Rates of teen pregnancy in the US are quite high, in contrast to European countries which have much lower rates, especially those with liberal attitudes toward sexuality. Traditionally, puberty and marriage were simultaneous. Now, the many years spent in education leaves a long time between those life stages. Sex education is not particularly strong. Contraception has allowed the rate of teen pregnancy to decrease steadily in spite of the fact that teen sex is consistently increasing. Non-marital childbearing is high in all industrialized countries.

Reading assignment:

Dash, Leon. When Children Want Children, pp. 11-15, 46-48, 51, 70-74, 103-105, 124-128, 142-145 and 172-175

Zezima, Katie. "Spike in School's Pregnancies Leads to Report that Some Resulted from Girls' Pact." The New York Times, 20 June 2008

Luker, Kristin. Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy, pp. 60-80 and 106-108

Thompson, Sharon. Going All the Way; Teenage Girls' Tales of Sex, Romance, and Pregnancy, pp. 3-39

Rosenbaum, Janet. "Reborn a Virgin: Adolescents Retracting of Virginity Pledges and Sexual Histories." American Journal of Public Health, no. 96 (2006), pp. 1098-1103

Cohen, Susan A. "Delayed Marriage and Abstinence-until-Marriage: On a Collision Course." The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, Vol. 7, no. 2 (June 2004)

Trenholm, Christopher, Barbara Devaney, Ken Fortson, Lisa Quay, Justin Wheeler, and Melissa Clark. Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs, Final Report. Washington D.C.: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., 2007

Resources: Notes - Lecture 20 [PDF]