Number of Teens Having 2nd Child Drops Dramatically

The number of teenage mothers who have a second child has dropped dramatically, a hopeful trend since it’s often after a second baby that a young woman drops out of school and goes on welfare, the government reported Thursday.

For years, researchers have been tracking overall teen births, which dropped last year for a sixth straight year. But Thursday’s report was the first to focus on births to teens who already had a child.

It found a 21% drop between 1991 and 1996 to the lowest level in more than two decades. The plunge was most dramatic among the youngest teens, with the rate dropping 30% among 16-year-olds.

“It’s both surprising and exciting because we’ve had such a hard time figuring out how to delay those second births,” said Tamara Kreinin of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

In 1996, 17% of teenage girls with a baby had a second, down from 22% in 1991. The record high of 36% came in 1959, when more teenagers were married and overall teen pregnancy rates were at their peak.

Overall the birth rate dropped for all U.S. teenagers last year by 3% from 1996, to about 5.3%. That’s down from more than 6.2% in 1991, the recent peak, according to the report from the National Center for Health Statistics, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, the teen birth rate remains higher than in the mid-1980s, when it hit an all-time low.

Increased use of condoms and other contraceptives, along with decreased teen sexual activity, has driven the overall teen birth rate down.

To explain the drop in second births, researchers pointed to contraceptive use, particularly Depo-Provera injections and Norplant implants. These longer-lasting methods are more reliable than pills or condoms, which must be swallowed daily or used each time a woman has sex.

In fact, one in four teenagers who already had a child used one of those two longer-lasting methods, said Stephanie Ventura, a demographer who co-wrote the report. That compares to just 5% of teenage women without children.

The decline in second births is particularly significant, researchers say, because teen mothers with two or more children are more likely to drop out of school, move out of their parents’ homes and receive welfare.

In fact, research by Debra Kalmuss of Columbia University found that teen girls who had one child were not significantly more likely to drop out of school.

“It is the second birth that’s really the whammy,” she said.

Other research has suggested that’s because a young woman’s family often is willing to support her after she has one child but turns away if she gets pregnant again, Kalmuss said.