According to a report developed by Tomer Urwicz for the Uruguayan newspaper El País, Uruguayan teenage moderns tend to become NEETs and the problem is getting worse in the lower socioeconomic sectors.

A study developed by the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar) reveals that “public policies have not been effective” and presents very important data for making decisions.

62 out 1000 Uruguayan teenagers are parents. This shows a small increase in the past two years and the situation is even more complex if the fact that the global fertility rate is falling quickly.

Two decades ago, families used to have an average of 2.5 children in Uruguay; today, the number is 1.96. Contrary to what used to happen 50 years ago, the country is getting closer to the reality of the rest of Latin America (70 out of 1.000) and moving away from Europe (20 out of 1.000).

The average of children went down 20%, but among teenagers it has just decreased 12%. The percentage is even lower among poor people.

In Casavalle, a neighbourhood of Montevideo with 60% of basic needs unsatisfied, 17% of girls under 19 years old are mothers. In Pocitos, one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods of the Uruguayan capital, the rate is lower than 5%.

“Teenage motherhood is “one of the faces of social inequity”, said the demographist Carmen Varela, one of the researchers who developed the report of the Social Sciences and Psychology School of Udelar.

Hard data “show that public policies have been rather ineffective”, explains the psychologist Alejandra Lopez. Over 90% of the girls surveyed said they know about birth control methods and have access to information, but “choose not to use them” or “have difficulties to negotiate their use with boys”. And once they are pregnant, the “vast majority choose not to go through an abortion”. Actually, the numbers are similar to the ones of 2004, when the act that decriminalizes this practice had not been created yet.

Three out of four women say they would have prefer to have a kid at another age. However, when they are asked why they had a baby, “it becomes clear that they unconsciously wished to become a mother”, points out Varela. “We are facing a population secluded within a neighbourhood, who interact solely with people within the area, who do not have many friends and their child becomes their single protection”.

A 19 years old girls, who has a 1 year old son and is expecting another: when you have a child “you can stay home changing a diaper, which is way nicer than going outside and meet with people”.

Becoming a mother is “the only variable that implies leaving school and stop working”, says the psychologist Pablo López. In high income levels “motherhood is considered the irruption of any possible future”. Researchers explain that 2 out of 10 abortions in Uruguay are practiced among teenagers “and doctors tell us that the vast majority are middle class and high class girls”.

The Mexican philosopher and researcher Juan Guillermo Figueroa, who attended a Congress in Uruguay that addressed this issue, explains that “during labour, women seek the company of someone they trust and, generally, these are people who have been in their situation”.

Over half of teenage mothers are daughters of a teenage mother. As a result, new-borns may have grandmothers who are 32 years old in average. Varela concludes that “the probability of this phenomenon occurring again with their children is rather high, except the situation changes”.

Among Uruguayans younger than 19 years old, only 2.6% of boys are fathers. Among women, the percentage is four times higher.

Women who graduate from college have their first child when they are 27.5 years old. Among women who drop out of the educational system the average age is 20 years old. “This lead us to keep on thinking that education is the best birth control method”, says Lopez.

However, the researcher makes it clear that the system “is not prepared to deal with a teenage mother who wants to keep on studying”.

8 out of 10 teenagers who have not still have a child are still studying or have graduate. And most of the people who drop school, work. On the contrary, Udelar researchers point out that for women who have kids and live in vulnerable contexts “work is a long term option –at least 10 years-.”

The challenge of education remains being the key in the region.

Source: El País