Pgwprs

Study

Pre-Teens with Low Reading Skills Twice as Likely to Get Pregnant in High School

C. Price

Written by: C. Price

C. Price

C. Price is part of DatingAdvice.com's content team. She writes advice articles, how-to guides, and studies — all relating to dating, relationships, love, sex, and more.

Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Guevara-Castro brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to ensure DatingAdvice articles have been edited for overall clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement. She has worked at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Gwinnett Daily News, and The Gainesville Sun covering lifestyle topics.

Reviewed by: Amber Brooks

Amber Brooks

Amber Brooks is the Editor-in-Chief at DatingAdvice.com. When she was growing up, her family teased her for being "boy crazy," but she preferred to think of herself as a budding dating and relationship expert. As an English major at the University of Florida, Amber honed her communication skills to write clearly, knowledgeably, and passionately about a variety of subjects. Now with over 1,800 lifestyle articles to her name, Amber brings her tireless wit and relatable experiences to DatingAdvice.com. She has been quoted as a dating expert by The Washington Times, Cosmopolitan, The New York Post, Bustle, Salon, Well+Good, and AskMen.

See full bio »
Discuss This! Discuss This!

A study has found a link between pre-teen literacy and teen pregnancy.

Evaluating data collected from 12,339 seventh grade girls, the study found seventh grade girls with “less than average reading skills” were 2.5 times more likely to become pregnant in high school than girls with an average reading level.

The study also found seventh grade girls with above average reading skills were less likely to get pregnant in high school than girls with average reading skills.

“Twenty-one percent of seventh grade girls with below

average reading skills ended up pregnant during teen years.”

Overall, 21 percent of seventh grade girls with below average reading skills ended up becoming pregnant during their teen years.

Race also played a factor in the study and seemed to compound with literary problems, as black and Hispanic seventh graders with poor reading skills were even more likely to become pregnant as teenagers than their white peers.

“We certainly know that social disadvantages definitely play a part in teen pregnancy risk, and certainly poor educational achievement is one of those factors,” said Dr. Krishna Upadhya, a reproductive health and teen pregnancy researcher from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.

“This is really about adolescent health and development more broadly, so it’s really important for us to make sure that kids are in schools and in quality educational programs and that they have opportunities to grow and develop academically and vocationally,” she said.

Source: ContraceptionJournal.org.