Over the past few years, teenage mothers have taken a bit of a battering in the media. First, Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard character told us all the teenage mothers were poorly educated, tracksuit-wearing benefit scroungers with multiple children from multiple fathers. Then, MTV’s Teen Mom series featured young women with drug problems, porn careers and jail time – leading to criticism they were demonising the subjects.
But perhaps all this slagging off of teen mums is having an unexpected – and got to be considered positive – tangible impact. Because, according to figures released yesterday, the rate of teenage pregnancy in the UK has dropped to its lowest rate since the ’60s, with experts citing the stigma around teen motherhood as a reason behind the decline.
The figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed conceptions among under-18s dropped by a massive 10% in 2012, with teenager abortion rates rising sharply over the past 10 years. Reasons given by the ONS for the decrease included the ‘perception of stigma associated with being a teenage mother’, as well as a shift in the ‘aspirations of young women towards education.'
There were 27,834 pregnancies among under-18s in England and Wales in 2012 – down from the 31,051 in 2011, making it the lowest under-18 pregnancy rate since 1969.According to the report, teenage motherhood can be ‘associated with poor educational achievement, poor physical and mental health, social isolation, poverty and related factors’. In other words, the *Teen Mom *effect.
Echoing what’s happening in the UK, in January this year a study from Wellesley College and the University of Maryland found that Teen Mom and 16 And Pregnant actually contributed to a record decline in teen pregnancy in America. According to their research, the MTV programmes actually led to a 5.7% decline in teen pregnancies from 2009-2010. The study found searches and Tweets on birth control spiked massively every time the show was broadcast, especially in regions where the show had high viewing figures. Professor Levine, one of the co-authors of the study, said they concluded that ‘exposure to 16 And Pregnant and Teen Mom was high and it had an influence on teens' thinking regarding birth control and abortion,’ adding that the programmes ‘led teens to noticeably reduce the rate at which they give birth.’
What's interesting, though, is how little either report mentions young men. Last time we checked, it took two to tango and you’ve got to ask yourself, where is all the stigma for the boys – or men – who've been going around doing the impregnating? There isn’t any mention of them in the report and a change in their behaviour isn’t cited as a reason for the decline in teen pregnancies, even though we’re pretty sure teen mums haven’t been impregnating themselves all this time. It’s quite telling (and sad) that in an environemnt where teen mums often find themselves demonised, the onus still seems to be on the girls to sort out this stuff.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.