Why does teenage pregnancy often correlate with wealth?

Boredom. Plus rich people can afford 'discreet' abortions and birth control

My father's friend used to say "The rich get richer and the poor have babies"

In this country at least you get paid to have babies. Shoot me down if you want, and yes I know you don't get much, but it's more to spend on fags and booze at least.

Judgemental? Maybe.

The truth? Well put it this way - all the pramfaces I see walking the streets in their Primark jeans and three-sizes-too-small vest tops sure as hell don't come from anything above the (non) working class.

Well, the easy answer is that wealth and education sort of go hand in hand. The better off a family the better the education of a child and even sexually active teens know to use contraception during sex. However, they're have been plenty of well off kids from morally well adjusted or even over the top Christian family's that have gotten preggo. (See Sarah Palin)

The real answer and one that lies at the heart of most if not all teen pregnancies is the simple fact that many adolescents are looking for love that they aren't getting at home. And they equate sex with love, or desire with love, or raging hormones with love, (take your pick) and submit to unprotected sex with the "if its meant to be attitude" that also gets them plenty of attention, both from their lover's and eventually from their friends, family and school when they find out about the pregnancy.

The sad truth, is that teen pregnancy in a majority of cases can be attributed young people searching for something missing in their lives, parental love. But as they say it's only my HUMBLE OPINION..... By the way I'm fifty, see picture, I knocked up my first wife at age 17 and can tell you from a guys experience, that A. I was stupid.... B. I was desperately searching for love.... and C. I wish to this day someone would have drilled into my head what I wrote above...... Hope it helps.....

For what it's worth, I'm 34, female, live in a different country to you, Don...but I agree with everything you've said. I've seen it happen too often to believe otherwise.

Exactly what someone said above. Poorer people a) are usually less well informed, b) less educated, or less-well educated, c)have much less access to healthcare.

Even local clinics are usually ill staffed and crammed with people. There is very little time for proper teaching of how to use birth control. I'd even venture that some of the poor don't even KNOW about free clinics or Planned Parenthood, where you can get OB appointments and BC pills on a sliding scale based on your income.

And everything Don said applies too, especially when these teenagers are in broken homes where the parent is drug addicted OR (more likely) just even absent because they have to work three jobs to keep food on the table. No one's home to talk to, so they go looking for something else to fill the voic.

Another reason that people don't always think of is that motherhood is glorified in our culture. If a young girl doesn't have much going on in her life or hope for the future, one way she can find a purpose is to become a mother.

I would recommend you contact:

http://www.prochoiceresources.org and ask them about the causes of teen pregnancy, and how it relates to poverty.

And my mother had me at 18. She was as poor as a church mouse, as thick as pigshit, and had more pricks than a second hand dartboard.

The prosecution rests.

My mother spent time training as a social worker, and one of her clients (not sure of the right term) was a teenage girl - school dropout, no qualifications, poor literacy. The girl couldn't stand her parents and desperately wanted to move out of the family home. She couldn't get her own place unless she got:

(1) a job, which she couldn't get and didn't want; or
(2) pregnant.

So that's exactly what she did. Had a baby, got her own flat.

how offensive is this thread?! Wow.


for the record...i was a teen parent...because we wanted to start our family early. it was a choice. we are not without money...nor were we without money at the time.

all people are created differently.

Yes, KTC, I knew someone would come along to defend teen parenting.

The majority, however, are not like you. I invite you to come to this town and see of what I speak.

Actually don't. Terrible place.

Anyway, my point being, the majority of young, unmarried mothers are from the working class. Not all. The MAJORITY.

android415 said:

[I am new to the forums, so if this is not a topic that is appropriate for all eyes, please instruct me on how to delete/move/etc.]


I am thinking of toying with a pregnant teenager for one of my future novels, but to write it, I need to understand why it happens.

And today, (I work with youth sometimes), I was informed that a girl I know, aged 15, is pregnant. That did not come as a surprise to me, as her mother had her at 15, and the two are living on welfare as we speak.

But what I want to know is why. The youth centers in the area are very active (especially the one said girl goes to, in particular), and don't preach abstinence, but how to "protect" yourself. But every year, like clockwork, in happens anyways, namely in the poorer areas of town.

Why?

