International Policy

Schooling Curtails Teen Pregnancies

A new study reports that young girls who drop out of school are more likely to give birth than those who remain in school. In an article published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, sociologist Jennifer Manlove also says that girls who are discouraged at school will often escape through getting pregnant.

  • School-age births are highest at 25 percent among black girls, followed by Hispanic girls at 20 percent and white girls at 10 percent.

  • Among dropouts, female Hispanics have the highest rate of pregnancies at 47.6 percent, followed by white dropouts at 34 percent and black dropouts at 33 percent.

  • Both black and white girls who had attended sex education classes in the eighth grade tended to get pregnant more often than their peers who did not attend the classes, according to the study.

  • Students who attended Catholic or other private schools have lower pregnancy rates -- which the study attributes to a heavier scholastic workload.

Girls attending schools with higher numbers of teen mothers had plenty of role models for teen motherhood, the study commented.

Source: "School Involvement May Help Reduce Teen-Age Pregnancies," Washington Times, August 7, 1998.


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