Teen Birth Rate Rises for First Time in 15 Years

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Perhaps in their communities, single parenthood is seen as "okay."

This is very true. In some communities, every girl on the block has a kid (sometimes 2) that they had before before age 19. If you're a young girl growing up in that community, you don't think anything of it. It's normal.

Same with poverty. If you've lived on this block all your life, where every girl is a HS drop out with a baby and on public assistance, you don't look at them as people in poverty because this is what you perceive as normal.

[AGDee]

There is nothing that says that these teens are single parents. I would be interested to see statistics on how many of them are married. In Mississippi, female teens can get married at 15 with parental consent. That's shockingly low to me. These statistics also include 18 and 19 year olds. I would really want to see it more detailed by specific age and marital status.

[madmax]

Originally Posted by AGDee

There is nothing that says that these teens are single parents. I would be interested to see statistics on how many of them are married. In Mississippi, female teens can get married at 15 with parental consent. That's shockingly low to me. These statistics also include 18 and 19 year olds. I would really want to see it more detailed by specific age and marital status.

Do you know many married teenagers?

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by madmax

Do you know many married teenagers?

Almost everybody in my high school class who didn't go to college got married within a year or two of graduation and had a few kids by the time of our 5 year reunion, so yes, there are married teenagers out there.

I hunted down some statistics, although it was difficult to find. The best I can do is 2000 census data:
There were 891,000 married 15- to 19-year-olds in 2000, up from 598,000 in 1990, when married teens comprised 3.4 percent of all 15- to 19-year-olds. The increase came after a steady decline since 1950, when 9.5 percent of teens were married.
From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...in528755.shtml

I couldn't find any that broke it down by state though.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Almost everybody in my high school class who didn't go to college got married within a year or two of graduation and had a few kids by the time of our 5 year reunion, so yes, there are married teenagers out there.

I hunted down some statistics, although it was difficult to find. The best I can do is 2000 census data:
There were 891,000 married 15- to 19-year-olds in 2000, up from 598,000 in 1990, when married teens comprised 3.4 percent of all 15- to 19-year-olds. The increase came after a steady decline since 1950, when 9.5 percent of teens were married.
From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...in528755.shtml

I couldn't find any that broke it down by state though.

So it's rare?

[DSTRen13]

All this really shows is that teens are more likely to give birth - it doesn't compare actual rates of teen PREGNANCY. Those numbers (while pretty much impossible to accurately collect) might be more evenly spread across state lines ...

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

So it's rare?

4.5% of all teens in 2000 but it was on the rise from 1990. It surprised me that it was on the rise. The pregnancy rate was 6.84% in 2006. It's not enough information to make any assumptions, really. We don't know how much overlap there was between those groups.

[madmax]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

This is very true. In some communities, every girl on the block has a kid (sometimes 2) that they had before before age 19. If you're a young girl growing up in that community, you don't think anything of it. It's normal.

Same with poverty. If you've lived on this block all your life, where every girl is a HS drop out with a baby and on public assistance, you don't look at them as people in poverty because this is what you perceive as normal.

You mean the inner cities where the Dems live?