Teen childbearing costs

[Guest guest]

http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2007/nov/study110606.html

Saul Hoffman, chairperson of UD's Department of Economics and professor of

economics and women's studies, is the author of a new report, " By the Numbers:

The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing, " released by the National Campaign to

Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the

well-being of children, youth and families by reducing teen pregnancy.

The first comprehensive national estimate of the public costs of teen

childbearing since a 1996 study, the report found that teen childbearing in the

United States cost taxpayers approximately $9.1 billion in 2004 and that

estimated cumulative public costs for teen childbearing between 1991 and 2004

totaled $161 billion, despite a one-third decline nationally in the teen birth

rate since the early 1990s.

According to Hoffman, one of the reasons the study was conducted " was to show

that despite how much [has been] accomplished, there are still huge costs that

are potentially avoidable. Teen birth rates in the U.S., despite the decline,

are still four to six times the rates in most of Western Europe and twice as

high as Canada. "

The study tracks the costs associated with health care, foster care, the child

welfare system, food stamps, the prison system and lower tax revenue for the

government. The most important costs are those associated with the children of

teen mothers, who have higher health care costs and lower earnings and are more

likely to be in the foster care system and in prison.

" We have a better handle now on the kinds of programs that can be successful to

delay first births, " Hoffman said. " What everybody always wants to know is: 'Are

they worth it?' This [study] is a way of providing policymakers with that

information, because it tells them what the costs are of those births. "

Hoffman's analysis provides a " conservative estimate " of the costs of teen

childbearing and reflects only those costs clearly associated with a teen birth,

rather than other associated risks that may lead to poorer outcomes, Hoffman

said.

Hoffman added that a state-by-state analysis also shows how Delaware lines up

statistically. " The other part of this study was to generate separate estimates

of the costs to each state, " Hoffman said, " and the cost for Delaware for 2004

is $28 million. "

More information about the findings is available online at

[www.teenpregnancy.org/costs]. Funding for the study was made possible by a

grant from the T. Grant Foundation.

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