Letters to the Editor
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How the other half lives?
I've heard/read about teen girls wanting children, and it, like so much else, is just mind-boggling. Isn't it illogical to have a child because you don't see much of a future for yourself? Isn't that backwards?
RedSkyAtNight, are you a fan of The Fixx, or is that just a nautical reference?
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Baby Daddy = Soldier?
I wonder how much the jump of birthrate in the 18-19 year olds has to do with the men enlisting in the military immediately after high school graduation. With the definite possibility of being sent to war, the young military couples settle down into family mode much earlier than non-military couples.
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A different generation!
A lot of the letter on this thread put a lot emphasis on restrict of access to condoms and abortion for the recent rise teen mothers. I have no doubt that there has been a tightening on access to condoms and abortion in the past 7 years, but not enough to explain the rise in teenaged mothers.
I think a lot of you are hitting the more logical reasoning as to why there is an increase in teenaged mothers when you point out the difference in the 80s and 90s with today. But a lot of you are not looking at the difference in culture. One other trend is that more children are growing up in single child or two child homes, and being raised by 4 parents (2 biological, and 2 step). The over expanse of parental over sight coupled with the large amount of space and lack of competition in the home that these girls of today have, I believe is causing them to be less afraid to bring home a bundle of joy to their 40 something year old parents. And, of course, 40 something year old parents are considerably less inclined to kick their only daughter out of the house because she got pregnant.
The fear factor of teenage pregnancy simply isn't as acute as it used to be.
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To Anonymous
"With the definite possibility of being sent to war, the young military couples settle down into family mode much earlier than non-military couples."
I do see a lot of that.
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@Badreligion
Q: "Isn't it illogical to have a child because you don't see much of a future for yourself? "
A: No more so than someone buying $20 of lottery tickets because they can't make ends meet.
Are you kidding me? You think teenagers are logical creatures? Especially teenagers with a dim view of their place in the world?
In some social circles, having a baby gives status. It makes a girl a woman, in the eyes of her peers. And she can get money! From the government! For "nothing!" And so many people around her are/were in the same boat and are doing "just fine." Besides, there's no money for college or trade school, and everyone's always telling her she is too stupid/lazy/boy lazy to amount to much anyway. A baby will Show. Them. All. And best of all, that baby will lover her unconditionally. Forever.
How can "logic" compete with all of that?
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Maybe Abstinance works for the younger set, not the older
The pregnancy rate for young teens and pre-teens has dropped. Maybe the abstinance only message works for them. Because these kids are generally too young to have long-term or meaningful relationships. If you hold off having sex for the first two weeks you date a boy, maybe you never have sex.
The same is not true for 15 and up. It's perfectly possible the abstinance only reduces the pregnancy rate of the under 15s and increases it (due to fewer condoms in pockets) in the 15 and ups. That would really policy choices tough.
And, BTW, since abortion is available and generally not something a woman (or girl) brags about, you'd assume visibly pregnant girls are likely to be happy to be having their babies. They've made a choice. The ones who didn't want to be pregnant are more likely to have gotten an abortion and not told anyone. And if you saw them in a parade, unless she wore a tee-shirt 'I just aborted my baby,' you'd never know. Which is to say that casual observation and anecdotal evidence is pretty useless.
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teen pregnancy and blocked opportunities
It's not too difficult too understand why poor teen girls who see their life chances as limited would want to become pregnant. Agreeing (partly) with Juliebird, for poor teen girls in inner-city neighborhoods, having a baby is a way to attain status and regard as an "adult".
But this is because nearly every other avenue to adulthood and status are blocked for poor inner-city teens. They receive substandard educations in inner-city schools which leave them ill-prepared for adult employment. In addition, the job opportunities available in inner-city neighborhoods are few, far between, and generally very low paying and insecure. Moreover, many inner-city youths are isolated from the social networks that can connect them to decent paying jobs outside of the inner-city. Finally, the chances for inner-city youths to attend college are very low and the K-12 education they receive leaves them badly prepared for success in college. Add to this, poor (particularly minority) inner-city teens as a group are widely ridiculed and held in contempt by the mainstream society, meaning that in their everyday life these youths are shown just how little staus they have in society.
These kids know all of this. They're not blind. They know their chances for higher education, a decent paying job, or a respectable, "adult" life are very slim. For teen girls, the one way they can attain status and "adulthood" is through having a child. When all other avenues are blocked, it is not illogical that teen girls would focus on this one way. We should also recognize that the same issues of blocked life opportunities also apply to poor, white teens who live in rural areas. It is not surprising therefore, that this demographic also has a high rate of teen pregnancy.
On a side note, I find it sadly ironic that after nearly fifteen years in which black teenagers had the fastest decreases in teen births (and for which there was absolutely no mainstream press coverage), now that the teen birthrate has increased, we are likely to find a whole slew of articles about the problems of black teenage pregnancy.