In order to better understand the factors leading to teenage pregnancy in our high risk population, we interviewed 119 adolescent females ≤ age 21; 102 postpartum mothers and 17 hospitalized control adolescents (mostly PID and asthma). In addition to direct questioning, the WRAT for reading and Gillmore Reading Comprehension Test were administered to assess educational level. The two groups did not differ for race, citizenship, economic situation or employment. When those sexually active were asked about contraception method, 70% reported using condoms, 7% oral contraceptives, 6% other methods and 17% no method. Of the teens who used some form of contraception, 17% use it every time, 23% most of the time, 45% sporatically and 15% rarely. Information about contraception was obtained primarily from health clinics (45%), with only 14% from schools and 11% from parents. Male partners rarely play a primary role in the decision to use contraception, with only 15% raising the issue first vs 49% of the females. 70% of the pregnancies were unplanned and 30% of the mothers were using contraception at the time of conception. The postpartum group were older when they first had sexual intercourse (15±2 vs 11±6, p=0.0000). Educational underachievement was based on the difference between the expected grade level based upon age and the grade level performed on the reading tests. Teen mothers were academic underachievers, both on the WRAT (4.5±2.8 vs 1.8±2.5, p=0.0006) and on the Gillmore (4.8±2.6 vs 2.4±2.5, p=0.0008). In addition, teen mothers were in a significantly lower percentile on the WRAT than the control teens (12.3±17.6 vs 26.8±29.6, p=0.0060). We conclude that adolescents who are pregnant score lower in academic tests. These findings suggest that better intervention in terms of general education as well as education geared to preventing teenage pregnancy needs to be targeted towards this high risk population.
