* Teen mothers are less likely to complete school and more likely to be single parents.

* Less than one-third of teens who begin their families before age 18 ever earn a high school diploma.

* Only 1.5% earn a college degree by the age of 30.4

* Common medical problems among adolescent mothers include poor weight gain, pregnancy-induced hypertension, anemia, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and cephalopelvic disproportion.

* Later in life, adolescent mothers tend to be at greater risk for obesity and hypertension than women who were not teenagers when they had their first child.

* Teen pregnancy is closely linked to poverty and single parenthood.

* A 1990 study showed that almost one-half of all teenage mothers and over three-quarters of unmarried teen mothers began receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child

For The Child:

* Children born to teen mothers suffer from higher rates of low birth weight and related health problems.

* The proportion of babies with low birth weights born to teens is 21 percent higher than the proportion for mothers age 20-24.

* Low birth weight raises the probabilities of infant death, blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental retardation, mental illness, and cerebral palsy.

* Low birth weight doubles the chances that a child will later be diagnosed as having dyslexia, hyperactivity, or another disability.

* A recent analysis found that there are 110 reported incidents of abuse and neglect per 1,000 families headed by a young teen mother.

* By contrast, in families where the mothers delay childbearing until their early twenties, the rate is less than half this level - or 51 incidents per 1,000 families.

For The Community:

* There are nearly half a million children born to teen mothers each year.

* Most of these mothers are unmarried, and many will end up poor and on welfare.

* Each year the federal government alone spends about $40 billion to help families that began with a teenage birth.