Adolescent Pregnancy: A Review of the Literature

In the late 1960's and early 1970's illegitimacy among adolescents became recognized as a serious national, medical and social problem (Osofsky, 1968). It was discovered that the incidence of adolescent out-of-wedlock pregnancies was increasing rapidly. The illegitimacy rate of unmarried girls aged 15-19 years of age was 8 per 1,000 in 1940; 16 per 1,000 in 1960; and 24 per 1,000 in 1971. There was concern that this increase represented a trend toward sexual permisiveness and the abandonment of a sexual code of ethics, thereby threatening the institutions of marriage and the family (Plionis, 1975). At the same time, the morbidity and mortality rates among adolescent females and their offspring began to run high enough that adolescents were classified as a high risk group. The apparent lack of medical, social, and educational services for this group resulted in investigations of the psychosocial causes and consequences of adolescent pregnancy with a view toward treatment and prevention (Plionis, 1975). Today, the need to effect strategies to deal with the multifaceted problems of adolescence is even more acute. Premarital intercourse is beginning at younger ages, and the actual incidence of premarital intercourse is increasing for adolescents (Vener & Stewart, 1974; Zelnik & Kantner, 1977). U.S. adolescent