Teen Birth Rate Among Black Girls Drop 24%

Teen Birth Rate Among Black Girls Drop 24%

This is good news, especially since 3 years ago teen pregnancy was on the rise…

According to NBC News:

Across the nation fewer and fewer teens are giving birth, especially Hispanic girls, according to a new government report. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that from 2007 to 2011, the overall rate of teen births plummeted a full 30 percent. The biggest decline was among Hispanic teens, whose birth rate dropped 34 percent. Among non-Hispanic black teens there was a decline of 24 percent. Among white, non-Hispanic teens, the rate decreased by 20 percent.

“The thing that surprised me most was the big decline in rates for Hispanics: at least 40 percent in 22 states and the District of Columbia,” said Brady Hamilton, a report co-author and a statistician at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. “That was pretty impressive. It really caught my eye.” Hamilton suspects that public service messages are starting to resonate with teens. “Teen births are the focus of many public policies,” he said. “I think this shows the message is getting out.”

Based on U.S. Census data, “it does look like both high school and college graduation rates are going up more quickly for Latina women in the 2007-2010 period than for the general population,” said Stefanie Mollborn, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. “That would be really interesting potential explanation, since education tends to be strongly related to postponing childbearing.”

As for the overall decline in the teen birth rate, that might be related to the economy, Mollborn said. “The drop in the teen birth rate mirrors a fairly large drop in the overall U.S. birth rate – to women of all ages – during the same period,” she explained. “This coincides with the Great Recession. Many people are less likely to have children when they’re experiencing economic troubles. Since most teen mothers are in or near poverty and come from disadvantaged backgrounds, it’s not surprising that they would be especially likely to have fewer births during these difficult economic times.”

The young ladies are probably witnessing those crazy trainwrecks on “Teen Mom” and making better choices. SMH.

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