Girls with poor school performance get pregnant earlier than others
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Center in Baltimore, as well as their colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study and concluded that seventh graders who have trouble with reading are most at risk of becoming pregnant while still high school students.
The picture did not change even after the specialists took into account such factors as the race of the girls, the level of prosperity of their families and the well-being of the district in which they live - all these factors are associated with early teenage pregnancy.
"Of course, social failings in society play a role in the fact that teenage girls are early mothers, but poor performance is one of the important factors," says Dr. Krishna Upadua, one of the authors of the study, a researcher at the Center for Reproductive Health and Teen Pregnancy at the Johns Hopkins University.
Bad academic knowledge can play a role in how adolescents see their future and financial well-being, which can affect their actions and the decisions they make, says Dr. Upadua.
The co-author of the study, Dr. Ian Bennett of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues conducted a standardized test that defines reading skills.
Participants in the study were 12,339 girls, seventh grade students from 92 different public schools in Philadelphia. Experts observed the girls for the next six years.
Throughout the study period, 1,618 adolescents became mothers, including more than two hundred girls who gave birth to two or three children.
Latin American and African-American girls became pregnant more often than whites.
Of the girls who demonstrated reading skills below the average, 21% became pregnant when they were teenagers. Among those girls who passed the test well and scored high points, the incidence of early pregnancy was less - only 12%.
The race and financial well-being of the family were also taken into account.
As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that girls who had reading skills below the average level had two and a half more chances to give birth to a child at a younger age than those who showed better results.
The number of pregnant girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen in the United States in 2011 was a record low. Of the thousands of mothers, 31 became a girl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Odako, this indicator is still high among girls growing in poor families, the researchers note.
Teenage pregnancy is an urgent problem, despite the widespread adolescent sexual education programs.
Young mothers and their children are at great risk of complications.
Dr. Upadua says that teenage pregnancy is a problem requiring more educational work and support so that girls can postpone pregnancy at a later date and normally finish school.
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