Teenage pregnancies are influenced by family structure

Editor—Since up to 80% of unintended pregnancies result from contraceptive failure, McLeod cautions that differential access to contraceptive services may be only one component affecting local variation in rates of teenage pregnancy.¹,² She mentions the well established association between socioeconomic deprivation and teenage pregnancies.

She does not, however, mention the equally well established link between one parent families and teenage pregnancy, which is graphically illustrated by (although not highlighted in the text of) the 1999 social exclusion report on teenage pregnancy.³ Young people aged 14-17 who live in a two parent family are less likely to have ever had sexual intercourse than young people living in any other family arrangement, even after adjusting for potentially confounding factors such as race, age, and socioeconomic deprivation.⁴

This is hardly surprising, as children whose parents talk to them about sexual matters and provide sexuality education at home are more likely than others to postpone sexual activity.⁴ There is likely to be an overall greater chance of good communication to both sons and daughters if there are two parents rather than one. Cohabitations are four times more likely to break up than marriages and less than 4% of cohabitations last 10 years or more,⁵ so children born outside of marriage stand little chance in their teenage years of being in the optimal family structure associated with the lowest risk of unplanned pregnancy. Without better marriage education and support in the United Kingdom, teenage pregnancy rates are likely to remain high even with increasing availability of contraceptives.