Let it shine: promoting school success, life aspirations to prevent school-age parenthood.

Although it is difficult to untangle the pathway of adolescent parenthood from the intricate web of economic, cultural, and social forces that influence the life course of an adolescent, it is abundantly clear that the factors influencing a teenager at risk for pregnancy intersect at the crossroads of poverty and academic achievement. Of course, not all pregnancies or school academic problems lead to adolescent parenthood or to dropping out of school. Still, there is mounting evidence that these problems share common roots and consequences, and often a student with one of these problems will be a candidate for the other.

School dropout problems and school-age parenthood have each been the focus of a variety of prevention efforts; however, the connecting link between poverty, adolescent pregnancy, and lack of academic achievement is rarely addressed by coordinated school and community intervention programs. Given the antecedents of pregnancy and school failure, programs need to combine efforts and pay more attention to increasing a teenager's motivation to avoid pregnancy and stay in school. And, conversely, for young women and men to have the motivation to avoid involvement in a pregnancy and to succeed in school, they must have concrete options for their futures.

This article discusses the connections between school success and school-age parenthood, revisits the context of adolescent pregnancy and parenthood, examines the causes and consequences of parenthood and school achievement on both the teenage mother and her children, and provides recommendations for preventing adolescent childbearing through programs that help young people overcome obstacles to school success and provide support for their life aspirations.

Recent studies have found that two critical problems many adolescents face-pregnancy and school failure--are interwinded. This becomes apparent in the research uncovering the direct correlation between youth that experience school failure and drop out of school and youth at risk for being involved in a pregnancy and school-age parenthood. (1)

Exploring the relationship of academic ability to the potential for teenage parenthood, the High School and Beyond Study found that sophomores (both females and males) with low academic ability were twice as likely to become parents by their senior year as those students with high academic ability. Looking at skill levels, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that teen girls in the bottom 20 percent of basic reading and math skills were five times more likely to become mothers over a two-year high school period than those in the top 20 percent. (2)

Although it is common wisdom that the primary reason girls drop out of school is because they are pregnant, recent analyses show that many teen mothers dropped out of school before they got pregnant. A survey of never-married women in their twenties showed that among those who became both pregnant and school dropouts, 61 percent of the pregnancies occurred after dropping out of school; another survey of very young welfare recipient mothers showed that 20 percent were already out of school before they conceived. (3)

Compounding the problem is that pregnant teens and teen mothers have poor school attendance and experience low levels of academic success. In reviews of antecedents of high-risk behavior related to adolescent pregnancy, students at risk include those with low expectations for school achievement who do not engage in school activities and those with parents who are not supportive or not involved with their child's academic experiences. (4) Moreover, studies show that a sense of limited future educational and job opportunities contribute to a lack of motivation to either practice or use contraceptives effectively. (5)

The link between students' capability to be successful in school and their capacity to avoid school-age pregnancy is further reinforced by the National Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health) report. The researchers found that adolescents stand a better chance of avoiding risky behavior--including postponing sexual intercourse and pregnancy--when they experience and express strong connections to their school. (6)

WHO ARE THE MOTHERS?

Although recent statistics demonstrate a decline in both pregnancy and childbearing, the problem of teen pregnancy and parenthood is still of great magnitude. Approximately four in 10 girls become pregnant each year, and there is approximately one birth for every 20 women between 15 and 19 years of age. While most pregnant teens are 18 or 19 years old, approximately 40 percent are 17 or younger. (7) Of the four million babies born each year, one out of eight are born to a teenager, one out of four are born to a mother with less than a high school education, almost one out three to a mother who lives in poverty, and one out of four to an unmarried mother. (8)

While the current decline in rates is encouraging, a continued decline of adolescent pregnancy and birth rates is not certain. Although the teen birth rate has decreased, the number of births to teens has increased, reflecting an overall increase in the U.S. teen population. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of girls 15 to l9 years of age is estimated to increase by nearly 10 percent. Unless birth rates continue to decrease, the population increase of teen girls may very well mean an increase in teen pregnancies and births. (9)

Understanding the context of teen pregnancy means understanding the impact of pregnancy upon the life of an individual girl and her family. Although the terms adolescent pregnancy, teenage pregnancy, and school-aged parenthood are usually interchangeably applied to pregnancies among young women in the teen years, the reality is not interchangeable. Pregnancy has vastly different implications for a girl in the developmental stage of early adolescence than for a young woman on the cusp of adulthood.

