The
Connection
Prior use of alcohol and/or cigarettes increases the risk of
early sexual experience by 80%.¹
- The Costs
- Teen
mothers are more likely to be single parents.
Less than 23% of Dallas County’s teen mothers giving birth in the year 2000 were married.
Teen mothers are more likely to be single parents and to end up on welfare.
More than 3 out of 4 unmarried teenage mothers began receiving cash benefits from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program within five years of the birth of their first child.
Children of teen mothers are more likely to be abused or neglected.
Reports of child abuse and neglect are twice as high for families headed by young teen mothers as they are in families where the mother delays childbearing until her early twenties.
In
the News
Dallas Morning News, September 2002
A study of teenage sexual habits released in August 2002 concluded that
many teens had sex for the first time at home, often late at night,
and possibly with their parents not far away. The study, completed by
Child Trends, a research center based in Washington, D.C., took data
from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government sponsored
study that included 664 teens who said they had sex for the first time
between the period 1999–2000. Of those, 55% had their first sexual
experience in their own home or their partner's home. Forty-two percent
of the first encounters took place 10pm–7am, a time when many parents
are likely to be around. The advice for parents is that they need to
be involved in their kids' lives, communicating and monitoring their
adolescents.
-
Make A Difference
-
Talk to your children about sex and the risks of being sexually active before they are ready.
Explain how alcohol and other drugs impair judgment and that their use may lead to decisions that have lifelong consequences.
Resources
Regional
Organizations
Catholic Counseling Services (214) 526-2774
Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center (214) 343-7283
Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic (214) 651-8739
Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Center (214) 426-3645
Planned Parenthood
of North Texas
(214) 363-2004
State
& National Organizations
National
Family Planning
& Reproductive Health Assoc.
¹ Kandel, D.B. (1990). Early onset of adolescent sexual behavior and drug involvement. Journal of Marriage and the Family,1990
