" The higher the woman's level of education, the more likely she is to postpone marriage and childbearing. Adolescents with little schooling are often twice as likely as those with more education to have a baby before their twentieth birthday. Some 58% of young women in the United States who receive less than a high school education give birth by the time that they are twenty years old, compared with 13% of young women who complete at least twelve years of schooling (Tunick, 1997). Teens that become pregnant during high school are more likely to drop out (Calhoun, 1995). A teen mother leaves school because she cannot manage the task of caring for a baby and studying, and a teen father usually chooses a job over school so that he can pay bills and provide for his child (Johnson, 1995). .
Teen mothers usually have fewer resources than older mothers because they have had less time to gather savings or build up their "productivity" through work experience, education, or training. Because of this teen mothers are generally poor and are dependent on government support (Newman, 1997). The welfare system is usually the only support a teen parent will receive. Welfare benefits are higher for families with absent fathers or dependent children (Calhoun, 1995). In some cases teen mothers may .
receive help like Medicaid, Federal Food Stamps, and "Aid to Families with Dependent Children" (AFDC) (Newman, 1997). .
Besides education and financial problems, teenage mothers may face a great deal of emotional strain and may become very stressed. Teen mothers may have limited social contacts and friendships because they do not have time for anything other than their baby. Lack of social life and time for herself may cause the teenage mother to become depressed or have severe mental anxiety (Johnson, 1995). Depression may become worse for a teenage mother because she usually does not know much about child development or about how to care for her children.
