Does anyone know why rates of teen pregnancy are higher in low income communitie

17 comments

• twentyfive

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  5 years ago

  Lack of adult supervision kids are left to their own devices and they get into trouble because of this.
• gawker

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  5 years ago

  Family dynamics, expectations, and social mores. How about this:? Girls who participate in inter scholastic sports in high school are 45% less likely to get pregnant before their 18th birthday. Why do you think this is the case?
• IceyLoco

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  5 years ago

  I'd argue rates are pretty equal they just have less abortions
• jsully63

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  5 years ago

  In many cases the girls are repeating the same cycle of your parents, grandparents etc. what you see in your family or community is normal to you so you do the same thing.
• reverendhornibastard

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  5 years ago

  Lots of questionable behaviors run in families ... Child abuse / neglect Drug and alcohol abuse Teen pregnancies / fatherhood Low scholastic performance / truancy / illiteracy Shoplifting / carjacking / other crimes Tattoos & body piercings Aspirations to look like “gangstas “ or “hoes” These unhelpful behaviors are not passed genetically. They are all learned.
• Member6532

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  5 years ago

  I blame rap music.
• GhostOfHell

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  5 years ago

  As others have said it has to do with environment growing up. In my community growing up we had Puerto Rican, Dominican, AA, Italian and Irish families and each had a few families that had teen mothers. And for those families it was kind of a badge of honor. I still remember the parties they threw for teen mothers and teen fathers. When I was in high school in the late 80s it seemed 6 out of 10 girls were pregnant in school or within a year after graduating. I got out lucky being as I was more into self pleasure than actually having a girlfriend. To think that I now may be getting lap dances from some of my high school crush's daughters or god forbid granddaughters. It kind of amuses me. Incidentally in 2004 I ran into a girl I had went to HS with in a SC. She gave good dances but did not recognize me. She tried to make like she graduated in 98 but some of the things she said dated her to that school way before. I never let on that I knew. Plus I never forget a face.
• IceyLoco

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  5 years ago

  So sex is bad and a questionable behavior when poor kids do it?
• twentyfive

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  5 years ago

  ^ goes to show that some things were better in the 60s my community was just as diverse as yours, I grew up in Brooklyn NY yes there were girls that got pregnant in HS but it wasn’t many, my HS had a graduation class of 2300 and I only knew of 2 or 3
• GhostOfHell

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  5 years ago

  Absolutely not what I am saying. Although I now see how it may read like that. And I agree with you on pregnancy and abortion rates. The upper middle classes sure know how to hide their "little" problems. I support the right of choice. Yet as we see there are certain people that have more choices than others.
• san_jose_guy

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  5 years ago

  Very good book, read any edition: [view link] When you get into lower income strata, young people realize that there really is no future, no reason to wait. Life is just day by day, taking risks as they come. There are no plans. There can't be. To go along with what teachers and parents will say, one has to have a stake in the system. Poor people don't. Much has been written about how this correlates to race, and how state capitols like Jackson Mississippi and Columbia South Carolina have often had extremely high teen pregnancy rates. And then the Black Pentecostal Fundamentalist denomination COGIC has a very high unmarried teen pregnancy rate. When you have people who enjoy economic and racial privilege, then the pregnancy rate, the alcohol, drugs, and tobacco rates, and the criminality rates go way down, as school achievement levels go way up. The above book is a highly regarded standard text. Too conservative in his views for me, but well worth spending time with. SJG
• GhostOfHell

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  5 years ago

  Oh to be sure no one was inviting this nerdy skate rat to their parties. Perhaps I still feel left out and is why this Rican prefers the types of SC I frequent and the natural and aggressive Latina dancers.
• san_jose_guy

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  5 years ago

  Nicole, I'm sure you know about the Piven-Cloward Plan: [view link] May 2, 1966 plan [view link] SJG
• Nidan111

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  5 years ago

  My best guess is that they seem to fuck more. Other than that, I have no real answers. WARNING: Vodka infused wine HAS KICKED IN!
• skibum609

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  5 years ago

  Behavior is a function if community. Committing acts that destroy your future are acceptable in certain communities and unacceptable in others.
• IceyLoco

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  5 years ago

  People with money can pay for their daughters abortion....
• san_jose_guy

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  5 years ago

  Really it is just fatalism, people who really do have no future because of the environment they are in. SJG