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Does "16 and Pregnant" Deter Viewers from Becoming Teen Moms?

I've aged out of almost all of MTV's programming—watching barely legal 20-somethings binge drink grain alcohol on various incarnations of the Real World is no longer my idea of entertainment. But I've caught a few episodes of the MTV series 16 and Pregnant, and althought I'm not the target audience, I have found the show to be pretty riveting stuff.

True to the title, each episode follows a different teen mom-to-be for several months during her pregnancy, through the birth of her child, and into her first months of being a mother. Though there are twee Juno-esque interstitials, the series offers a pretty unvarnished view of being a teen mom. The second-to-last episode followed a Georgia girl named Whitney, who seems thoroughly beaten down by her pregnancy. She's dropped out of school and withdrawn from her friends almost entirely, and spends most days lying on the couch. Other women in the series seem to take pregnancy in stride, like Maci, who has a supportive family, graduates early, and goes to college, all while taking care of an infant.

In Salon today, Amy Benfer, who was 16 and pregnant herself 20 years ago, says, "No one's asking teenagers to take the girls of 16 & Pregnant as role models." But that rings false to me, because I know that the show was produced in conjunction with the National Campaign to Reduce Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy. So one could argue that yes, someone is asking these girls to be role models, and whether they want to be role models or not, they are going to be looked up to by some sheerly because they are on national TV. A much better point, one that Benfer also makes, is that what's great about the show is it gives pregnant teens "some space to talk about their own lives, rather than be talked about by others who see them as statistical symbols of social decay."

Tonight is the season finale of 16 and Pregnant, and this episode follows up with each woman months after she's had her baby. It will be interesting to see how they're faring. The show taken as a piece of art or entertainment is clearly a success: It's infinitely watchable and genuinely moving. I never believed that more girls wanted to get pregnant after watching Juno, or seeing Bristol Palin on network news shows. But I wonder if 16 and Pregnant—a show explicitly meant to reduce pregnancies—has any effect whatsoever on the behavior of teens who are watching it. My guess is that it's a wash, and that teens are more influenced by their parents and peers. What do you think?

Photograph by Stockbye/Getty Images.

Tags: 16 and pregnant, MTV, teen pregnancy

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Jessica Grose is the managing editor of Double X and the co-author of Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home. Click here to follow her on Twitter.

Comments

Ehhhhhhh.... could beeeee

By: earnestp | Sat, 07/25/2009 - 21:59

I have always secretly held that the popularity of Ricki Lack, Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones, in the mid-nineties, contributed to the drop in teen pregnancy due to the proliferation of negative role models on those shows. They gave people templates of what not to become. So maybe 16 and Pregnant will contribute to a drop in teen pregnancy... that is, if people actually start watching MTV the way they used to.

Honestly, I think the series

By: sjneal | Thu, 07/23/2009 - 16:04

Honestly, I think the series was so good I want to order a copy to save for my sons, a 4-year-old and a newborn, to watch when they are young teens and we start seriously taking about pregnancy prevention. (I don't typically watch MTV but saw a write-up in a magazine and it sounded interesting.) I think smart parents would have watched the show with their teens and talked about all the struggles you face as a new parent. Perhaps my reality radar was on high alert with this one since I've got a baby of my own right now, but I think they did a good job capturing how new motherhood, while an amazing, joyous event, can make you feel beaten down, lonely and just plain exhausted. It reminded me how my job as a daycamp counselor in college really drove home the fact that I was not ready to have kids anytime soon. Being in charge of 8 little kids during business hours was a huge reality check, and I think watching girls like the ones on this show wake up 10 times a night or see how none of the boyfriends really stepped up to care for the child would certainly be an eye-opener for most teens.

I watched the entire series, and if you didn't see last week's episode featuring the sole adoption in the bunch, it's worth setting the DVR. It was both uplifting and heartbreaking. Even though you knew the little girl would be loved and cared for by her new family, and that the teens were making an amazingly mature, thoughtful decision, watching her young birth parents hand her over to her adoptive parents in a parking lot outside the hospital was truly awful, as was watching the birth mother not wanting to hold her baby after delivery, but not wanting the adoptive parents in delivery room, leaving the seconds-old baby crying, alone, in her plastic hospital crib. It's a view of adoption I've not seen before; not against adoption, exactly, but one that seemed to honestly show how difficult it is for everyone involved.