African American Adolescent Pregnancy

Adolescent pregnancy is considered to be an epidemic in the United States. For African-Americans, the problem of teenage pregnancy is particularly devastating because of the sociomedical consequences experienced by this group. National data, as well as data from Washington, D.C., are used to highlight the problem. An exploration of the consequences is necessary because they are so varied, and because the teen parent's adjustment is dependent on supportive family services and policies.

Urban areas such as the District of Columbia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York experience especially high rates of teenage pregnancy. The following statistics are given to show the incidence of teenage pregnancy in Washington, D.C., an area having a large percentage of African-American citizens:

In the District of Columbia, two in ten teenagers become pregnant each year. In 1986, 4,180 District of Columbia teenagers had pregnancies that terminated in birth, abor

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m" and how it works. African-Americans see a system of the "double standard," that is to say, a system that provides unequal access to opportunities (jobs, housing, education) on the one hand, and public assistance offering immediate gratification without many responsibilities on the other. The public views teenage pregnancy as a certain path to poverty and welfare dependency. This observation is borne out by experience: the earlier a teen becomes a parent with little or no family support, the more likely the teen parent and child are to face a bleak economic future. Further, according to Furstenberg, the family size is also a predictor of receiving public assistance. Other factors, such as living in unsafe neighborhoods, attending poor quality schools, associating with peers who do not value education, and early sexual activity are equally compelling factors. Education is viewed as an escape from poverty, yet to the poor, it may seem elusive. The dropout rate among African-Americans has been recorded as being as high as 61 percent in some urban areas. Education is usually cut short among teens who become parents. Their offspring, in turn, tend to drop out of school at an early age, and the cycle repeats itself. Furstenbu
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Approximate Word count = 2072
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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