The study found that such pregnancies are about twice as likely among
girls who say that their parents do not always know where they are when
they are away from school or home.
“This finding is consistent with research suggesting that parental
involvement is an important protective factor in adolescents’ lives,” Richard
Crosby of Emory University and colleagues say. Their study examined teens
at a clinic in Atlanta.
Black teens younger than 18 and those who already had a child were also
more than twice as likely to say that their current pregnancy was unplanned
and unwanted.
Crosby and colleagues interviewed girls ages 14 to 20 who were in their
first or second trimester about their feelings about their pregnancy,
their relationship with the baby’s father and the involvement and
support they received from their parent or family.
The group was about evenly split as to whether their pregnancies were
wanted, but only 13 of the 170 girls interviewed said their pregnancy was
planned. More than 90 percent said that they had conceived the pregnancy
with their current sex partner.
Although the researchers had suspected that the girls’ feelings
about their relationship with these partners might influence their feelings
about pregnancy, Crosby and colleagues found no evidence of this.
Black teens were chosen for the study because the birth rate among this
population is high compared to rates among other ethnic and racial groups
of the same age, according to the researchers.
The study was supported by the Center for Mental Health Research on AIDS,
the National Institute of Mental Health and the Office of AIDS Research.
