Etiology of repeat pregnancy among low-income female adolescents

Background: Of the 750,000 adolescents who are pregnant each year, 30–50 percent will have a repeat pregnancy within 12 to 24 months. Predictors of repeat pregnancy include age at first birth, education and career goals, self esteem, religiosity, substance use, neighborhood context, and poverty. Implications include an adolescent mother's inability to fulfill personal achievements or to provide for herself and her children.

Purpose: The purpose of the present research is to study the etiology of repeat pregnancy among very low-income adolescent girls, addressing a gap in the current literature.

Methods: A mixed methods approach is guiding the present study aimed at understanding a complex health and social condition. The collection of qualitative data through in-depth interviews with parenting female adolescents and their mothers will complement quantitative, longitudinal data collected through the Mobile Youth Study (MYS), conducted in Mobile, Alabama, since 1998.

Results: Adolescents participating in the MYS live in high-poverty neighborhoods and frequently report that they have children and are currently trying to get pregnant or would be happy if they got pregnant. The prevalence of repeat pregnancy—or intentions aimed at repeat pregnancy—among females is approximately 2 percent.

Conclusions: The current literature presents some notions of the pathways to a first pregnancy among adolescents but does not provide an adequate understanding of repeat pregnancy and the role that adolescents' mothers play in this outcome. This information will fill gaps in current knowledge and inform the development of interventions aimed at preventing repeat pregnancy.