Pregnancy Prevention In Adolescents

Cynthia Franklin & Jacqueline Corcoran & Mary Beth Harris

Adolescent pregnancy includes women between the ages of 10 and 19 who conceive and give birth to children. Statistical data, based on recorded birth certificates from state vital statistics offices, are used to calculate the teen pregnancy rate. Adolescent pregnancy rates are compiled and distributed through the Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2003). These data are often looked at by categories of ages: 10–14, 15–19, and 18–19. Age categories have been shown to reflect certain risk factors that can be anticipated due to a young woman's age and point of development, and predict deleterious health, social, and economic effects. Younger adolescents ages 10–14 show the greatest risk factors. Pregnant adolescents, under the age of 15, for example, have higher rates of complications and more premature and low-birth-weight babies than older mothers. Vital statistics also offer information on adolescents who are married and ...

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