AIBU to wonder if Teen Mom UK reflects class demographics?

[Fieldday26]

I’ve recently started watching the UK Teen Mom series (I’m only on series 2, so this may change as I get further through it!) and I’ve noticed pretty much all of the girls/families featured seem to be from fairly working class/lower socioeconomic backgrounds. I’m absolutely not saying that as a criticism of them individually, some of them are doing amazing (finishing their A-levels, buying a house etc) and obviously I know the show is only a small selection of teen mums.

It just made me wonder why that seems to be the case. Do you think the producers specifically targets / chooses girls from those backgrounds because it makes for the type of TV they want to make? That girls from more middle-class backgrounds are less likely to agree to be filmed because they realise that Teen Mom potentially doesn’t portray teenage motherhood in a particularly positive light? Or is it actually fairly representative of the demographics of teenage mothers in the UK, and we’re simply seeing what the reality is? Or most likely a combination of all three?

I’m genuinely curious rather than trying to make a point about the girls on the programme. I also appreciate that “class” is a pretty broad and subjective thing, and I’m basing this entirely on what we see on the show rather than knowing anything about their actual circumstances.

Also does it change in the later series?

This is very true. My take on it is that middle class women have higher expectations in terms of how they want their life to be

Coercion doesn’t even necessarily come into play, it’s socialization from birth. You only have to look at the discussions of university in this board to see the class socioeconomic class differences. I think the last stat I saw was that 98% of the students from my daughter’s school go on to university. It is just as natural as your children going to reception. Deviation from the standard path is extremely rare. Maybe indoctrination would be a better descriptor.

Are they just not very bright ?

I went to a private school and sex Ed was extremely comprehensive and how to avoid pregnancy was central to the many lessons we had. Many struggling comprehensives have patchy provision. Also, not all of them got pregnant by accident. It's very unlikely that a girl with the expectation of going to University and having a glittering career will choose pregnancy at 14.

I'm not aware anyone from my school got pregnant but if they had have done it would very quickly been terminated.

Among every age group, more highly educated women/girls are less likely to have a child. The whole point of the film Idiocracy was the fact that it's not uncommon for professionals to have no children/have them late, and if they do have them, those children are also less likely to have multiple children, and less likely to have them early.
Going back many years, "middle/upper" class women were more likely to have access to abortion and contraception.
A "professional/middle class" lawyer having her first baby in 2011 was asked by another mum on the ward how she managed to get a house-the implication being it was normal to get pregnant to get a house, and it was weird to be a "professional"

Are who not very bright?

😳 right back at you

The excess pregnateens from the working class ?

Yes to aspirations but also teen girls don't get pg on their own. Boys from middle class backgrounds and their parents also do not want kids...again coercion to abortion more likely from MC families. I would also hazard a guess that if the father is older, say a family friend of the MC family, they are more likely to hide it and abort than WC family where they would likely tell the girl she got what she deserved for mucking about with someone's husband etc.

I think part of this is that middle class families don't need the money from tv shows and are less likely to compromise their privacy by allowing cameras into every aspect of their lives. Which is why you might see wc families only.
Aldo mc teens would make bad tv - their families can fix a lot of the 'drama' you see on these shows.

Another thing to consider is pay. While they don’t get paid loads , who is more likely to choose to go on TV a working class teen mum or a MC one? Who’s more likely to need the extra money?

Exposure coupled with aspirations is another. The whole country sees your dirty laundry, at your worst etc. If you’re looking at a professional career being known by a whole country as “that girl on telly who got pregnant at 15” isn’t probably a great endorsement.

Working class families can see a baby as an opportunity, a house, a regular income. In middle class families it’s a barrier in terms of education and career etc. aware this is a generalisation but from my very working class upbringing it’s true.

Teenage pregnancies have nearly halved in last 25 years.

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Because the teens who get pregnant from the middle class families have quiet terminations

I remember reading that the number of teen pregnancies is the same in both ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ areas. But in the rich areas only 20% of those pregnancies result in a live birth, on the poor areas it’s 80%. I think that’s likely part of your answer!

This. It’s not coercion, they simply are mortified and would never willingly become a teenage mother.

Sex ed in my private school was very comprehensive and focused on how to avoid pregnancy and how pregnancy was virtually the worst thing that could happen to a teenager, girl or boy. There was a lot of emphasis on how your future would be ruined. I never heard about anyone getting pregnant/having a termination, so if it happened it was completely private.

Exactly.

And also most of us didn't have time to get pregnant, MC children tend to be heavily scheduled and also supervised more.

I had more WC friends and they had a lot more freedom and some even allowed boyfriends/girlfriends to move in at a very young age.

I would never have been allowed to be alone in a bedroom with a boy.

These are my thoughts tbh. I don’t think they want the dirty laundry aired and know that if they do go on to be successful they don’t want to be known for being a teen mum.

Something absolutely no one has mentioned which I am a little surprised at is the extent to which the grooming gangs target girls who are vulnerable, and these don’t tend to be middle class girls from stable backgrounds.

I certainly look back at the ‘tarty girls’ who attended my school with a different eye as an adult.

i taught in Telford in the early 2000s, and pregnancy was very common. How many of those were abusive and coerced ‘relationships’ I can’t say, but certainly some will have been. We had a different view on it then, of course.

And it is very true that teenage pregnancies were once a big social problem (I don’t necessarily mean the individuals but the disruption to education and employment etc) and now isn’t as much.

Two of my housemates when I was at University, they were both reading for their doctorates were very open that they had abortions as teenagers. I’m still in touch with both and they both went on to marry and have children. Both from very solid MC backgrounds, quite privileged really.

My Father assumed I never dated, culturally not acceptable. He thought I just met and married DH at 30. I have seen some memes about Asian parenting and they are spot on. Study and nothing else and then at around 26 it’s why aren’t you married?

I also think the producers are looking for the most likelihood of drama so are picking specific girls for a reason. Broken families, abusive partners ect. From the American version two of the girls who seem to have the most stable upbringing maci and Chelsea both had abusive partners. All the other girls had broken families history of childhood abuse, mental illness think jenelle, amber, farrah, catelynn and tyler, leah

I think it's a stigma for middle/upper class girls to be teen mums. The three middle class girls I knew at school who fell pregnant all had terminations. I fell pregnant at 18. Moved out, and finished my 6th form studies and went to university when ds was 2 1/2 months old. I'm from a working class background.

They don't need to coerce. I knew what my parents would say when I became pregnant at 16. The thing is, I never told them. I knew myself that an abortion was the only way forward because :

1. Too young; no education and dire job prospects.
2. My boyfriend was not the one I would want to spend my life with or have as a father to my child.
3. I wanted so much more out of life before having children.
4. I didn't feel mature enough.

I had all these rational thoughts at 16. But part of the reason I had them was probably due to having educated parents that encouraged critical thinking. If I had decided to keep the baby they would have been worried about my future asking if I was sure but they would never have told me to get an abortion and they would have supported me.

I think working class teen mums are more likely to go on television than middle/upper class.

Just FYI OP that’s not Teen Mom Uk, that’s the next generation series.
@Fieldday26