Preventing Teenage Pregnancy: New Dilemmas and New Solutions (pdf)

hy do we have a continuing unacceptably high rate of births to young people? The basic answer is clear—it is a change in our culture combined with a biological change in beginning fertility. Adult attitudes, values, and behaviors surround young people with inconsistent, often conflicting and, many times, negative messages about responsible sexual behavior. The impact of change on youth from a more conservative and consistent culture to this new one is compounded by the fact that the beginning age of fertility has been lowering 3 months every 10 years for the last 100 years. Whereas a hundred years ago, on the average, girls did not become fertile until around age 17; half of all girls now have the capacity to become pregnant before age 12! Boys’ fertility follows roughly a year later.