>>>>Why is teen pregnancy bad?
>>>>Both my grandmothers started families in their teens and I never noticed anything particularly bad about them.
>>
>>Lots of statistical reasons to avoid teen pregnancy in the contemporary First World. Social/financial effect on mum is self-explanatory, especially if it affects her educational prospects and dad skives off. 80% of such mums rely on welfare at some point. She's also at higher risk of some serious complications of birth. If dad sticks around there are higher alcohol and substance abuse risks for him as well, including lower educational status and reduced earning potential forever after. Kids are not spared: kids of teen mums suffer more health and social problems than those of older mums. They too exhibit lower educational achievement as well as more delinquency and higher risk of repeating the cycle themselves.
>
>Even with all the news on how terrible the statistics are, I thought I read that the number of teens giving birth each year has declined by more than half since 1991, a huge decrease of over 52 percent....

not really wanting to enter this topc, but any time actual# is spoken of as important, I begin to doubt and suspect side influences. Percentages are a better start - and I know how reliable for future identical behaviour they are when targeting growth from small sizes (like in Winphone...)