Family Life and Living Arrangements - Teenage Pregnancy

Over the generations, a major change in American attitudes has removed much of the social stigma from unwed teenage motherhood. Unmarried women of all ages are having children openly and with a regularity that was unheard of just a few generations ago. Many women do not feel the need to marry when they become pregnant. In 2004, 35.7% of all births were to unmarried mothers. (See Figure 2.2.) However, while the proportion of all births to unmarried mothers has risen, since 1990 the birth rate to unmarried teenagers has decreased. For example, among fifteen- to nineteen-year-olds, the birth rate decreased from about sixty per one thousand women in 1990 to about forty-one births per one thousand women in 2004. (See Figure 2.3.)

Many possible reasons are offered for the high rates of teenage motherhood. Among them are lack of access to birth control, lack of education, and little hope for the future, including absence of educational goals. What is certain is that the health of the babies born to teenagers, and especially to teenagers of a racial or ethnic minority group, is often at risk. According to research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, African-American teenagers are twice as likely as white teenagers to deliver low-birth-weight babies and 1.5 times more likely to have premature babies. Both low-birth-weight and premature babies experience a number of serious health and developmental problems. In general, babies born to teenage mothers of all races suffer a higher risk of low birth weight, preterm delivery, and infant mortality when compared with babies born to older mothers.

FIGURE 2.2 Number of births, birth rate, and percentage of births to unmarried women, 1980–2004 B.E. Hamilton, S.J. Ventura, J.A. Martin, and P.D. Sutton, "Figure 2. Number of Births, Birth Rate, and Percentage of Births to Unmarried Women: United States, 1980–2004," in Preliminary Births for 2004, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, October 28, 2005, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelim_births/prelim_births04.htm (accessed December 27, 2005)

FIGURE 2.3 Birth rates for teenagers, 1990–2004 B.E. Hamilton, S.J. Ventura, J.A. Martin, and P.D. Sutton, "Figure 1. Birth Rates for Teenagers: United States, 1990–2004," in Preliminary Births for 2004, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, October 28, 2005, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hesats/prelim_births/prelim_birhs04.htm (accessed December 27, 2005)

The largest decline in teen birth rates between 1990 and 2004 was among non-Hispanic African-American teens; the birth rate for that group fell from 116.2 to 62.7 births per one thousand females. African-American teens had the highest birth rate in 1990 but had the second-highest birth rate in 2004. The birth rate for Hispanic females ages fifteen to nineteen fell from 100.3 to 82.6 births per one thousand females; these teens had the highest birth rate in 2004. (See Figure 2.4.) According to Brady E. Hamilton et al. in Preliminary Births for 2004 (October 28, 2005, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelim_births/prelim_births04.htm), in 2004 the birth rate for Native American teens ages fifteen to nineteen was 52.5 births per one thousand females, down from 84.1 births per one thousand females in 1991. Non-Hispanic white teens and Asian teens had the lowest birth rates in 2004. The birth rate of non-Hispanic white teens ages fifteen to nineteen was 26.8 per one thousand females in 2004, down from 43.4 per one thousand females in 1991; the birth rate of Asian-American teens ages fifteen to nineteen was 17.4 per thousand females, down from 27.3 per one thousand females in 1991. Hispanic teens had a birth rate more than four times higher than Asian-American teens. (See Table 2.4.)

FIGURE 2.4 Birth rates for females ages 15-19, by race and Hispanic origin, selected years, 1960–2004 "Figure 1. Birth Rates (per 1,000) for Females Ages 15 to 19 by Race and Hispanic Origin, Selected Years, 1960–2004," in Teen Births, Child Trends Data Bank, November 21, 2005, http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/pdf/13_PDF.pdf (accessed December 27, 2005)