The experience of pregnancy and the outcomes of childbearing are not the same for the 18- or 19-year-old high school graduate who is married, planning marriage, working, or attending college and for the 13- or 14-year-old student or school dropout. In addition to the economic consequence, a vast majority of young girls under 17 years of age, as appropriate to their development, are biologically and psychologically too immature to raise a child.

Contributing to the cycle of pregnancy, childbearing, and poverty is the way in which adolescents resolve their pregnancies. Young women who come from advantaged families generally have abortions. Childbearing, on the other hand, is concentrated among teenagers who are poor and low income: more than 80 percent of young women who give birth are either poor or low income. (10)

WHO ARE THE FATHERS?

There is little information about the young men who father children, an issue complicated by the fact that some of the fathers are out of school or past high school age.

Like teenage mothers, the males who father their children tend to be poor, are often continuing an intergenerational practice (many are from families who experienced teenage childbearing), live in low-income communities, and have low educational achievement. In addition, like early motherhood, early fatherhood appears to have negative consequences of poor school attendance and dropping out of school. Because they obtain less education, these fathers are more likely unemployed, and have lower long-term employment and lower earnings than their counterparts who delay parenthood. (11)

THE UNINTENDED PREGNANCY

A critical factor contributing to the complexity of teen pregnancy is that a vast majority of these pregnancies--approximately 85 percent--are not planned or intended. While many teenage pregnancies occur despite the use of contraception, an appreciable portion are the result of a confusing and conflicting set of beliefs and behaviors, from a teen's ambivalence about pregnancy to her lack of capacity to prevent it, to her inability to make clear decisions and then act on those decisions: to abstain from sexual intercourse, to be sexually active, or to always use contraception. (12)

Although a majority of pregnant teenagers report that they did not seek pregnancy or "intend" to get pregnant, many of these young women didn't take actions to prevent pregnancy, either. To underscore the behavioral implications of unintended pregnancy, it is not uncommon to hear teenage girls who are pregnant unintentionally blame it on "bad luck" or "being swept away" or "something that just happened." (13)

SEXUAL ABUSE, RAPE, AND PREGNANCY

Although the scientific data is sparse, those experienced in working with sexual abuse and rape and those experienced in working with pregnant teens are well aware of the connection between sexual abuse in childhood and pregnancy in adolescence. (14)

It appears that a traumatic underlying cause of teen pregnancy, for many young teenage girls, is that sexual intercourse was involuntary and coerced. The younger a sexually experienced teenage girl is, the more likely she is to have had involuntary sexual intercourse. For example, 74 percent of young women under 13 who have had sexual intercourse reported having had it involuntarily, as compared to 40 percent of girls 15 and under. (15)

A study conducted by the An Ounce of Prevention Fund found that, of the teens who experienced a first pregnancy by age 16,60 percent reported that they had been forced into an unwanted sexual experience. And a study of teen mothers in Washington State indicated that two thirds were victims of molestation, rape, or attempted rape before their first pregnancy. Forty-four percent of the girls had been raped by age 13. (16)

WANTED OR EXPECTED ADOLESCENT CHILDBEARING

Despite realities to the contrary, adolescent parenthood is not always considered a negative among some disadvantaged young women. Having a baby enables the adolescent to enter and become part of a community of young mothers. Parenthood is often the most available marker of success and social power in the face of an otherwise limited life. For these teen mothers, pregnancy and childbirth may be seen as the ticket to achieving an adult status and a sense of independence. (17)

Girls growing up in poverty need to possess not just average but above-average psychological resources and strengths to avoid becoming a pregnant teen.

Not only is it a challenge for young women growing up in poor families to achieve educational competencies and use them effectively, but success in these avenues may uproot them from their families, peers, and neighborhoods. If teenage childbearing is generally acceptable in her family and in her community, it is difficult for a young woman to go against the cultural grain.

