One of the encouraging statistical signs over the past few decades has been the steady decline in the number of teen pregnancies and births. But a recent article in World Congress of Families' Family Update reveals that there is a flip side to that trend.
According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, even as birth rates among teens are declining, the proportion of births to teens that are unmarried has shifted dramatically, increasing steadily from 15 percent to 83 percent between 1960 and 2004. Although married mothers not long ago represented the majority of teen mothers, they have been the minority since 1982.
In other words, the babies born to young mothers today are 3 1/2 times more likely to enter the world in non-married homes. And it's not just to teenagers.
In 2003, the latest year for which data are available, 53 percent of all births to women in their early 20s were outside the protective bonds of marriage.
When both age groups are put together, unmarried women under 25 years of age accounted for 62 percent of all out-of-wedlock births in 2003 (teens accounted for 24 percent while their older sisters accounted for 38 percent).
One key factor playing into the rise in out-of-wedlock births is the deline in marriage rates across the country. Fifty years ago, being a teen and pregnant meant a wedding (with or without the encouragement of a shotgun). Today, with little or no stigma remaining about having a baby outside marriage, a higher proportion of pregnant girls are choosing to have the baby but not get married.
So despite the falling numbers of births to young mothers, these children are overwhelmingly growing up in non-married homes, which as we saw from yesterday's post, bodes negatively for them.
Stumble It!
