by National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

About the author: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is a nonprofit organization that supports a pregnancy-free adolescence.

Teenage childbearing is associated with adverse consequences for teenage mothers and particularly for their children. However, most of the negative consequences for teen mothers—some say all—are due to the disadvantaged situations in which many of these girls already live. In other words, it is not as if all teen mothers were doing well before giving birth and then sank into poverty and social disorganization only as a result of having a child. Researchers are continuing to sort out the extent to which poor outcomes for teen mothers are due to the timing of the birth versus characteristics of the mother that were present even before she became...