Teen Pregnancy and Parenting:

The Facts & Statistics

By: Shay Mavis

Created for: FCS 215, Spring 2006

Shay's Homepage

**This webpage is directed to teenagers (ages 13-19) who are contemplating pregnancy or have/had an unplanned pregnancy**

The Facts & Statistics:

Provided by: Planned Parenthood

Teenage Pregnancy Statistics in the United States

• Despite the declines in teen pregnancy rates each year, 34% of American teens still experience pregnancy
• About 34% of American women become pregnant before the age of 20
• In the year 2000: 840,000 U.S. teens became pregnant, and of those pregnancies, 56% resulted in birth, 28% resulted in abortion and 15% resulted in miscarriage
• Teenage girls with partners older in age are more likely to become pregnant that teenage girls with partners their own age
• About 74-95% of all teenage pregnancies are unintended; these account for a quarter of all accidental pregnancies in the U.S. each year

Teenage Pregnancy Statistics in the U.S. Compared to Other Countries

• The U.S. teenage birthrate is the highest in the developed world
  • 2.5 times as high as Australia
  • More than 2.5 times as high as Canada
  • More than 3 times as high as Germany
  • About 5 times as high as France
  • 7 times as high as Japan
  • 7.5 times as high as the Netherlands
• In 2003, 10% of all U.S. pregnancies were by teens
• 82% of births were to unmarried teens

Teenage Childbearing & Parenting

• In general, teenage mothers do not fare as well as their peers who wait to have children
  • Their family incomes are lower
  • They are more likely to become poor and receive welfare
  • They are less educated
  • They are less likely to be married
  • Their children lag in standards of early development

The Effects of Teenage Pregnancy on the Parents

• In 2002, only 10% of teenage mothers aged 15-17 had graduated from high school
• After giving birth it is estimated that only 33% of teenage mothers will eventually graduate from high school and only 1.5% will receive a college degree by age 30
• Although not as severe as the effects on teen mothers, early childbearing affects the fathers of children born of teen mothers as well. They are more likely to participate in deliquent behaviors such as drug dealing, drug using, alcohol abuse and are more likely to complete fewer years of education than their peers

The Effects of Teenage Pregnancy on the Children

• The effects of teen preganancy have the most effect on the children
• Children of teen pregnancies are more likely to not receive the proper prenatal care because of financial difficulties of the mother and/or the father, therefore are more likely to become hospitalized for poor nutrition, low birth weight, and other childhood health problems
• The offspring of teenage mothers are more likely to be poor, abused and neglected than those of women who delay childbearing, and they are also less likely to receive the proper nutrition, health care, coginitive and social stimulation
• Children born to teen mothers are also more likely to have greater risk of intellectual and academic achievement and social behavioral problems
• Children born to teen mothers are also more likely to be incarcarated, not finish high school, be unemployed and also are likely to become teen parents themselves

 

 

 

For More Information on Teen Pregnancy:

Teen Pregnancy: Organizations

Miranda Marshall's Homepage

Teresa Valdez's Homepage

 

 

This page was updated by Shay Mavis on April 4, 2006