For an ambitious young woman, the comfort of belonging is often altered when her education or occupational skills go beyond what her family accepts; and more importantly, what her friends, and especially her male partner, approve of. In a community of high teen pregnancy rates, if a young woman fears being different or isolated from her friends, she may come to believe that having a baby is "no big deal." (18)

CHALLENGES TO SCHOOL SUCCESS

Pregnancy and parenting pose major challenges to full-time school attendance. Responsibilities of child-rearing, lack of support from families and peers, and their own immaturity add up to significant barriers for teen parents to stay in school. As a result, adolescent mothers drop out at a staggering rate, and those who have already dropped out are less likely to return to school. Adding to the problem of teen mothers' lack of education is the fact that about 25 percent of them dropped out of school before they became pregnant. (19)

Only about 30 percent of adolescent mothers earn a high school diploma, compared to 76 percent of those who postpone childbearing. (20) Controlling for a wide range of background variables, researchers found that adolescent childbearing alone accounts for more than 40 percent of this difference in graduation rates. (21)

REPEAT CHILDBEARING AND SCHOOL FAILURE

The need to prevent teen pregnancy--primary prevention--has garnered public attention and support. Although the numbers are significant, the issue of secondary prevention--repeat pregnancies among adolescent mothers--receives less attention. (22)

Teen mothers often have short intervals between their first and second births, particularly compared with older mothers. Some 19 percent of adolescents who become mothers at ages 15 through 17, and 25 percent of those who were 18 to 19 when they first gave birth, have a second child within two years. (23) Having a second child within a year or so of the first is a significant barrier to completing high school, While a young woman may be able to overcome the life-course transition of becoming a mother if she has one child--and still finish school and obtain an entry-level job--these tasks become considerably more difficult if she has more than one child. (24)

Overall, most teen mothers obtain less education and have lower future family incomes than young women who delay motherhood. Teen mothers are more likely than women who do not have a child before 20 years of age to be poor later in their lives: some 28 percent of women who became mothers as teenagers are poor in their twenties and early thirties. (25) Many of these poor women are not poor because they had a baby; they were already poor, but having a baby made their situation worse. If they had delayed their first birth to 20 years of age or older, the numbers of those poor would be reduced to an estimated 16 percent. (26)

On a positive note, programs that enhance academic outcomes for adolescent mothers and make special efforts to allow adolescent mothers to stay in school and graduate can have a positive effect on breaking the cycle of school-age parenthood and school failure. The National Educational Longitudinal Study confirms that a high-school-age mother's involvement in school activities after the birth of her first child, or earning a high school diploma or a GED, were strongly associated with postponing a second pregnancy. (27)

The most significant negative consequences of teen childbearing are those burdens shouldered by the children themselves, caught in the crossfire of school failure and too-early parenthood. The daughters of a teen mother are 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves, and compared to those born to older mothers, young adult children of teenage mothers are 30 percent more likely to neither work nor go to school. (28)

THE REPORT CARD

Throughout their school years, the children of adolescent mothers do much worse than the children of older mothers.

They are two to three times less likely to be rated "excellent" by their teachers and 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade. And they perform significantly worse on tests of their cognitive development, even after differences in measurable background factors have been screened out. (26)

Rather than declining over time, the educational deficits of children born to adolescent mothers appear to accumulate, causing the child to fall further behind in school as he or she grows older. Only 77 percent of the children of adolescent mothers earn their high school diplomas compared with 89 percent of a comparison group. More than half of the difference is due to these children becoming adolescent parents. (29)

SINGLE MOM HOUSEHOLDS

Teen mothers spend more of their young adult years as single parents than do women who delay childbearing, which means that their children spend much of the childhood with only one parent. Being raised by one parent--one who is a young teen mother--may cast a long shadow over the lives of many of these children. Compared to their peers growing up with two parents, those who grow up in poor, single-parent homes are twice as likely to drop out of high school, 2.5 times as likely to become teen mothers, and 1.4 times as likely to be out of school and out of work. (30) Even after adjusting for various social and economic differences, children who grow up in single-parent homes have lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, and poorer school attendance records. (31)

CONCLUSION

Adolescent childbearing and school failure not only have immense lifetime consequences for both individuals and their families, but they are also a major burden on school and community resources. Over the last two decades, a substantial body of evidence has been compiled suggesting that motivating young people to delay childbearing into their twenties and reducing the drop-out rates of pregnant and parenting adolescents are worthy public policy goals.

