Family transitions on the way to adulthood: tradition, culture or lack of opportunities?

Carlos J. Echarri Canovas, El Colegio de México

Within the framework of the recent demographic dynamics of Mexico, the teenagers and their sexual behaviors became the object of increasing attention. In the recent years the fertility rates under the age of thirty showed a slight rise, in relative and also absolute terms, which is most significant in the youngest group of age. In this paper, I analyze the most recent data to contrast, some of the questions advanced in the literature: the framework in which first pregnancies occur; the relation between the early childbearing and the perinatal health care. Next, I focus on the consequences of the pregnancies at young people, in terms of their relationship to the transitions toward the adult life: the school abandonment, work, the entry in union and the parental exit of the household. Finally, we analyze the relation between the early beginning of the reproduction and domestic violence.