Teenage Pregnancy in the United Kingdom: A Behavioral Ecological Perspective

In this paper we describe teenage pregnancy and motherhood in the United Kingdom. This has been regarded as a key social policy issue for some time and is the focus of policy intervention under the current administration. We argue that policy has been based on simple models of teenage pregnancy that have failed to take into account the complex biological nature of reproductive behavior. Our claim is that the U.K. government would be well advised to take a life-history approach to this issue, and we outline what this means and what is currently known as a consequence of research in this area, concluding with lessons that should be drawn by those working in policy.