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| Teen birth rate hits record low |
| 2007-07-13 |
| Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms. The teen birth rate has hit a record low. More young people are finishing high school (effect), too, and more little kids are being read to (cause), according to the latest government snapshot on the well-being of the nation's children. It's good news on a number of key wellness indicators, experts said of the report being released Friday. "The implications for the population are quite positive in terms of their health and their well-being," said Edward Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics. In a separate article: "Likewise, only 16 percent of stay-at-home moms say they'd prefer to work full-time. That's down from 24 percent a decade ago. Nearly half of at-home moms say not working at all is ideal, up from 39 percent in 1997." If the desire by mothers to spend more time at home (with their kids) is matched by more of them actually doing so, then I think we may have another cause for the lower teen birth rate effect. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #9 OP - it's always location, location location. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2007-07-13 22:59 |
| #8 I guess this "good news" is locational. About 11 of the girls my daughter went to school with or was friends with have gotten pregnant and had a child. Three of them have gotten married after having a child. The other eight mainly relied on mom and dad, State welfare, or federal largesse to survive. We have one of the children in our custody, and he has some major problems. At least one, and possibly two of the others are also being reared by grandparents. Two of them are now pregnant with a second child. Until we make it unpopular to have children out of wedlock - including making it financially unpopular - and stop glamorizing casual sex, we'll continue having children having kids, with all the social baggage that engenders. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-07-13 22:49 |
| #7 Hi, TW! It's been a while, I know, but I had to take a Sabbatical and relax some. Now that I'm "recharged" I'ma ready to blog. |
| Posted by: BA 2007-07-13 12:49 |
| #6 Teenage latina pregnancy rate soaring, however. As the late great Casey Stengel said "You can look it up!" |
| Posted by: borgboy 2007-07-13 12:48 |
| #5 It's not just women who've noticed the effect thingy on children. (Hi, BA!) We're friends with several families where the wife has the career and the husband stays/works from home. Most people simply don't have the energy and the organization to have it all and do right by the children. Those who do have my awe and admiration, but they turned out not to be as common as we thought, back in the day. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-07-13 12:13 |
| #4 And, in addition, ed, as the article notes, women have noticed the effect thingy on children and are not (as much) buying in to the whole feminazi/woman revolution thingy anymore. It's remarkable to me that we're pulling it off, but ALL of my friends who are married and have kids have the wife staying home with junior (or at least, have the wife working from home). It's tough financially, but the results are amazing and will help this nation right the wrong course we took after the 60's "revolution." |
| Posted by: BA 2007-07-13 10:40 |
| #3 Welfare reform of 1994. Teen pregnancy had been trending up until then. When teenage mothers were no longer given taxpayer housing and welfare payments the birth rate dropped noticeably, esp in the inner cities where several generations had used that as their career path. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-07-13 09:59 |
| #2 Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms, |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-07-13 09:38 |
| #1 I blame Playstation and XBox for reducing the effects of the traditional onset of adolescent male hormone activities seen since the beginning of the era of the unsupervised adult environment that started in the late 60's or early '70s. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-07-13 09:25 |