Girls with low confidence in themselves and their educational future,
along with those whose parents have a low level of education, are among
the most likely to become pregnant in their teens, say Tamera Young, M.S.,
and colleagues at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Their research
appears in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
“Based on the results of this study, it seems clear that efforts
to reduce teen pregnancy must begin long before pregnancy becomes a risk
for girls,” Young says.
“Encouraging and supporting academic success among younger girls” and “helping
young people realize their own power in determining their future” could
make a dent in teen pregnancy rates, she adds.
To find out what factors could be used to predict teen pregnancies, the
researchers analyzed data from a nationwide sample of eighth-grade girls
who were surveyed again in 10th and 12th grades.
The girls were asked about their feelings of self-control,
future education and employment goals, their parents’ education
and occupational levels and whether their parents had high educational
expectations for
them, among
other questions.
As with previous studies, the researchers found that girls
who grew up in poverty were more likely to become pregnant during high
school, but
it was not “financial poverty, per se,” that was mostly closely
linked to the likelihood of pregnancy.
Factors like low levels of parent education and less expectations
for their daughter’s own education, which are often correlated with poverty, “make
the real difference,” Young says.
In the United States, 800,000 to 900,000 teens become pregnant each year.
In a 1999 survey, 6 percent of high school students said they had become
pregnant or had gotten someone else pregnant during their high school years.
