Adolescent Pregnancy—A Multifaceted Problem
Elizabeth R. McAnarney MD1
Donald E. Greydanus MD2
1 Director of the Adolescent Program, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York
2 The Adolescent Program, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York
Adolescent pregnancy is a major child health problem in the United States. Nearly one million adolescents became pregnant in 1977. Adolescent pregnancies result from earlier biologic maturity and sexual activity.
The average age of menarche in the United States is approximately 12.6 years and has declined four months during each decade in the last century. Boys also mature earlier than their peers of previous generations. As a result of better nutrition, the minimum age of biologic maturity has probably been attained. More young people are sexually active now than they were 25 years ago. In the late 1940s, 20% of unmarried women between 16 and 20 years of age reported having had intercourse. In 1971, 46% of unmarried women aged 19 years reported having had intercourse at least once and in 1976, 55%.1 In 1975, 69% of a sample of adolescent males were sexually experienced with black and Hispanic youth having had their first coital experience at the earliest ages.2
Of the approximately one million adolescents who became pregnant, 570,622 delivered children and approximately 370,000 had abortions. Birth rates to adolescents decreased between 1965 and 1975 for all ages, except for blacks and whites under 15 years and whites 15 to 17 years of age.
