Many face prejudice and stigma from their communities. In the UK, most teenage mothers live in poverty, and nearly half are in the bottom fifth of the income distribution. [3] 90% of teenage parent families live on state benefits [4], but teenage mothers are entitled to approximately £20 less per week than mothers over the age of 25. There is little evidence to support the common belief that teenage mothers become pregnant to get benefits and a council housing. Most knew little about housing or social security policy before they got pregnant and what they thought they knew often turned out to be wrong. [5]

Teenage abortion

Although there has been much press interest in the issue of teenage abortion in the UK, the rates of teenage abortion are relatively low. In 2004, the under-16 abortion rate was 3.7 per 1000 young women, and the under-18 rate was 17.8. [6]

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 30% of teenage pregnancies in the United States result in abortions.

See also

• age of consent
• single mother
• single father
• sex education
• birth rate
• virginity pledges

External links

• Planned Parenthood on Reducing Teenage Pregnancy
• Alan Guttmacher Institute statistics: Teen Sex and Pregnancy
• YWCA England & Wales’ "RESPECT young mums" campaign
• UK Government Teenage Pregnancy Unit
• Teen Pregnancy Articles and Prevention +
• I Want it NOW! - Why becoming a parent should never be rushed. Article by noted sex activist and educator Heather Corinna