Race Differences in Teenage Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Adolescent Childbearing

Abstract

This article has examined the origin and consequences of racial differences in teen sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing. Black/white differences in rates of early and out-of-wedlock childbearing have been declining in the past several decades though the incidence of nonmartial fertility among younger teens is still about five times as high for blacks as for whites. Early sexual behavior, irregular use of contraception, and a much lower probability of marrying prior to having a birth all contribute to the racial differential. Evidence suggests that both normative and socioeconomic differences may account for these demographic patterns. Black teens show markedly higher tolerance for childbearing before marriage. They also express much greater reservations about the viability of marriage, especially at an early age, than do whites. These views may affect their willingness to risk early pregnancy and initiate intercourse at an early age. Several types of interventions that might reduce black/white differences in teen childbearing were reviewed. The most promising of these involved simultaneously strengthening the community sanctions that discourage early parenthood while expanding social opportunities. Presently, poor, especially poor minority youth, may feel that they have little to lose by entering parenthood prematurely. Unless we are able to persuade these youth that they have a larger stake in the future, we are unlikely to see a dramatic decline in the incidence of early childbearing among blacks. This does not necessarily mean that racial differences are destined to persist. Increasingly, white youth are subject to many of the same conditions that have produced high rates of early and out-of-wedlock childbearing among blacks. Thus, racial differences may decline not because the situation of blacks is improving but because white youth are less willing to defer sexual activity or less able to marry when pregnancy occurs. This may at least change the perception of early childbearing as a "black" problem. Whatever else it is, teenage childbearing represents the inability of our society to manage the transition to adulthood effectively. This ineptitude appears to be, to a growing extent, colorblind.