While there is a wide array of governmental and private sector programs directed at preventing school dropouts and at preventing teen pregnancy, their effectiveness is often reduced because each operates within a narrowly defined orbit. As a result, they fail to address the complexity of the problems that adolescents and their families deal with every single day. In order to make a significant impact on social and economic disadvantage, agencies and organizations need to adapt an eye-on-the-prize strategy.

Even though turf issues are real and have to be realistically dealt with, efforts made to prevent pregnancy and those focused on helping adolescents stay in school can achieve both goals by coordinating programs and resources.

Although this coordinated approach may break new ground in many communities, there are effective models to build upon such as The Children's Aid Society-Carrera Program and The Teen Outreach Program (TOP). There are also programs such as The Community Coalition Partnership Programs for the Prevention of Teen Pregnancy, which appear to be promising. (32)

Changing old patterns of providing services and programs to youth and their families does present many challenges. Yet it is encouraging to keep in mind that academic difficulties need only be surmounted through high school to minimize the drop-out risk, and pregnancy need only to be delayed until adulthood to have an a positive impact on young people's lives.

Clearly, a lack of confidence in the future, a sense of limited opportunities, and perception of a life without economic security differentiates school-age parents from those who delay sexual intercourse or use contraceptives consistently.

As many teens growing up in poverty or from working-class poor families do not believe that they have educational or career opportunities, becoming pregnant does not cause the fear of forfeited opportunities that a middle-class teenager perceives.

They often feel they have nothing to lose by becoming a parent; no door will be closed because they believe that no doors are open to them anyway. The belief that there is a positive, attainable future worth planning and preparing for--that there is have a future worth having--is the most powerful element in a young person's decision to avoid pregnancy and stay in school.

Based on what we know about the antecedents of school failure and school-age parenthood, communities and schools should engage young people in safe, structured fun and enriching activities focused on building self worth and self confidence. Communities can support a wide variety of activities that allow youth to succeed in school: academic, sports, and arts programs; after-school programs such as tutoring and field trips; and mentoring and community service responsibilities.

Simply put, it is adults who pave the way for youth to become successful. We can offer opportunities for young people to be an integral part of school and community life, encourage them to aspire to a rewarding, joyful future, and provide the resources to insure the achievement of their hopes and dreams.

It is imperative that we continue to fund and evaluate programs, such as the ones mentioned above, that combine work on teen pregnancy prevention, youth development, sexuality education, and reproductive health care.

REFERENCES

(1.) J. Manlove, "The Influence of High School Dropout and School Disengagement on the Risk of School-age Pregnancy," Journal of Research on Adolescence, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 187-220; "The Impact of Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenthood on Educational Achievement: A Blueprint for Education Policymakers' Involvement in Prevention Efforts" (Washington, DC: National Association of State Boards of Education, 2000).

(2.) Ibid; "The Social Content of Education," National Center for Education Statistics (Washington, DC, U.S. Department of Education, 1996).

(3.) Fact Sheet: Not Just Another Single Issue: Teen Pregnancy and the Work Force (Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2002).

(4.) V.J. Hotz, et al., "The Impacts of Teenage Childbearing on the Mothers and the Consequences of these Impacts for Government" in R. Maynard, editor, Kids Having Kids: Economic Costs and Social Consequences of Teen Pregnancy (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 1997), pp. 55-94.

(5.) J. Manlove, "The Influence of High School Dropout and School Disengagement on the Risk of School-age Pregnancy."

(6.) R. Blum and P. Pinehart, Reducing the Risk: Connections that Make a Difference in the Lives of Youth (Minneapolis, MN: Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health, University of Minnesota), pp. 21-2.

(7.) "Facts in Brief," Teen Sex and Pregnancy (New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994).

(8.) Ibid.; K. Moore, et al., Adolescent Sex, Contraception, and Childbearing: A Review of Recent Research (Washington, DC: Child Trends, Inc., 1995).

(9.) D. Kirby, Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy (Washington DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2001).

(10.) Facts in Brief Teen Sex and Pregnancy (New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994); What Happened to Childhood? The Problem of Teen Pregnancy in the United States (Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 1997).

