Second pregnancies among teenage mothers

An analysis of data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) finds that 82 percent of sexually active teenage mothers were using contraceptives in the year following the birth of their first child; the majority of those who practiced contraception used the pill. The proportion of black teenagers using no method of birth control was higher than that for white teenagers, and it increased over the course of the year. Rates of nonuse were particularly high among black women younger than 18, only 68 percent of whom practiced contraception (compared with 85 percent of whites the same age). Examination of the data by marital status shows that women who married while they were pregnant were the most likely to practice contraception in the year following their first birth, while those who were single at the time of first birth were the least likely to do so (89 versus 74 percent). Blacks constituted the majority of women who were not married at the time of first birth, and of all marital subgroups, single blacks had the highest rate of nonuse (29 percent). The probability of a pregnancy during the year following a first birth for all teenage mothers was 17 percent. Pregnancy rates among women with incomes less than 150 percent of poverty level were nearly twice as high as rates among women who had incomes above that level--21 percent vs. 11 percent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)