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Teenage pregnancy has nothing to do with wealth. There is only one way to get pregnant (I don't have to elaborate here)- teenage hormones and lack of birth control are the reasons for pregnancy. However, if a teenager comes from money, it is easier to abort. Someone poor probably does not have the resources to abort.

However, there are always circumstances around teenage pregnancy--maybe not enough education, lack of self care and esteem, or any number of reason. Rich or poor, perhaps a teenager gets pregnant to fulfill a need to be loved. As you mentioned about your friend, getting pregnant young could be a family pattern.

Since you want to write about a teen who gets pregnant, I would go and talk to these girls. Find out their experiences and try to understand their perspective. Without judgment, see where they are coming from. Do your research and see where it takes you.

Unfair how?

Bottom line is, contraception is available. So is the word 'no'.

And further to my previous post, the city in which I live has the highest rate of mothers under the age of I think 19, although it could be 18, in the country.

And when I was 19, I was asked by an almost complete stranger, "How many kids have you got?"

Not "Do you have any...?" but how many and he was amazed when I said, "None."

In fact he asked why, and I said, "Uh...'cause I don't want any, that's why." It never occurred to this guy that someone of 19 would have no children.

That's the culture I live in. Children having children "just because." It's what people do, right?

SusanL said:

Teenage pregnancy has nothing to do with wealth.

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Yes it does.

android415 said:

I don't know if this is too personal KTC, but can I ask why?

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it's not too personal. we wanted to grow up with our kids...and we wanted an empty nest early. we wanted to have adult children when we were still young enough to appreciate them...do things with them that didn't involve wheelchairs and colostomy bags. We wanted to have the whole children experience and have time left over before death to have the whole US experience. It's working out nicely. In fact, we just started traveling this past year...and we are only in our early/mid 40s.

Your children were clearly planned, KTC. I know I seem about this, and yes, I am. There's no way my mother was equipped at 18 to be a mother, and the majority of teen mothers I see don't have the financial or emotional tools to be a good parent. The overwhelming majority of them are single. They're one person, not even developed themselves, trying to do the job of two adults.

scarletpeaches said:

For what it's worth, I'm 34, female, live in a different country to you, Don...but I agree with everything you've said. I've seen it happen too often to believe otherwise.

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Amen sweetie, one day we will meet and drink, and share many of stories...

scarletpeaches said:

Unfair how?

Bottom line is, contraception is available.

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How available is it in the UK? (I really don't know).

Are their age checks for condoms ?

Are they behind counters?

What about IUDs, the patch, and pills--do you need parental consent?

We've got pharmacies that refuse to carry condoms, birth control of any sort, as well as the so-called morning after pill.

Putting condom machines in the women's bathrooms at UCLA became an enormously controversial issue for alums, and some faculty.

I actually want to defend the 'poorer' people. My Dad flitted between benefits and poorly paid jobs [one such paid £2 an hour] for my whole childhood. Despite the stereotype it ingrained in me an attitude that was not how I wanted to live my life.

I have an university education [applying for a postgrad] and have a managerial level career. I'm 28 and I am unmarried and still no children. It is my firm belief that it was the ethics ingrained into me growing up on a council estate to why I have grown so successful.

Now my niece fell pregnant aged 13 with her eldest son. Now she came from a home that wanted for nothing. So I argue that your initial premise is false.

Here's my take on it.

Its the parents. Wealthy people set expectations and take at least a small role in their kids lives. They have the energy and time to do so.

Poor parents work two full time jobs, and are perpetually exhausted. The kids get no guidance and just do whatever strikes them at the moment.

Telling your kids what you want for them and why you want it goes a very very long way. I never met a teenage girl who was pregnant with an actively involved mother and father.

scarletpeaches said:

Your children were clearly planned, KTC. I know I seem about this, and yes, I am. There's no way my mother was equipped at 18 to be a mother, and the majority of teen mothers I see don't have the financial or emotional tools to be a good parent. The overwhelming majority of them are single. They're one person, not even developed themselves, trying to do the job of two adults.

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There are an awful of lot fifteen year old mothers in urban areas, raising kids on their own.

SusanL said:

Teenage pregnancy has nothing to do with wealth.

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scarletpeaches said:

Yes it does.

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Pregnancy doesn't. Birth does.