Girls whose friends had experienced teen pregnancies were less likely to get pregnant, a study shows.

The researchers studied two groups of girls: those whose similarly-aged friends had given birth and those with a friend who'd had an early miscarriage.

The girls whose friends became teen mothers were less likely to have sex as teens, get pregnant or married, compared to girls whose friends had miscarried. The girls with teen mother friends were also more likely to attain a college degree.

"Teens learn from their friends' mistakes," study co-author Dr Olga Yakusheva of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor told Reuters.

Girls in the teen birth group were 5 percentage points less likely to have a baby themselves as a teen, compared to those in the miscarriage group.

Teens learn from their friends' mistakes.- Olga Yakusheva

"Sixteen of every 100 girls whose friend had a miscarriage had a teen childbirth themselves, whereas in [the girls whose friends had babies] group, the number was lower, with only 11 girls having a teen birth," Yakusheva said.

The girls whose friends had given birth had about 25 fewer sexual intercourse encounters, on average, than girls whose friends had miscarried.

The chances of getting married before the age of 20 were about 6 percentage points lower for the teen birth group versus the miscarriage group. The women in the baby group were 8 per cent more likely to complete a four-year degree.

Jane Champion of the University of Texas at Austin, not involved with the study, said that stigma of teen parents may be the reason why the teens who were friends with a teen mum chose not to get pregnant.

"They're often ostracised by their community and no longer accepted by their circle of friends," she said. "That can be a huge wake-up call for teens."

Educating teens about pregnancy and parenthood is a key factor in preventing teen pregnancies, Olga Yakusheva thinks. She recommends showing teens the realities of pregnancy.

"What our work shows is that, in addition to teaching kids how not to become pregnant, we should also teach them why," she said.

"Kids have to see it for themselves," she said, "not read it in books, not have an adult tell them, because that's already being done and it doesn't work very well."

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