New Study Links Religion and Teenage Pregnancy
A controversial new study from Drexel University College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh connects teen pregnancy and religion.
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn’t successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Researcher Joseph Strayhorn compiled data from various data sets. The religiosity information came from a sample of nearly 36,000 participants who were part of the U.S. Religious Landscapes Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted in 2007, while the teen birth and abortion statistics came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For religiosity, the researchers averaged the percentage of respondents who agreed with conservative responses to eight statements, including: ”There is only one way to interpret the teachings of my religion,” and ”Scripture should be taken literally, word for word.”
They found a strong correlation between statewide conservative religiousness and statewide teen birth rate even when they accounted for income and abortion rates. (read more)
What do you think? Are Christian teenagers ignoring the traditional religious teachings about abstinence and having babies? Is this a sign that it’s time for religion to support birth control for teenagers?
source: msnbc
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