Children Having Children, Inc.

Large Percentage of Teens Posting/Sending Nude/Semi Nude Images.

2008-12-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT TEEN AND UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND COSMOGIRL.COM REVEAL RESULTS OF SEX & TECH SURVEY:
Large Percentage of Teens Posting/Sending Nude/Semi Nude Images.

(Washington, DC) — One in five teen girls (22%)—and 11% of teen girls ages 13-16 years old—say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude images of themselves. According to the results of a survey released today by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com, these racy images are also getting passed around: One-third (33%) of teen boys and one-quarter (25%) of teen girls say they have had nude/semi-nude images—originally meant to be private—shared with them.

The survey of 1,280 teens and young adults—conducted online by TRU, a global leader in research on teens and 20-somethings—indicates that 15% of teens who have sent sexually suggestive content such as text messages, email, photographs or video say they have done so with someone they only know online.

Teen girls are not the only ones sharing sexually explicit content. Almost one in five teen boys (18%) say they have sent or posted nude/semi nude images of themselves. One-third (33%) of young adults—36% of women and 31% of men ages 20-26—say they have sent or posted such images. What teens and young adults are doing electronically seems to have an effect on what they do in real life: Nearly one-quarter of teens (22%) admit that technology makes them personally more forward and aggressive. More than one-third of teens (38%) say exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up with others more likely and nearly one-third of teens (29%) believe those exchanging sexy content are "expected" to date or hook up.

"Teenagers are early adopters of technology—from the latest social networking sites to the hottest new cell phones," says Susan Schulz, Special Projects Editor, Hearst Magazines. "While this tech savvy can be seen as a positive, our study reveals there's also a negative side. Teenagers should be aware of the real consequences to this type of behavior and we need to provide them with guidance and encourage them to make smart choices."

"That so many young people say technology is encouraging an even more casual, hook-up culture is reason for concern, given the high rates of teen and unplanned pregnancy in the United States," said Marisa Nightingale, Senior Advisor to the Entertainment Media Program at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "Parents should understand that their own notions of what’s public, what’s private, and what’s appropriate, may differ greatly from how teens and young adults define these concepts."

http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/sextech/

Study: Sex on TV linked to teen pregnancies

2008-11-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

Study: Sex on TV linked to teen pregnancies

Watching lots of racy shows can affect adolescents over time

By Laura T. Coffey

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 5:52 a.m. PT, Mon., Nov. 3, 2008

In the world of television programming, sex sells — perhaps a little too well with young viewers, a new study suggests.

The RAND Corp. study is the first of its kind to identify a link between teenagers’ exposure to sexual content on TV and teen pregnancies. The study, released Monday and published in the November edition of the journal Pediatrics, found that teens exposed to high levels of sexual content on television were twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy in the following three years as teens with limited exposure.

The study’s authors are quick to point out that the factors leading to teen pregnancies are varied and complex — but they say it’s important for parents, teachers and pediatricians to understand that TV can be one of them.

“We were surprised to find this link,” said Anita Chandra, the study’s lead author and a behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization. “But teens spend a good amount of their time watching television — an average of three hours a day — and we don’t know a lot about its impact on their health decisions …

“We don’t think that [TV] is necessarily more significant than some of the family and neighborhood factors that can lead to teen pregnancies. But even when we removed all the other factors, we still saw a compelling link between a high exposure to sexual content on television and teen pregnancies.”

How the study workedResearchers interviewed 2,003 12- to 17-year-olds over the phone in 2001, and then followed up with those same youths in an effort to interview them again in 2002 and 2004.

The interviews focused in detail on teens’ TV viewing habits as well as their sexual attitudes, knowledge and behavior. Participants shared information about how frequently they watched 23 TV programs that were popular with teens at the time of the survey. The shows included a wide range of animated and live-action programs, reality shows, sitcoms and dramas that aired on broadcast networks and basic and premium cable channels. The programs included “Sex and the City,” “That ’70s Show” and “Friends.”

“This might surprise people, but sitcoms had the highest sexual content,” Chandra said, noting that such content can include sexual dialogue in addition to actual sexual behavior.

By the third telephone interview, 744 of the youths said they had engaged in sexual intercourse, and 718 of them shared information about their pregnancy histories. Of that group, a total of 91 youths — 58 girls and 33 boys — said they had experienced a pregnancy or had gotten a girl pregnant.

