These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Teen pregnancy: an international perspective.
    Author: Murray J.
    Journal: Plan Parent Rev; 1986; 6(1):20-1. PubMed ID: 12340616.
    Abstract:
    The recently released findings of a large scale study indicate that developed countries which have accepting attitudes toward teenage sexuality and toward the provision of family planning services for adolescents generally have much lower adolescent pregnancy rates than the US; these findings are stimulating renewed efforts to make sex education and family planning services more readily available to adolescents in the US. The study, undertaken by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, consisted of a statistical analysis of factors associated with adolescent fertility in 37 developed countries and an in-depth comparative analysis of the US and 5 other developed countries (Sweden, France, Netherlands, England and Wales, and Canada). The study confirmed that the US had a higher adolescent pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth rate than almost all other developed countries. Among adolescents 15-19 years of age the pregnancy rate in the US was 96/1000. Respective rates for the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Canada, and England and Wales were 14, 35, 43, 44, and 45. The study failed to confirm many commonly proffered explanations for the high US rates. For example, the discrepancy between the US and the other 5 countries cannot be attributed to the high pregnancy rate among black teenagers in the US as the rate for white teenagers alone (83/1000) is much higher than the rate in the other 5 countries. Neither can the high US rate be attributed to the availability of welfare benefits; welfare benefits in the other countries tend to be higher. Nor can the high US rates be attributed to greater recourse to abortion in the other countries (the abortion rate is higher among adolescents in the the US then in the 5 countries) or to to high US unemployment rate (teenage unemployment is a serious problem in all the other countries). Factors which were common to all 5 countries but lacking in the US included an open attitude toward adolescent sexuality, easy access for teenagers to free and confidential family planning services, a tendency to promote oral contraceptives as an ideal method for teenagers, and, with the exception of the Netherlands, a national policy promoting sex education in the schools. Surprisingly, both the US press and public responded positively to the results of the study. The press extensively and favorably reported the results of the study, and many groups and individuals renewed their efforts to promote sex education and family planning services for adolescents. The response indicates that the majority of the public favors a more open attitude toward adolescent sexuality.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]