July 21, 2013
As promised, I found information
that can help us understand what we are talking about when we use the term teen parent and we can get a sense of
the number of Americans we are dealing with. Statistical information is not
exact information. It allows for an understanding of measuring things-in
general- they cannot ever provide exact numbers for a variety of reasons. Good
statistical information always informs the reader of the variability and
reliability of the data provided. This source from the Center for Disease
Control’s (CDC) division of vital statistics is based upon surveys and not on
census bureau data. This means there are a lot of variables. For example, they
could not have surveyed every home in America. So, aside from this information
coming from the Center for Disease control, which surprised me, the numbers are
pretty much what we hear on the evening news. I have included the link to the
document I am quoting so you can find yourself in their numbers and see how you
or persons like you are being tallied into statistical data.
Overall, the CDC report on
“Intended and Unintended Births in the
United States: 1982–2010” written by William D.
Mosher, Ph.D.; Jo Jones, Ph.D.; and Joyce C. Abma, Ph.D., for the Division of
Vital Statistics in July of 2012 concludes that teen mothers are considered to
be those females who give birth between the ages of 15-19. The report suggests that the
numbers of births to American women in this age group has remained fairly
constant between 2002 and 2010. Overall, “teen births” account for 11% of all
births in the United States. About 2,283 of those births, annually, are
attributed to unmarried females aged 15-19. Women aged 15-19 who were married
accounted for 3,103 births in the years between 2006 and 2010. Further, "only 23% of births to teen mothers were intended.”
About half of ALL pregnancies were terminated through abortion.
“Birth
to white women of any age are less likely to be reported as unwanted…this may
be related to levels of income or education.” So, we see that while the CDC has
captured this information in order to determine use or non-use and forms of
contraception in the American female population, they are also keeping track of
what color the babies are. The report states that most unwanted pregnancies in
the age group 15-19 occur in black and Latina populations and because those
ethnic groups also tend to be, statistically, the poorest Americans, the
majority of babies born to women aged 15-19, in the United States are born into
poverty. “In 2008 (the midpoint of interviewing for the 2006–2010 NSFG), the
poverty level was $14,489 for a family of two and $22,025 for a family of four.
(This analysis is limited to women aged 20–44 because women aged 15–19 often do
not know their family’s income). This
last bit of information suggests that women 15-19 who have children continue to
live in their family home with their parents and siblings. I will need to do
more research on that but, again, if you know it please provide us with the
information.
It would
also be interesting to know how females under the age of 15 who give birth are
classified. I would also like to know if there is a certain percentage of
recorded births in the age 15-9 group that can be attributed to rape, incest,
or any kind of sexual violence. I will continue to work on pulling this
information together but, again, if you know it-share it.
I was
emancipated at age 16 in order to apply for welfare and food stamps to support my
son and myself. When I left St. Anne’s, I did return to my home with my parents
and siblings who really didn’t seem to mind that I had lied to them for two
months. They were confused and my youngest sister was furious. Having been the
family baby up until that point and only being 12, she hated that this new baby
had been brought into the house. She has long since given that up and loves her
nephew as much as she loves her own child. This was not an easy or smooth
process and I will share stories with you about how it happened. Incorporating
me into the family, as not just a sister and daughter but as a mother was not
simple, easy or smooth. It turned out to be best when my son and I moved into
our own home. It was a dingy one-room storage shed turned into a home but it
was ours and I loved it mice, cockroaches and all.
For more
information on the statistics I provided above go to:
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