The Dilemma

Marriage is no longer the option chosen by most teens with an unplanned pregnancy. In the early 1960’s almost 70% of pregnant Caucasians ages 15-19 married compared to 19% in the early 1990’s. For African American girls the rate fell from 36% to less than 7%.

Teen parenting statistics show that teen parenting is still a rising occurrence in today’s society despite widely available sex education and numerous birth control methods. Federal health experts say they don't know why the teen pregnancy numbers went up from 2005 to 2006, and that not enough data have been collected to say whether it's a trend. Along the same lines, 1/3 of girls in the United States got pregnant before age 20, and more than 435,000 babies were born to teens between 15 and 19 years in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2005, the number of births for girls aged 15 to 17 was about 133,000, or 21 for every 1,000 girls. That number rose to nearly 139,000, or 22 for every 1,000 girls, in 2006.

Teen parenting statistics indicate that teenage parents and their child are both at a disadvantage in terms of health, education, and finances.

Early parenthood and its effect on the education, employment, and economic dependence of the upcoming generation of adult citizens in the US is a national concern. In terms of education, teen parenting statistics show that while it has become socially accepted for teenage mothers to stay in school, unfortunately, an alarming 80 percent of them either choose or feel the need to drop out and only 50% of teenage parents who had their first child during the early teenage years will finish high school before they reach thirty. The outlook for these teen parents who have educational deficiencies, episodic work histories and other barriers to employment is not good. This special population of young adults need increased help in all areas of career preparation—academic and vocational education, employability and life skills development—if they are to overcome the difficulties that hinder their successful transition to adulthood.

The demographic characteristics of teen parents reveal a majority who are in the 18-21 year range, live in poverty, have dropped out of school, and are unemployed and unmarried. Although some teens resume their education after they become parents, their potential for high school graduation is often dependent on their support network and life course adaptation.

Teen moms face higher health risks than mothers at an older age. Majority of the risks result from the fact that most teen moms lack prenatal care and not because of immature physical development. According to teenage parenting statistics, about forty percent of teen moms did not receive quality or adequate care during pregnancy, resulting in their children born with poor health. The result of this situation is that the child or children of these teenage parents generally exhibit lower cognitive development compared to their peers. These children have the tendency to become underachievers academically and are more likely to become school drop outs, too. Teen parenting statistics also point out that these kids start to engage in sex earlier than most of their peers and have a higher tendency to repeat their parent’s past and become teenage parents also.

Economically, teen moms who are not able to achieve a high school diploma or finish a GED program generally will experience more difficulty in finding a secure and well-paying job. This is evident in teen parenting statistics showing women who had children after the age of 20 earn twice as much as women who were teen moms. In addition, ten percent of teen moms are not receiving child support from the child’s father and forty percent rely on various government assistance programs such as food stamps in order to get by.