Can someone help me summary this article by writing a paragraph ? I\'m so bad ab

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Can someone help me summary this article by writing a paragraph ? I'm so bad about writing summary. Thank you so much!!!

Teenage Pregnancy Is a Serious Problem

Recent declines in the teenage birth rate are encouraging, but we see little cause for complacency. The U.S. teenage birth rate remains two to ten times higher than teenage birth rates in other industrialized nations. Teenage parents complete fewer years of school than older parents, and their limited educational attainment undermines their employment prospects. Their children are at greater risk of poor birth outcomes and, as they grow older, have poorer cognitive, behavioural, and school outcomes. Finally, because the vast majority of teenage births (76 percent) occur outside of marriage, many teenage mothers and their children face the challenges associated with living in a single-parent family, including lower income and greater demands on a mother's time and attention.

Researchers at Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research centre, have studied this issue for two decades from several vantage points. We track and analyze trends in teenage sexual behavior, pregnancy, and childbearing. We study the antecedents and consequences of teenage childbearing. We explore factors that might discourage too-early parenthood, as well as those that place adolescents at risk. We examine the effectiveness of programs and cultural messages intended to discourage teenage child-bearing, and we empirically test hypotheses to explain changes in the teenage birth rate nationally and variation in teenage birth rates across the states.

As a result, we are continually adding to our understanding of what contributes to teenage childbearing and what might discourage it. While the puzzle is incomplete, enough pieces are in place to offer a better understanding of this complex issue.

Recent Trends in Teenage Childbearing

Teenage birth rates have decreased in the United States for six consecutive years (1992-1997, the most recent years for which data are available). This sustained downward trend was a welcome departure from the previous five-year period (1986-1991), during which rates rose by 24 percent. These increases in the late 1980s were particularly troubling because they followed more than 25 years of declining teenage birth rates in the United States. In 1997, the teenage birth rate was 52.9 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19. This rate represents a significant (15 percent) decrease since 1991. Nevertheless, the 1997 teenage birth rate is still higher than the 1986 rate of 50.2, the nation's lowest in more than half a century.

The decline in the teenage birth rate has occurred in every state, suggesting that the decrease in the national rate reflects broad, society-wide changes rather than changes limited to one part of the country or to one group of teenagers. Still, teenage birth rates vary widely across the states. Several states, including Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and Maine, have teenage birth rates at or around 32 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19. In contrast, several other states, including Mississippi, Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas, have teenage birth rates at or above 74 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19. Identifying the multiple factors that account for this great variation across states is no easy task, but is a question that researchers are actively pursuing at Child Trends and elsewhere.

White teenagers have consistently had lower birth rates than African American or Hispanic teenagers, although the gap between whites and nonwhites is getting smaller. While birth rates have fallen for both white and African American teenagers in recent years, the decline has been more pronounced for African Americans. The teenage birth rate for African Americans fell by 22 percent between 1991 and 1997, from 116 to 90 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19. In contrast, birth rates among white teenagers declined by 16 percent over the same time period, from 43 to 36 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19.

Trends among Hispanic teenagers are less promising. Between 1991 and 1995, there was virtually no change in the Hispanic teenage birth rate, so that by 1995, Hispanics had a higher teenage birth rate (107) than either African Americans or whites. The Hispanic teenage birth rate decreased notably in 1996 and 1997, however, declining to 99 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19 in 1997....

Much remains to be done in the cultural, political, and programmatic arenas to continue and accelerate the current decrease in teenage childbearing. The volatility of the teenage birth rate over the last few decades—down significantly in the 1960s and 1970s, up substantially in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and now heading down again—reminds us that the tide could turn yet again. Moreover, the number of teenagers is increasing rapidly, threatening to increase the number of teenage births if further substantial reductions in the rate of childbearing do not occur.

So what is likely to bring about further reductions in teenage childbearing? At Child Trends, we approach this question from several perspectives, including review of the basic research literature and of rigorous evaluations of programs intended to discourage teenage childbearing; qualitative research involving focus groups with adolescents; and analyses of existing and new data. From these varied perspectives, we offer the following thoughts.

Who Is at Risk of a Teenage Birth?

A review of the basic research literature helps us identify those children and adolescents at heightened risk of teenage parenthood. Armed with this information, policymakers and service providers can test interventions that might lower this risk. Research consistently highlights the following factors that place children and youth at risk of teenage childbearing:

       Family problems. Teenagers are at higher risk of early pregnancy and parenting if their families provide too little monitoring, are characterized by poor communication between parents and children, fail to teach values or encourage goal-setting, and do little to counteract damaging cultural and media messages. Families also need to protect children from sex. States, communities, and private organizations should explore programs to strengthen families or provide teenagers with extra social and emotional support to lessen the risk of teenage parenthood.

       School problems. Teenagers who are below their expected grade levels, whose school achievement is low, and who have dropped out are two to five times more likely to have a child by the time they would have completed high school. This factor suggests that programs to enhance school performance and engagement in learning as early as preschool and the elementary grades are a promising approach to reduce teenage childbearing. As we discuss later in this article, new research by Child Trends lends further support to this hypothesis.

       Behaviour problems. Teenagers and younger children with behaviour problems in school, who smoke, drink, or use drugs, and who engage in delinquent behaviour are more likely to become teenage parents. Thus, interventions that address problem behaviours among children in general may also reduce childbearing among troubled youth. Again, states might initiate efforts to improve behaviour well before the teenage years.

       Poverty and low income. Many children and adolescents who grow up poor (especially those who grow up in extremely poor communities), see little likelihood that they will escape poverty in adulthood. When youth perceive limited opportunities for themselves, they are often less motivated to avoid pregnancy, and early childbearing. On the other hand, better employment opportunities are associated with a lower probability of a teenage birth. Activities that enhance adolescents' economic opportunities and present them with positive options for the future may therefore increase their motivation to avoid pregnancy.

