KIDS COUNT Indicator Brief :  Reducing the Teen Birth Rate, produced by Dr. Rima Shore, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, July 2005.   http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/sld/
auxiliary/briefs/
teenbirthrateupdated.pdf

New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

http://home2.nyc.gov/html/doh/
downloads/pdf/fhs/tpreport.pdf

National Campaign's summary of
the YRBSquestions on sex and contraception

Center for Disease Control – Teen Pregnancy Report -
Full CDC report

Healthy Teen Network
http://www.healthyteen
network.org Healthy Teen Network and the California Alliance Concerned with School-Aged Parenting and Pregnancy Prevention

(CACSAP)  2006 National Conference:  Coming of Age: Supporting Teens & Young
Families in the 21st Century, November 15-18, 2006, Hyatt Regency Orange County, Anaheim, CA 

2003 Study on Youth Risk Behaviors – National Center for Disease Control

http://www.socio.com/srch/
summary/daappp/daps2.htm

National Association of State Boards of Education

National Youth Development Information Center  http://www.nassembly.org/nydic/
policy/briefs/pregnancy.htm

Annie E. Casey Foundation
Plain Talk Initiative
Plain Talk is a neighborhood-based initiative aimed at reducing teen pregnancy and disease by helping adults, parents and community leaders communicate effectively with young people.
Contact: 410.547.6600 / media @aecf.org or 215.557.4479 / gsummerville@ppv.org
Public/Private Ventures
2000 Market Street, Suite #600 , Philadelphia , PA 19103

Annie E. Casey Foundation 
Kids Count Study on Teen Pregnancy

http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/
sld/auxiliary/briefs/
teenbirthrateupdated.pdf

Fatherhood Program for
Adolescent and Adult Fathers
Casey Family Services – Baltimore
This program works with fathers to develop the skills needed to become a responsible and active parent.
Contact: 410.342.7554 or info@caseyfamilyservices.org
25 North Caroline Street,
Baltimore, MD 21231

Children's Aid Society
Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy
Prevention Program
Contact: 212.876.9716
350 East 88th Street, New York, NY 10128

Healthy Families San Angelo
Dads Make a Difference
Contact: 325.658.2771 or teri_covert_hfsa@msn.com
200 South Magdalene Street, San Angelo, TX 76903

The National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute
Hombres Jovenes con Palabra
 (Young Men with Word)
This project is aimed at at-risk Latino men between the ages of 13 and 24. The program fosters respectful relationships between young Latino men, their partners, and their families with the goal of preventing teen pregnancies and reducing STI rates.
Contact: 323.728.7770
5252 East Beverly Blvd., East Los Angeles, CA 90022

National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy
The goal of the The National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy is to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy by one-third between 1996 and 2005. The NCPTP website contains a wealth of national and state level information on teen pregnancy, teen pregnancy prevention programs, media campaigns, and legislative activity.
Contact: 202.478.8500 or campaign@teenpregnancy.org
1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036

Planned Parenthood  http://www.plannedparenthood
.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/
medicalinfo/teensexualhealth/
fact-teen-pregnancy.xml

Teen Wire (Planned Parenthood’s Teen Site)http://www.teenwire.com/

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry provides a whole series of materials on talking
to children about sexuality.  http://www.aacap.org/publications/
factsfam/pregnant.htm,  Link directly to a variety of topics in Facts for Families:

#62 Talking to Your Kids About Sex

#4 The Depressed Child

#5 Child Abuse: The Hidden Bruises

#15 The Adopted Child

#66 Helping Teenagers with Stress,

#30 Children and AIDS,

#77 Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.

Where Are We?

Nationwide, teens are making better decisions about the long-term consequences of becoming teen parents.

• From 1991 to 2003, there was a 33 percent national decline in teen (ages 15 to 19) births, evidenced in all racial and ethnic groups, and geographical areas of the United States.

• During that 12-year period, even teen population segments that have been traditionally higher in teen births declined with a 45 percent drop in teen births among African American women (the largest decrease documented for any ethnic group) and a 21 percent decline among Latino women.   (1)

• While the birth rates of African American and Latino teens remain higher than those of other groups (2). This decline in teen births also holds for second pregnancies, a particularly encouraging development because second teen births are associated with the most adverse outcomes for mothers and children.

