Positive Trends Recorded in U.S. Data on Teenagers

WASHINGTON, July 12 (AP) — Fewer high school students were having sex and more were using condoms in 2005, according to the latest government report on the well-being of the nation’s children.

The teenage birthrate hit a record low.

More young people were finishing high school, and more tots were being read to.

It is good news on a number of crucial indicators of health, experts said about the report. It is scheduled to be released Friday by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a consortium of federal agencies that includes the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Census Bureau and the Administration for Children and Families.

“The implications for the population are quite positive in terms of their health and their well-being,” said Edward J. Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics. “The lower figure on teens having sex means the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is lower.”

In 2005, 47 percent of high school students — 6.7 million — reported having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex had remained the same since 2003.

Of those who reported having had sex during a three-month period in 2005, 63 percent — about 9 million — said they used condoms. That is an increase from the 46 percent reported in 1991.

The teenage birth rate in 2005, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15 to 17 — an all-time low. The rate in 1991 was 39 births per 1,000 teenagers.

“This is very good news,” Mr. Sondik said. “Young teen mothers and their babies are at a greater risk of both immediate and long-term difficulties.”

This from the New York Times.

Adolescent motherhood a likely prescription for failure

According to RI Kids Count, researchers estimate that if all of Rhode Island’s teen moms had waited until they were 20 to have babies, the state’s prison population would be down 11.2 percent. The sons of teenage mothers, they say, are 2.2 times as likely to be incarcerated.

Crime is hardly the only issue here. Premature pregnancies increase all kinds of social problems, from dropping out of school to poverty. In fact, 1 in 10 babies in Rhode Island is born to teen parents, and of those, 85 percent are poor. Premature pregnancy is a big part of families getting caught in a vicious cycle of poverty....

[Dr. Patricia Flanagan, medical director of Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s outpatient services] says teen moms tend to fall into two types. One type loses herself in the child. The baby is an extension of the mom’s life and personality.

The other treats her baby like a doll, a thing, a prized possession — dressing the child up, showing the baby off. As one teen mom said, “I got something that’s all mine, that nobody can take away from me!”

In both cases, the baby isn’t understood as a person in his or her own right, an evolving being with a unique future and a changing set of needs. After all, teens are in the process of forming their own identities. Though perfectly natural, a young parent’s egocentricity keeps the baby’s self from becoming entirely real...

This from the Providence Journal.