MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant,’ Derided by Some, May Resonate as a Cautionary Tale - NYTimes.com.

“Families born by accident, rather than design, are bad for men, bad for women and really bad for kids,” said Kathryn Edin, a poverty researcher at Harvard.

“Rising inequality and declining prospects for people at the bottom have created a situation where it doesn’t matter that much for these teenagers,” she said of the very low-income teenagers who are more likely to have a child. “It does not seem like their life prospects are going to be significantly harmed by having a child, because they’re so disadvantaged already.”