Public opinion polling shows that two-thirds of adults (67%) believe most teen mothers come from homes below the federal poverty threshold. A full 70% of adults believe that most teen mothers come from single parent homes.
Not true.
According to new analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health conducted by our wonderful friends at Child Trends and released today by The National Campaign, only 28% of those who report having given birth or fathered a child as a teen lived in families below the poverty level. Only 30% of those teen parents said they were living with a single parent (39% said they lived with both biological parents and 19% said they lived with one biological parent and one step-parent).
Of course it remains true that teens from poor households have a disproportionally high rate of teen childbearing, and income and family status are important risk factors too. But it's also true that more than half of teen parents come from two-parent families and live well above (200% or more) the poverty line.
So what does this mean? Well, for starters it means that public opinion does not equal public fact. But it also means that no one is immune from the reality of teen pregnancy. Good kids from good families in good neighborhoods can--and do--get pregnant and have babies as teens. It also means that efforts and interventions to prevent teen pregnancy can't be one-size-fits-all.
In a country where nearly 3 out of 10 girls get pregnant as teens, it's impossible to limit the problem to any one income group or type of family structure (or race, or ethnicity, or religion, or any other classification). Every teenager who has sex and doesn't use protection carefully and correctly is at risk.
For more on this data and analysis, check out Science Says #41: Socio-Economic and Family Characteristics of Teen Childbearing.
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