Teenage fertility and life chances

Teenage mothers and their children face poorer prospects in life than do wo men who delay motherhood until later in life. Moreover, patterns of early c hildbearing tend to be repeated in subsequent generations. Therefore, an un derstanding of the factors associated with early fertility is important for the prevention of adverse consequences. This paper uses data from the Nati onal Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles to explore these association s. Early sexual intercourse is an important predictor of early fertility, a s is poor educational attainment, although it is not clear to what extent p regnancy acts to thwart academic ambitions, or to what extent poor educatio nal performance leads to a need to seek personal fulfilment in other than a cademic goals. Thus, interventions designed to influence age at first inter course and to improve educational performance both have potential in terms of impacting on teenage pregnancy rates. Family background also exerts a po werful influence on teenage fertility. Young people for whom one or both pa rents are absent are more likely to become parents early in life. However, the most important factor of family life determining the chances of teenage motherhood appear to be the quality of communication about sexual matters with the home, in terms of outcomes, teenage mothers are more likely to liv e in social housing, are less likely to be in paid employment and have larg er than average sized families. Certain areas of the country, notably the o lder, run-down industrial areas, have higher rates of teenage motherhood th an the newer, more prosperous areas. Because most of these effects are inde pendent of one another, there is potential merit in intervening to prevent unintended conception at several points in a young woman's Life. Primary pr eventive efforts are needed to reduce the rates at which teenage pregnancy occurs in this country. Yet, if the cycle of deprivation that means the chi ldren of young mothers themselves enter parenthood early is to be broken, t hen efforts must also be made to mitigate the effects of teenage fertility for both mother and child.