submitted By Planned Parenthood Mar Monte |
Summer vacation was squeezed in between work and buying new school clothes and back to school gear. Kids know the route to school and the rules about calling you when they get home. You and your friends are reminding others about the school zone speed limits. It’s been a whirlwind. Now, imagine doing all of that at 16 years old. Waking up and getting yourself ready to go to school after you put your child in day care. Imagine that getting ready begins with getting off of a friend’s couch because that is where you are living, because your parents kicked you out of the house for getting pregnant. Imagine trying to get your own apartment as a minor when landlords will not rent their property to someone until they are 18 years old.
Nevada has the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the country at 90 per 1000 teens, aged 15-19. New Mexico has the highest at 93 out of 1000 teens. The national average is 71.5 out of 1000 teens. We know that our children are sexually active: 6.7 percent of youth under age 12 are sexually active; 35 percent of high school freshman and two thirds are by their senior year. Roughly 49,000 Nevadan teens gave birth from 1991-2004, the most recent statistics.
Children born to teen mothers face lower cognitive skills as they go through school; they have fewer social skills and lower emotional levels of well-being; and their physical health is often impaired (low birth weight, nutrition, etc). Younger siblings are two to six times more likely to get pregnant with a teen mom in the house. The second child tends to be less interested in academic achievement and more interested in becoming sexually active and having a child right away. Repeat births represent one in five teen pregnancies. One in three teens who give birth before age 17 will have a second pregnancy within 24 months.
Twenty years ago, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte developed Teen Success, a program that addresses the issues of teen pregnancy, repeat pregnancy and the spread to sibling pregnancies. In Reno, we currently have two groups of a dozen teens aged 12-18 who meet throughout the year for a weekly group session to learn the skills needed on how to cope with the challenges of parenthood and adolescence, complete their education and maintain their family size.
The Teen Success Program Staff:
- Facilitates and guides the group
- Provides a nutritious snack (i.e., fruit, cheese and crackers, etc.)
- Ensures free childcare is available during group
- Gives participants $10 at the completion of each weekly group and bonus at the end of each 25 weeks attended
- Assists participants set and work toward achieving their goals for the future
- Promotes easy access to family planning services
- Measures short and long-term progress of participants
Teen Success members have a repeat pregnancy rate of 4 percent, as compared to the national statistics of 20 percent or more. More than 100 teen moms have gone through the program. Planned Parenthood is advocating that the State Board of Education assure standardized sex education curricula for Nevada counties to help reduce Nevada’s teen pregnancy rate. More comprehensive sex education and access to birth control methods can help teens delay their sexual activity and improve the rate of contraceptive methods when they do become sexually active, which would help reduce unplanned pregnancy.
References:
- www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf
- www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf
- www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/pubs/PlayingCatchUp.pdf
- www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/SS/SS13_YoungerSibs.pdf
- The Guttmacher Report, Volume 3, No. 3, June 2000
- www.plannedparenthood.org/mar-monte/teen-success-program-3482.htm
For more info, contact Planned Parenthood Mar Monte at (775) 321-8711 or visit online at www.ppmarmonte.org.
