Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting

Findings From A Racially Diverse Sample

Patricia L. East, Marianne E. Felice

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317843979
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Written by a pediatrician/adolescent medicine specialist and a developmental psychologist, this book is a collection of informative, nonredundant yet comprehensive studies on adolescent pregnancy and parenting. More than 200 adolescent women in an ethnically diverse sample were studied prenatally and at regular 6-month intervals for 3½ years postpartum. Most of the teens were poor, unmarried, first-time mothers who resided within Southeast San Diego, a poor urban area approximately 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The purpose of this book was to offer researchers, practitioners, program directors, teachers, and graduate and medical students a better understanding of teenage pregnancy and parenthood within the following domains:
* adolescent prenatal care and postpartum maternal and infant health outcomes,
* immediate repeat pregnancy,
* adolescent mothers' parenting,
* the role of the adolescent's mother in teenage mothers' parenting, and
* the baby's father.

Chapter 1

Introduction and Background

Adolescent childbearing has emerged as one of the most significant social problems facing the United States today. The latest estimates show that approximately 1 million teens become pregnant each year (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b; Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 1993; Henshaw, 1993; Moore, 1993; National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS], 1993). Among these million teens, approximately half will give birth, slightly over one third will opt for abortions, and the remainder (14%) will have miscarriages or stillbirths. Despite being an advanced and relatively affluent country, teens in the United States have higher rates of pregnancy and childbearing than any other industrialized nation including those with comparable levels of sexual activity (Henshaw, Kenney, Somberg, & Van Vort, 1989; Jones et al., 1985). This disturbing trend is even more apparent among younger adolescents: Girls 15 and younger are five times more likely to give birth in the United States than in other Western nations (Moore, Wenk, Hofferth, & Hayes, 1987).

In response to the alarming rates of teenage pregnancy and childbearing, the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFL) was federally legislated in 1981. The AFL had at its core the purpose of alleviating the negative consequences of pregnancy and childbearing for the adolescent parent and her offspring (Mecklenburg & Thompson, 1983). A secondary goal of the act was to increase our knowledge about the educational, psychosocial, and economic consequences of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing for the adolescent mothers, their children, and their families. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Teen Obstetric (OB) Follow-Up Study began in 1987 as a grant-funded AFL demonstration program. The original goal of the Teen OB Follow-Up Study was to research factors related to adolescent prenatal care and maternal and infant health outcomes, and factors associated with short-interval repeat pregnancy among teenage mothers. This goal was later broadened to include researching issues related to the qualities of adolescent mothers’ parenting and the role of the infants father in the postpartum period. Analysis of these issues form the core of this book.

A secondary aim of the Teen OB Follow-Up Study was to address these issues while highlighting potential differences and similarities for adolescents of different racial and cultural backgrounds. The current sample includes, in particular, a large percentage of Hispanic adolescents—most of whom recently immigrated from Mexico—thus providing much needed data on the medical and psychosocial sequelae of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing for this ethnic population. Evidence indicates that Hispanic adolescent mothers have different medical and psychosocial problems than do White or Black teens (Felice, Shragg, James, & Hollingsworth, 1986, 1987), and that their recent immigrant status—common among many California Hispanics—makes them particularly vulnerable to receiving inadequate prenatal care and, consequently, to experiencing poor infant and maternal health outcomes. This is particularly significant given that, in California, Hispanic teenagers have a higher birthrate than do White and Black teenage women: In 1990, the birthrate for Hispanic 15- to 19-year-olds was 112.3 per 1,000 women, the birthrate of comparably aged Black teens was 101.0 per 1,000 women, and the birthrate of comparably aged White teens was 73.9 per 1,000 women (CDC, 1993). Moreover, in recent years, Hispanics have increased at a fivefold rate faster than the rest of the U.S. population (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1988), totaling 20.1 million in 1985, or 8.2% of the U.S. population. Although the influx of Hispanics is concentrated mostly in California, which is 34% Hispanic, Texas (21%), Florida (12%), and New York (10%) also have sizeable percentages of Hispanic residents (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1988). Thus, throughout this book we try to describe in particular the pregnancy and parenting experiences of our Hispanic adolescent subjects, most of whom recently—and oftentimes illegally—immigrated to the United States.

Before describing the methods and sample of the study, an update is provided on recent trends in adolescent pregnancy and childbearing within the United States, within the state of California, and within the city of San Diego.

TRENDS IN ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY AND CHILDBEARING

The United States

As stated previously, 1 million teenage women become pregnant in the United States every year, the vast majority unintentionally. Although the rate of teenage pregnancy has increased dramatically among all teens since the early 1970s, among sexually active adolescents, pregnancy rates have actually decreased 19% over the last two decades (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b). This decline in pregnancy among sexually active teens is due in large part to better use of contraceptives. Recent estimates show that approximately 12% of all teenage girls (aged 15–19) become pregnant each year, whereas 21% of those who have had sexual intercourse (aged 15–19) become pregnant annually (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b).

Regarding births resulting from teenage pregnancies, the percentage of teenage women who gave birth rose almost 19% from 1988 to 1990 (the last year for which statistics are currently available; Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b). The abortion rate among teens has remained fairly stable since the late 1970s, with approximately 43 teens per 1,000 opting for abortion. However, over that same time period, abortion rates have declined steadily among sexually experienced adolescent women, both because a lower proportion of teenagers became pregnant and because a lower proportion of pregnant teenagers choose to have an abortion (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b; Henshaw, 1993; NCHS, 1993).

Racial differences exist in both the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy and adolescent childbearing (East & Felice, 1994; Henshaw et al., 1989; Hollingsworth & Felice, 1986; Moore, Simms, & Betsey, 1986). For example, Black teenagers have historically had a higher pregnancy rate than their Hispanic and White peers: 19% of all Black women aged 15 to 19 become pregnant each year, compared to 13% of Hispanics and 8% of Whites (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b; NCHS, 1993). The higher pregnancy rate among Blacks is due to higher rates of sexually experienced individuals and because Blacks are considerably less likely than Whites and Hispanics to use a contraceptive or to use it effectively (NCHS, 1993). Every year, 32% of sexually experienced Black teenage women, compared with 26% of Hispanics and 15% of Whites, become pregnant (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b). Similar to the pregnancy rate, the birthrate among Black adolescents in 1990 was almost four times that of White adolescents: 252 Black teens gave birth per 1,000 women versus 96 White teens per 1,000 women (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b; NCHS, 1993). The birthrate of Hispanics fell in between, with 215 Hispanic teens per 1,000 giving birth (see Fig. 1.1).

What is particularly striking, however, is that since the mid-1980s, the birthrates for Latino and Black teenagers (aged 15–19) have increased at a significantly faster rate than that for teens overall (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994b). As shown in Ta...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Research Monographs in Adolescence
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction and Background
• 2 Prenatal Care and Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes
• 3 Short-Interval Repeat Pregnancy
• 4 Qualities of Adolescent Mothers’ Parenting
• 5 The Role of Grandmothers in Adolescent Mothers’ Parenting and Children’s Outcomes
• 6 The Partners of Adolescent Mothers
• 7 Summary and Conclusions
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index