Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting

Pregnancy in Adolescence and Nursing Care

 

Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting, Coren , Adolescent Pregnancy Its Impact  And Preventions,  Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting ,  Barlow, & Stewart-Brown, 2003.

Adolescence Pregnancy and Geographical Data 

    The incidence of adolescent pregnancy has declined steadily in the US since 1990 when rates peaked at 116.3 pregnancies per 1,000 teenage women (Ventura, Abma, Mosher, & Henshaw, 2003). The rate in 1999 was 86.7/ 1,000 (a decline of 25.4%). Similarly, the rate of births to adolescents has decreased.

     The 2002 rate of 42.9 births per 1,000 young women was 31% lower than the 1991 rate of 61.8 births/1,000. Adolescent birth rates have declined for all racial and ethnic groups and for all age subgroups: those under 15, those 15-17 years and those 18-19 years. 

    Since 1990 the rate of decline in births has been slower for Hispanics than for non-Hispanic Whites or Blacks. In 1991, the Black teen birth rate at 118/1,000 young women was higher than that for Hispanics (105/1,000). By 2001 the Hispanic rate was 86/1,000 compared with the non-Hispanic Black rate of 74 births/1,000 or the non-Hispanic White rate of 30/1,000 adolescent women (Child Trends, 2003). 

    Some of the declines in rates across all groups have been attributed to revisions in Census population estimates in 2000. This effect is greatest for Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American adolescent girls (Arias, MacDorman, Strobino, & Gwyer, 2003) .

 Adolescent Pregnancy Its Impact  And Preventions 

    Much research has been focused on understanding the impact of adolescent pregnancy and birth and on the development of programs to prevent pregnancy. Controversy remains about whether a single birth to an adolescent has negative effects on the life of that young woman or her infant ( Geronimus , 2003). 

    Also controversial is whether adolescent parenting prevention programs work ( DiCenso , Guyatt , Willan, & Griffith, 2002; Kirby, 2002; Elfenbein & Felice, 2003). These programs have tended to focus broadly on issues ranging from abstinence, hormonal contraceptive and condom use, public policy change for welfare support for young mothers, and male-focused efforts.

 Health Care Organization and Their Contributions

    In contrast, growing evidence suggests that parenting interventions may make a difference in outcomes for teens' infants ( Coren , Barlow, & Stewart-Brown, 2003). Successful programs have included both group and individual interventions, programs that are home-based and those that require participation at a center or institution, and programs that involve both majority and minority teens. 

    Early Head Start programs funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development have recently begun to show promising outcomes with respect to maternal school attendance as well as child development (Love et al., 2002). Programs have not yet begun to look at the processes within the programs that have correlated with success by the infants.