The world's leaders in teen pregnancy statistics are not ignoring their considerable problems. This fact sheet from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in the United States is posted in its entirety here. A crucially informative article, it is concerned with the important role parents can take in minimizing the risks on the individual family level. "Overall closeness between parents and their children, shared activities, parental presence in the home, and parental caring, support, and concern are all associated with a reduced risk of early sex and teen pregnancy," says the NCPTP. "Teens who feel closely connected to their parents are more likely to abstain from sex, wait until they are older to begin having sex, have fewer sexual partners, and use contraception more consistently." Britain, also among the nations with the highest rates of teen pregnancy, has undertaken a campaign to "halve the under-18 conception rate by 2010." While its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy doesn't say much about plans for parental involvement, it does call for the "active engagement of all of the key mainstream delivery partners who have a role in reducing teenage pregnancies: health, education, social services, youth support services, and the voluntary sector." One can only assume they left out "parents and families" because their presence and involvement is taken for granted. |
