Feelings of Abandonment May Predict Pregnancy Among Homeless Adolescents

Among homeless or runaway teenage women who seek short-term shelter services, those with difficult family situations have an increased risk of being pregnant, according to an analysis of a national sample of this population.  Women who felt abandoned by their families or who had been emotionally abused by their mothers had about 50% higher odds of being pregnant than those not reporting these situations; those who lived in two-parent families had reduced odds of being pregnant. Teenagers’ likelihood of being pregnant was also linked to the amount of time they had been away from home, their school enrollment status and their age, among other characteristics.

Even though homeless or runaway youth often lack familial and community support, and tend to engage in high-risk behaviors, little research has examined pregnancy among this population at the national level.  To examine possible risk factors for pregnancy among this group and possible differences between young women who are pregnant and those who are not, researchers used data from the 1997 Runaway/Homeless Youth Management Information System, the only source of national data available on young people who obtained services at youth emergency shelters. The study was limited to 12–18-year-olds who lived away from home at least overnight without permission or supervision. The researchers identified young women who were pregnant when they arrived at the shelter and randomly selected an equal number of female adolescents, matched by age, who were not pregnant to serve as a comparison group; the final sample consisted of 476 pregnant and 475 non-pregnant teenagers. Click here to read complete article