Teen Pregnancy has Risks? Say it Ain't So!

[Patsy]

I don't think the ads are directed towards teens who are already parents.

Agreed, but they are going to see them. I think it's very difficult to tread that line between acknowledging and emphasising that teen parenting is hard, and encouraging those who are already teen parents. Because "ra, ra! You can do it!" is NOT an appropriate encouragement to be giving to someone considering teen parenthood (because yes, some actually choose it) or reassurance that it wouldn't be so bad if it happened (to those who may actually realise they're at risk). But "teen parenthood is SOOOO hard and chances are your kid will be really disadvantaged" isn't a helpful thing to say to a teen parent.

[miffy]

I think this is a fairly good theory on legalised abortion/teens not getting pregnant.

[Rosa]

Teen pregnancy rates are usually reported for ages 15-19, so it includes legal adults. It was certainly not rare in the '90s in small towns and rural areas for 18 and 19 year olds to parent pretty intentionally. In the past it was much less rare - that's why the teen birth rate has been going down since the '50s, when early marriage was both idealized and economically possible.

Like I said earlier, teens aren't stupid. Just like 20+ year olds, in a recession their birth rate goes down - you can't support a baby without a job. And sociologically, the chances of making it out of poverty are equal for sisters where one has a baby early and one doesn't. Given that, the fact that poorer women have their babies earlier makes a lot of sense.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Not a big fan of the ads, esp. the first one.

You know what works? Kids having the realistic ambition to do something else, and not wanting early childbearing to ruin those chances.

I went to a large (2,500 students) public high school. In my 4 years there, I know of ONE student who had a baby. That's it. Plenty were having sex, but they were scared that having a baby in high school would "ruin their lives", because it wasn't compatible with becoming a doctor or lawyer. In other areas of my city, it wasn't uncommon for some to have 2 or 3 children in their teens. Part of me was appalled, but these young women didn't see it making their lives any worse. In some extreme cases, it actually improved their lives - one homeless teen got a spot in a good maternity home, another who was on drugs got clean.

[Jinger Jar]

I have to ask: is this happening in the US? This is fascinating--I've never heard of an American subculture that currently encourages marriage and parenthood by 17 or 18. Some subcultures do not appear to discourage teen parenthood, but teen marriage isn't explicitly encouraged or prevalent in those groups. Even the superconservative dominionists we talk about usually don't get married until they're in their 20s.

Yes, this is happening in the United States. First working with teens from this community was a culture shock. Here I was teaching in a high school, and I was reading essays from girls - 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds - talking about their husbands and kids. Or a student would be absent for a week or two, and when he returned he'd tell me he and his family had gone to another state, he'd gotten married, and they'd brought his wife to his home.

[Jinger Jar]

That is a very interesting point that I would have never thought about. Do they cared about the children they fathered or pay any child support?

I don't know how the child support thing works, and it's one of those things that I hesitate to ask about because it's none of my business. I do know that legally non-custodial minor parents are on the hook for child support, and if they cannot pay their parents pay until the minor parent turns 18. Now, if these parents and grandparent actually have support orders on file with the court I do not know. But I do more than one teen father who has custody of his child, and his mother or grandmother does child care duty while he's at school.