Adolescent Parents

According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 900,000 teenagers become pregnant each year in the United States (U.S). Although the rate of teen pregnancy is declining, more than 4 out of 10 teenage girls in the U.S. become pregnant before reaching 20 years of age. Of these pregnancies, over half result in live births suggesting that close to half a million adolescents become parents before they reach adulthood. Of the children born to adolescent mothers, according to Royce and Balk, 30–50% involves a father younger than 20 years old, suggesting that the number of teen mothers is greater than the number of teen fathers.

Given that adolescence is a significant and often difficult time of development, examination of the needs of teens who take on adult tasks, such as childrearing, is especially important. Receiving adequate prenatal care is often a problem and girls who become pregnant in adolescence tend to experience poor weight gain, anemia, and pregnancy-related...