Services and Clinics

Teen Pregnancy

Literature:

• Risk and Protective Factors

• Bridging Two Worlds

• 10 Facts

The teen birth rate[1] in New Mexico is decreasing, but not as quickly as for the United States.  In 2004, New Mexico’s teen birth rate of 59.8 births per 1000 females, age 15-19, was 1.5 times higher than the United States teen birth rate of 41.2.[2]  Between 1990 and 2004, New Mexico’s birth rate to mothers age 15-19 declined 23% compared to 31.2% nationally. 

Teen pregnancy and childbearing are associated with adverse consequences for teen mothers and their children, but it is important to note that many of the negative consequences for teen mothers are due to the disadvantaged situation in which many of these girls already live.[3] Teenage mothers and fathers tend to have less education and are more likely to live in poverty than their peers who are not teen parents. Babies born to teen mothers are more likely to have health problems at birth, do poorly in school, do time in jail and also become teen parents.[4]

Teen pregnancy imposes costs on the teenage mothers, children born to teenagers and society in general. Teenage mothers can expect to earn, after tax, between $50,000 and $120,000 less over a lifetime compared to mothers who delay until at least age 20,.  Children born to teenagers in any one year earn $100 million less over their lifetime. An estimate of the annual extra cost of welfare services for these children is between $1 million and $2 million. Overall, the economic impact on society is $170,000 for each teenage mother, for a total of nearly $590 million for all new mothers each year in New Mexico.[5]

The risk and protective factors for teen pregnancy may be grouped into 4 key themes:

• Individual biological factors (e.g. age, physical maturity and gender)

• Disadvantage, disorganization and dysfunction in the lives of the teens themselves and their environments (e.g. rates of substance abuse, violence, and divorce; also levels of education)

• Sexual values, attitudes, and modeled behavior (e.g. teens’ own values about sexual behavior as well as those expressed by parents, peers, and romantic partners)

• Connection to adults and organizations that discourage sex, unprotected sex, or early childbearing (e.g. attachment to parents and other adults in their schools and places of worship).[6]

Several key ideas for teen pregnancy prevention programs that serve Hispanic youth are cited in a recent study:

• Hispanics are a diverse group and this diversity extends to the family unit.  The varying levels of acculturation for children of immigrants and their parents needs to be addressed.
• Try to turn what may be seen as cultural barriers into cultural motivators. 
• Working with Hispanic teens means working with their families, and parents need the motivation and skills to talk with their teens. 
• Pay closer attention to the influence growing up in a bicultural world has on ideas and behavior related to teen pregnancy and family formation. 
• The case for preventing teen pregnancy needs to be made in a way that supports childbearing and family formation generally – strongly held values in Hispanic culture – while explaining the social, economic, and health benefits to adults and children of postponing family formation until after the teen years.[7]  

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