Teenage Pregnancy in the United Kingdom

Reasons and Risk Factors for Teenage Conception

Aug 4, 2009 Martin Bohn

This article examines the reasons for the UK's relatively high rate of teenage pregnancies and describes risk factors for teen pregnancy.

The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy of all industrialized countries and has failed to reduce its teenage conception rate while most other European countries have managed to do so.

Reasons for the UK’s High Rate of Teenage Pregnancies

According to the UK based Brook Advisory Centres’ website, there are three major factors for the UK’s persisting high teenage conception rate:

• Low expectations. Teenage pregnancy seems to be more common among young people with low educational or professional expectations. In the UK, there are a relatively high number of young people who see no prospect of a job or professional success or have no educational or professional aspirations. Having no clear goals or aspirations, they simply see no reason not to get pregnant.
• Ignorance. Despite being surrounded by sexual images and messages from early on and in spite of being sexually active at an earlier age than the generations before them, young people in the UK often lack accurate knowledge about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. They also tend to have an unrealistic view about what it is like to be a parent. Overall, contraceptive use is relatively low compared to some other European countries.
• Mixed messages. Children and adolescents in the United Kingdom are surrounded by sexual images and messages which can make them believe that frequent or casual sex is the norm, even at a young age. At the same time, there may be a lack of communication between the adolescents and their parents or teachers about sexuality. Sex seems to be the norm and almost compulsory, while knowledge about contraception and sexual health is inadequate.
• Other factors are biological and sociological: According to an Internet publication of Professor Norbert Kluge of the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, the average age of puberty has been declining and continues to do so, thus making young women capable of being a mother much earlier than in the past. Besides, young people are on average sexually active at an earlier age.

Risk Factors for Teen Pregnancy in the UK

Research has shown that there are several risk factors for teenage pregnancy in young women.

• Poverty. According to the Brook Advisory Centres’ website, poverty is a key risk factor for teenage pregnancy. Girls from families with a low level of education (unskilled manual) are ten times more likely to become teenage moms than girls from professional backgrounds. They are also far less likely to have an abortion if they do become pregnant.
• Leaving Care Children in and leaving care are especially at risk of becoming pregnant. In fact, a quarter of care leavers have had a child by the age of 16 and almost half are mothers within 18-24 months of leaving care, according to Brook’s website.
• Low educational achievement. Low educational achievement is another major risk factor for teenage parenthood. The average of teenage mothers without a school leaving certificate is several times that of the national average for girls of the same age.
• Age discrepancy. Teenage girls in relationships with adult men are particularly likely to become pregnant when compared to teenage girls in relationships with boys their own age.

Teenage Pregnancy Rates in different countries

Industrialized countries have distinctively different rates of teenage pregnancies compared to developing countries where teen mothers are often the norm and which account for about 90 percent of all teenage births worldwide. However, teenage pregnancy rates differ greatly even among the industrialized countries, with four in ten US teenagers becoming pregnant at least once before reaching twenty. According to a David Popenoe’s testimony before the House of Representatives in Washington in 1996, the US rate of teenage pregnancy is twice as high as the British and ten times as high as the Dutch or Japanese.

Teenage pregnancy support and advice

Pregnant teens can look to a variety of organizations, forums and support sites for help. Links to websites offering more information and a variety of support and advice can be found on another article called Teenage Pregnancy Support and Advice.

Sources:

The UK based Brook Advisory Centres website, providing free and confidential sexual health advice and services specifically for young people under 25.

David Popenoe’s testimony before the House of Representatives in Washington in 1996. (http://republicans.smbiz.house.gov/hearings/105th/1998/980716/popenoe.asp)

An Internet Publication of Professor Norbert Kluge of the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany called "Beiträge zur Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualpädagogik”.(http://kluge.uni-landau.de/Beitraege_zur_S.u.S/Fruehpubert%E4t_im_Verstaendnis.pdf)

The copyright of the article Teenage Pregnancy in the United Kingdom in Pregnancy & Childbirth is owned by Martin Bohn. Permission to republish Teenage Pregnancy in the United Kingdom in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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