Risking the Future

More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? The working papers for the report Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing provide additional insight into the trends in and consequences of teenage sexual behavior.

• Front Matter
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing: An Emerging Research Focus
• 1. Factors Affecting Initiation of Sexual Intercourse
• 2. Adolescent Sexual Behavior as It Relates to Other Transition Behaviors in Youth
• 3. Contraceptive Decision-Making among Adolescents
• 4. Teenage Pregnancy and Its Resolution
• 5. The Health and Medical Consequences of Adolescent Sexuality and Pregnancy: A Review of the Literature
• 6. Social and Economic Consequences of Teenage Childbearing
• 7. Teenage Fatherhood
• 8. The Children of Teen Childbearers
• 9. The Effects of Programs and Policies on Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing
• 10. Estimates of Public Costs for Teenage Childbearing: A Review of Recent Studies and Estimates of 1985 Public Costs
• References