Teen Sexuality and Pregnancy - Adolescent And Nonadolescent Fathers

Adolescent fathers were more likely than their childless peers to perform poorly in school, to drop out, to have few financial resources, and to have poor employment prospects. They were more likely than teen mothers to have more than one child and less likely to have an ongoing relationship with the mother of the first child.

In 2002 fifteen- to nineteen-year-old males had a birth rate of 17.4 per one thousand males in the age group, down from a high of 24.7 in 1991. This rate was substantially lower than the rate for teenage girls of 43 per one thousand. The rate was higher for African-American teens (33.3) than for white teens (14.8). The data suggest that many teen mothers had older partners (National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 52, no. 10, December 17, 2003). In "Adolescent Pregnancy—Current Trends and Issues: 1998" (Pediatrics, 1999), the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence reported that nearly two-thirds of teen mothers had partners older than twenty. In its publication 2003 Facts at a Glance, the organization Child Trends reported that 38% of births to mothers age eighteen and younger were to fathers four or more years older than the mother. In some cases teen mothers have been sexually abused by their older partners.

Such studies have alerted officials who design programs for the prevention of pregnancy and STDs to the need to pay attention not only to preadolescent and adolescent males, but also to older males who are partners of teenage girls. Because these men are typically out of the public school system, officials agree that programs must be broader in scope.