What Are We Doing Right?

For at least two decades, communities, schools, and service providers have tried a range of approaches to prevent teenage childbearing. To date, few have convincingly demonstrated "large, sustained, and clearly documented" successes [as stated by K.A. Moore and B.W. Sugland]. Most are small, short-term projects. Many are not sufficiently grounded in research on child and adolescent development, and most do not have a strong evaluation component.

Abstinence programs, for example, have become increasingly popular in states and communities across the country. To date, however, none has been rigorously evaluated so it is impossible to say with certainty whether they are effective in bringing about large declines in teenage pregnancy. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding for abstinence programs offers a good opportunity to put rigorous evaluations in place.

Many traditional sex education programs in the public schools, which generally provide factual information to high school students, have been rigorously evaluated. Although such programs increase knowledge, many of these programs have not demonstrated great success at changing behaviour. For example, they appear to have little effect on whether teenagers initiate sex or use contraception. School-based clinics providing adolescent health services (but not always providing contraception) have also not shown convincing evidence of reducing teenage pregnancies or births.

On the other hand, sex education that combines information with skill-building activities (such as developing specific negotiation and refusal skills) appears more promising. These kinds of programs have resulted in short delays in the initiation of sexual intercourse among some groups and have proven moderately effective at improving contraceptive use among teenagers.

In the long run, programs that focus on improving educational and employment outcomes—but not explicitly on preventing teenage childbearing—may be a good bet.... New research from Child Trends suggests that programs and approaches that emphasize keeping girls in school and engaged in learning may also lessen the incidence of teenage childbearing.

What Do the Kids Say?

To augment and check conclusions based on research, Child Trends has conducted focus groups with white, black, and Hispanic youth in several cities, asking them to identify those factors that are most likely to motivate them to avoid pregnancy. In many cases, their answers were consistent with the research and program evaluations summarized above. In other cases, they suggest intriguing new directions for research and programs.

The factors that adolescents suggested would increase their motivation to avoid pregnancy included:

       Encourage adolescents to set goals for themselves, help them understand the steps necessary to reach those goals, and how certain actions and behaviours make those goals harder to attain.

       Support and strengthen families by helping parents and adolescents communicate effectively about sexuality, peer relationships, school, and the future, and by increasing family involvement and support in all aspects of teenagers' lives.

       Provide a broader form of sexuality education that includes building the skills and confidence to handle friendships and romantic relationships, as well as providing information on the variety of available contraceptive methods, how to use them, and how to obtain them.

       Make affordable, confidential contraceptive services available to teenagers.

       Address larger societal influences that undercut messages about responsible sexual behaviour and the value of planning for the future. These include the need for more positive adult role models, pervasive messages in the media that sex has few consequences, and easy access to drugs and alcohol.

Information from additional focus groups also indicates that how teenagers perceive their educational, social, and career opportunities affects how motivated they are to avoid early childbearing. This is consistent with data analyses that suggest that adolescents' future opportunities affect the likelihood of a teenage birth. But our work also indicates that the pathway from perceptions of economic opportunity to avoiding a teenage birth is not direct. Instead, perceptions of opportunity influence how adolescents view other activities that protect against childbearing, such as school-related academic, extracurricular, and social activities. If future quantitative research examining the link between perceptions, school engagement, and teenage childbearing supports this finding, then this research has implications beyond avoiding teenage pregnancy and may offer insights into helping teenagers avoid a host of negative behaviours.

Public discussions of how to prevent teenage pregnancy have become increasingly sophisticated. To a large extent, policymakers, service providers, and the public recognize the complexity of the issues surrounding teenage childbearing and are less likely to seek or accept quick and easy answers. While the puzzle is not complete, one part of it is increasingly clear: different approaches are likely to be effective with different adolescents. For many, delaying sex will be an effective strategy. For others, information, skill-building, and access to contraceptive services will help. And for all youth, long-term strategies that address the antecedents of teenage childbearing—family dysfunction, poverty, school failure, and early behaviour problems—are a promising investment. Finally, there is greater recognition that solutions reside in both the public and private domains—in family relations, popular culture, and public policies.

Explanation / Answer

Teen pregnancy and birth rates have weakened progressively in the United States in current years. Experts feature the deteriorating rates to a considerable upsurge in contraceptive use by sexually active teens and to a reduction in sexual activity among youths. Despite these failures, the United States lasts to have the uppermost teen birth rate amongst all industrial states and an advanced teen birth rate than over 50 emerging countries.

Teenage pregnancy and childbearing have substantial, long-term significances for teenage parentages and their offspring. For instance, investigation shows that when younger youths give delivery, they are less probable to complete high school and extra likely through their lives to have a superior amount of children than are non-parenting adolescences. Offspring born to younger teen moms may also experience inferior health consequences, lower learning accomplishment, and advanced rates of teen-age reproduction themselves when associated to offspring born to older moms.

Americans normally believe that informative, communal, medicinal, and financial problems experienced by teen-age mothers and their offspring are the significances of teenage reproduction. Though, investigation proves that financial and social difficulty is amongst the reasons, as well as penalties, of teenage reproduction. Trends in teen-age sexual conduct are hopeful. Though, gravidity and delivery rates among U.S. teens continue too in elevation. Policy producers must not limit provision for relations started with a delivery to a teen. Though, to efficiently decrease rates of unintentional gravidity and deliveries amongst adolescences, the centralized administration must participate in teen gravidity deterrence creativities. Furthermore, these deterrence coffers must be capitalized in established, methodically assessed agendas which are operative in serving adolescences to postponement of the beginning of sexual intercourse and to run through safer sexual actions when they developed as sexually active.

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