Teens in New York City, and particularly The Bronx and Brooklyn have made less progress according to the 2002  New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report which documents teen births through 2002 and several 2003 studies. (2)

Our teen pregnancy rates continue to exceed the rates of New York State and the United States overall.  Despite modest progress since 1996, over the past decade the teen pregnancy rate in NYC was consistently higher than the NY State rates, US rates, and the Healthy People 2000 goal.

Figure 2 from New York City Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene, Teen Pregnancy Report, 2002, p. 9 .

Additionally:

1.      NYC Teen pregnancy rates are several fold higher among young women of color than among whites and Asians.

2.      Teen pregnancy outcomes in NYC differ by race/ethnicity:

• Black non-Hispanic teens are more likely to have an induced abortion;

• Hispanic teens are more likely to have a live birth;

• Both black non-Hispanic and Hispanic teens are more likely to have a spontaneous abortion.

3.      Recurrent pregnancies are high among NYC teens.

4.      Specific maternal characteristics may perpetuate poor health and poverty among pregnant teens in NYC.

5.      Bedford Stuyvesant-CrownHeights, Greenpoint-Williamsburg-Bushwick, Crotona-Tremont, High Bridge-Morrisania, and Fordham-Bronx Park were the five communities (out of more than 400) that made up 31% of all New York City Teen Pregnancies in 2000.
 

Why Do Our Communities Need to Address Teen Pregnancy?

For communities of Color, studies document that long term consequences of teen pregnancy are major factors in perpetuating cycles of poor health and poverty.

·        Teen mothers are less likely to finish high school or advance their education; have lower earning potential; are more likely to be on welfare or public assistance; are less likely to remain in a stable relationship with the father or be married; are more likely to remain a single parent; and are more likely to have larger families or more children -consequently increasing their financial need.

·        Infants of teen mothers are more likely to be born low birth weight - increasing the risk of adverse health outcomes including infant death and have poorer health throughout childhood in general.

·        Children of teen mothers attain lower levels of education; perform worse in school and have higher drop-out rates; live in less educationally and emotionally stimulating homes; are more likely to live in poverty; are more likely to run away from home; are more likely to be victims of abuse and neglect; daughters are more likely to become teen mothers; and sons are more likely to be incarcerated.

·        Only 30% of a teen mother’s total income is from employment; the remainder is more likely to come from welfare assistance rather than a partner when compared to older women.

In 1996, the Robinhood Foundation published a report, Kids Having Kids, which estimates the nationwide cost of teen pregnancy on taxpayers to be $6.9 billion annually. Other sources estimate annual costs of as much as $38 billion.  The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a long-time supporter of studies and work in this field, frames the need for our continued attention to the subject of teen pregnancy as well in, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2005; Child Trends DataBank, 2003; AECF, 2002.

Where Do We Go From Here?

There is a growing body of work that links pregnancy prevention to “parent-child connectedness” and which finds that programs that work to strengthen parent child relationships bring the best results for a variety of teen issues, including the prevention of adolescent pregnancy, STI and HIV.

Among the researchers studying factors that determine Parent Child Connectedness (PCC) is ETR a private non-profit health education promotion organization based in Santa Cruz, California.  (You can find publications and peruse their clearing house services at ETR home page). 

In a 2003 study of professionals serving teen populations, ETR focused the advantages and disadvantages of PCC: 

You can find out more about this study at http://www.etr.org/recapp/research/background .

But another study commissioned by Teen Pregnancy.Org really highlights the effect that  programs stressing Parent Child Connectedness can have: 

Source
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/works/pdf/Science_
Says_25_Parent_Child_Communication.pdf

We have provided a list of more resources that parents, health-care providers and social workers can access in the left column for more information -- including a link specifically for teens from Planned Parenthood with interactive sex education pages that are particularly age appropriate and awareness-building. 

Click here to access our previous Newsletter topic and resources for  Women's Health

Written exclusively for Diaspora Community Services by
Zella Jones
www.marketxmarket.com