(11.) K. Moore and A. Driscoll, "Partners, Predators, Peers, Protectors: Males and Teen Pregnancy," in Not Just for Girls: The Roles of Men and Boys in Teen Pregnancy Prevention (Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 1994), pp. 5-10; R. Coley and P. L. Chase-Landsale, Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenthood: Recent Evidence and Future Directions (Chicago: Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, 1994).

(12.) S. Ventura, T. Mathews, and B. Hamilton, "Births to Teenagers in the United States, 1940-2000," National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 49, no. 10, Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

(13.) C. Cassell, Swept Away: Why Women Confuse Love and Sex (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995); K. Luker, "Dubious Conceptions: The Controversy over Teen Pregnancy," The American Prospect, vol. 7, pp. 72-83.

(14.) S. Leiderman and C. Almo, (October 2001) Interpersonal Violence and Adolescent Pregnancy: Prevalence and Implications for Practice and Policy (Center for Assessment and Policy Development and NOAPPP, 2001); See also NOAPPP Network (Fall 2001), pp. 5-8; S. Elstein and N. Davis, "Sexual Relationships Between Adult Males and Young Girls: Exploring the Legal and Social Responses," American Bar Association, 1997, pp. 1-8,39.

(15.) P. VanStraten, Sexual Abuse, Trauma and Adolescent Pregnancy (Washington DC: NOAPPP Network, 2001), pp. 15-18.

(16.) D. Boyer and D. Fine, "Sexual Abuse as a Factor in Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Maltreatment," Family Planning Perspectives, 1992, vol. 24, pp. 4-11; "Heart to Heart: An Innovative Approach to Preventing Child Sexual Abuse," Ounce of Prevention Fund Study Report, 1995.

(17.) J. Musick, Young, Poor, and Pregnant: The Psychology of Teenage Motherhood (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 272.

(18.) E. Freeman, "Defining the Teen Pregnancy Problem," Readings, A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health, 1994, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 20-24; K. Luker, "Dubious Conceptions: The Controversy over Teen Pregnancy."

(19.) J. Manlove, "The Influence of High School Dropout and School Disengagement on the Risk of School-age Pregnancy"; K Moore, D. Morrison, C. Blumenthal, et al., Data on Teenage Childbearing in the United States (Washington, DC: Child Trends, Inc, 1993).

(20.) V.J. Hotz, et al., (1997) "The Impacts of Teenage Childbearing on the Mothers and the Consequences of these Impacts for Government"; R. A. Maynard, editor, Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescent Childbearing (New York: Robin Hood Foundation, 1996); Fact Sheet: Not Just Another Single issue: Teen Pregnancy Prevention's Link to Other Critical Social Issues (Washington DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2002).

(21.) J. Manlove, "The Influence of High School Dropout and School Disengagement on the Risk of School-age Pregnancy."

(22.) D. Kalmuss and P. Namerow, "Subsequent Childbearing among Teenage Mothers: The Determinants of Closely Spaced Second Birth," Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 149-153; Sex and America's Teenagers (New York: Alan Guttmaker Institute, 1994).

(23.) Fact Sheet: Not Just Another Single Issue: Teen Pregnancy, Welfare Dependency, and Poverty (Washington DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Pregnancy, 2001).

(24.) R. Maynard, editor, Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescent Childbearing (New York: Robin Hood Foundation, 1996).

(25.) Ibid.; R. Coley, P. Chase-Lansdale (1998).

(26.) Ibid.

(27.) Ibid.

(28.) J. Manlove, "The Influence of High School Dropout and School Disengagement on the Risk of School-age Pregnancy."

(29.) Ibid.; R. A. Maynard, editor, Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescecent Childbearing.

(30.) R. A. Maynard, editor, Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescecent Childbearing.

(31.) J. Manlove, "The Influence of High School Dropout and School Disengagement on the Risk of School-age Pregnancy."

(32.) E. Freeman, "Defining the Teen Pregnancy Problem," Readings, A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health, vo. 9, no. 2, pp. 20-24; J. Musick, Young, Poor, and Pregnant: The Psychology of Teenage Motherhood (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1993), pp. 272.

(33.) D. Kirby, Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy (Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2001); Fact Sheet: Community Coalition Partnership Programs for the Prevention of Teen Pregnancy (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health, 2002).