Document Type
Master's Culminating Experience
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
With a population of 42 million, one out of every eight people living in the United States is an adolescent. Current data show that half of American adolescents today are engaging in sexual activity, and one in eight adolescent females will become pregnant before the age of 20. The number of teenage pregnancies have declined over the past decade due to increased contraception, and more efforts to educate adolescents on safe sex. Newer research also reports that pregnancy during an adolescent’s teenage years may not be as detrimental to their lives as once thought. However, teenage pregnancy has been linked to a wide array of negative outcomes later in maternal life including: higher rates of psychosocial disadvantage, prolonged welfare dependence, and maternal depression. To the best of our knowledge and research, there is no current risk assessment tool for teenage pregnancy in the United States. To address this gap, a pregnancy risk assessment tool from the United Kingdom was analyzed and used as a basis for a similar tool for use in the United States. This manuscript describes the Manchester Teenage Pregnancy Partnership (MTPP) Risk Assessment Tool, its use, and compares its enumerated risk factors to those described in the literature for teenage pregnancy in the United States. Based on this favorable comparison, we recommend using the MTTP Risk Assessment Tool as a basis for a similar tool for use in the United States with the addition of family income and living environment.
Repository Citation
Loganathan, K. (2017). A Risk Factor Tool for United States Teenage Pregnancy: Adapting a Tool from the United Kingdom. Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
