Sociopsychological correlates of teen-age pregnancy in the United States Virgin Islands.

Abstract

The median teen pregnancy rate in the US Virgin Islands during the 1960s was less than 6% of all live births/year. This percentage increased to a 1981 peak of 21.9%, and had remained constant ever since. 41% of the islands' youths have had sexual intercourse by age 14. While the sharp rise in teen pregnancy in the 1960s and 1970s may be attributed mainly to the cultural effects of massive immigration from countries with high rates of teen pregnancy, overall teen pregnancy and its continuance in the US Virgin Islands is symptomatic of its impoverished societies. Matriarchalism, interest in immediate gratification, punitive child-rearing practices, overcrowding, the absence of male role models, and a strong feeling of fatalism create anxiety in poorer youths. Early sexuality is adopted as a means of quelling this anxiety. It may be that this sexuality is somewhat sanctioned by the community at large and that this tacit approval is passed on from one generation to the next. With poverty at the root of adolescent sexuality and pregnancy, only its reduction will effect a commensurate reduction in unwanted teen pregnancy in the US Virgin Islands.