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THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
their flIst birthday or to sufTer disabilities such as
developmental delays, cerebral palsy, and seizure
disorders.
The disadvantages do not end in infancy. Although
some studies are fInding that teenage mothers-when
compared with peers of similar social,
economic, and educational background-do as well
over the long term in securing employment, furthering
their education, and increasing their income,
their children generally experience more diffIculties
throughout their youth than those born to
older mothers. Recent research sponsored by the
Robin Hood Foundation, comparing children
whose mothers were 17 or younger with children
born to 20- and 21-year-olds, highlights some of
these problems. During the preschool years, signs
ofdelays in cognitive development begin to emerge
and tend to grow more evident as the children age.
Preschool children of teen mothers also tend to
display higher levels of aggression and less ability
to control impulsive behavior. By adolescence, children
of teen mothers have, on the whole, higher
rates of grade failure and more delinquency (and
with boys, more incarceration). They also become
sexually active earlier, with one consequence being
a greater likelihood of pregnancy before age 20.
What accounts for the diffIculties experienced
by the children of teenagers? The answer too often
is early inattention or poor-quality care from their
parents. Teen parents typically are emotionally immature,
have high rates offamily poverty, and lack
the parenting skills critical to the task of nurturing
infants and toddlers.
Preventing Teen Pregnancy
According to the National Campaign to Prevent
Teen Pregnancy, the reasons teenagers become
pregnant include lack of knowledge or skills to
avoid sex or use contraceptives and lack of motivation
to avoid early childbearing. Teen pregnancy is
also associated with troubling relationships between
teen girls and older males, sexual abuse,
poor performance in school, family breakdown,
and poverty. Douglas Kirby, author ofthe National
Campaign's report No Easy Answers, notes that
there are "no single or simple approaches that will
markedly reduce adolescent pregnancy." The report
found that more and better research needs to
be done on what works; current studies suffer from
small sample sizes, lack ofcomparison groups, lack
oflong-terrn follow-up, and little replication offmd-
• In 1995 teen births declined to their lowest levels since 1988.
Teenage girls had 512,115 babies, and the birth rate stood at
56.8 births per 1,000 females between ages 15 and 19.
• Two-thirds of teenage mothers are high school dropouts. About
one-quarter drop out before they become pregnant.
• Welfare spending (including cash assistance, food stamps, and
health coverage) for teenage mothers and their children was
estimated at about $30 billion each year during the early 1990s.
• Children of teenagers are more likely than those born to older
mothers to be poor, to suffer health problems in infancy, and to do
poorly in school.
• Each year sexually transmitted diseases strike about 3 million
teens-about one in four of those who are sexually active.
98 CHI L D R EN' S D E FEN S E FUN D