Teen Pregnancies Are Contagious? Cover Your Mouth, Girls!

A new study finds that girls are following in the footsteps of their big sisters and getting pregnant at a young age. Is it contagious?

The study of more than 42,000 Norwegian girls found that if sisters are of a similar age or come from a poorer background, they are more likely to follow suit. Researchers found that the probability of a younger sister having a teen pregnancy doubled if the older sister has a teen pregnancy to about 40 percent. Hmm. So, why is pregnancy “contagious” when it comes to sisters?

For starters, sisters spend a ton of time together. They grow together and learn from each other. When one sister gets rid of her V card, it is only expected that the other sister will feel like she needs to as well. Researchers found that as the age gap widened between sisters, social circles became more distant and they were on “different life trajectories.” Makes sense.

They also did something interesting with the study. Only studying the amount of births, they were able to look at how one sister’s decision to keep her baby could influence the other sister to keep hers. We tend to do what we know, so if sissy decided to keep her baby, it would be near impossible to find adoptive parents or go through with an abortion.

Family influences so much about us. Our personalities grow out of the people we spend the most time with, naturally. So, whatever close family members do, chances are we learn from it. The research also found that economic background and poor education could also be factors, but the sister revelation and “contagious” pregnancy is clearly most surprising.

Teen pregnancy will probably always be an issue studied, discussed, and misunderstood. The only thing we know for sure is that it happens, and there are a million reasons why.

Contact the author here: crazycolleen@morningquickie.com