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Social Work
Speaks Abstracts
Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting
Although
the rate of U.S. adolescent pregnancy declined in the
1990s, it is still closer to the rate in Jordan, the
Philippines and Thailand than the rate in other industrialized
nations. The difference cannot be explained either
by the rate of teenagers’ sexual intercourse, which
is similar worldwide, or the United States’ greater
ethnic diversity. Instead, the variation results from
to the fact that in other industrialized nations, reproductive
health care is more accessible and affordable for adolescents,
comprehensive sex education is more widespread, and
government support for single parents is less of a
political issue.
Teenagers
in the United States who give birth “are much more
likely to come from poor or low-income families (83%)
than those who have abortions (61%) or teens in general,” according
to statistics gathered by the Alan Guttmacher Institute
and published in 1998, yet the idea that a majority
of these teen parents end up on welfare is a myth.
According to Wider Opportunities for Women, only 30
percent of these mothers received Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) when this program was still
in effect. Despite this fact, a revision of welfare
law in 1996 imposed new conditions on adolescent mothers
receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
One of the requirements is that these mothers continue
to live at home, whether or not family relationships
are healthy or harmful to mother and child.
A
pregnancy in a school-aged young woman or the birth
of a baby to an adolescent mother occurs at the end
of a long series of events. Therefore, NASW supports
a new paradigm for addressing teenage pregnancy, as
well as the broader issue of healthy adolescents. Experts
agree that comprehensive services are necessary both
for teenage pregnancy prevention and to assist those
who become pregnant and choose to rear their child.
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