In the final analysis, teens who had watched the most sexual content on television during the three-year study period were twice as likely to have been involved in a pregnancy as teens with the lowest levels of exposure.

Chandra said TV-watching was strongly connected with teen pregnancy even when other factors were considered, including grades, family structure and parents’ education level.

But the study didn’t adequately address other issues, such as self-esteem, family values and income, contends Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, a teen sex education program based at Rutgers University.

“The media does have an impact, but we don’t know the full extent of it because there are so many other factors,” Schroeder said.

Bill Albert, chief program officer at the nonprofit National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, praised the study and said it “catches up with common sense.”
“Media helps shape the social script for teenagers. Most parents know that. This is just good research to confirm that,” Albert said.

The study, paid for by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, followed a 2004 study by some of the same scientists that indicated watching sexual content on TV can make teens more likely to have sex at earlier ages.

Chandra said the new findings are significant given the intractable social and public health problems associated with teen pregnancies. While the teen pregnancy rate in the United States has dropped considerably since the early ’90s, the U.S. rate remains one of the highest among the world’s industrialized nations. Nearly 1 million young women between the ages of 15 and 19 become pregnant each year in the U.S., and they are more likely than other teens to drop out of high school and live in poverty.

The role of parents, othersSo what’s a parent to do under these circumstances? Lock up the television set for good and throw away the key?

On the contrary, the study’s authors advise parents to become familiar with the shows their kids watch — and, whenever possible and practical, to watch TV with them.

“By taking the time to watch together, parents can turn these into teachable moments … and opportunities for frank discussions about sex,” Chandra said.

“Parents [also] might want to limit some exposure. But realistically, this kind of content is everywhere. Our study only looks at TV. There’s also the Internet, music, magazines.”

Chandra noted that many TV programs fail to give viewers realistic depictions of the potential consequences of sex, such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“If teens are getting any of their information about sex from TV, they’re very rarely going to get a balanced portrayal,” she said. “When there is a portrayal, how often is it coupled with a discussion of contraception use or safer sex or the consequences of what could happen?”

An ongoing controversyOf course, parents, religious leaders and politicians have lambasted the broadcasting industry for years and called for curbs on content they consider objectionable. In response to the news of this new study, the National Association of Broadcasting released the following statement:

“Though NAB has not had a chance to review the report, it’s worth noting that broadcasters encourage parents and caregivers to use the V-chip and other program blocking technologies that would screen out shows that are inappropriate for children. We would also point out that broadcast television is generally far less explicit than programming found on cable, satellite and on the Internet.”

The study’s authors insist they aren’t taking aim at any particular television show, channel or network. Instead, they’re calling for more realistic plotlines and discussions of consequences — not a wholesale change in programming from, say, “Sex and the City” to “Sex and the Condom.”
“Right now the message teens are getting is that everything is great, and there really are no consequences to sex,” Chandra said.

“Since the time that we did our data collection, the amount of sexual content on TV has doubled … It’s important for kids to have the tools to understand what they’re watching.”
This story includes information from the Associated Press.

________________

this story can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27506234/

Teen maternity

2008-09-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Teen maternity

Birth rate for adolescents is on the rise again after 15 years of decline

By Jenifer Goodwin
STAFF WRITER - San Diego Union-Tribune
Published: September 13, 2008

Photo by JOHN R. MCCUTCHEN / Union-Tribune

Photo Caption: Hazel Herrera, who spends about four hours a day on buses, waits at a bus stop with her son. "I was really happy about the baby," she said. "Having a kid is a blessing to me."

When Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, revealed she was pregnant and planning to marry the father, pundits were quick to speculate on the political implications.

But teen pregnancy prevention specialists say there's an important aspect largely missing from the discussion – after a 15-year decline, the teen birth rate is rising.From 2005 to 2006, the birth rate among teens 15 to 19 rose 3 percent nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though 2007 figures won't be available until late this year, experts say the teen birth rate will likely edge up again.

“When the CDC announced the teen birth rate had gone up 3 percent, that was met with a collective yawn,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington, D.C. “I wish half the energy that has been expended on Bristol Palin would have been expended on preventing teen pregnancies. That to me is what's deserving of national attention, focus and energy.”

Out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy has been all over the entertainment media lately. Pregnant teens have shown up in the movies (“Juno”), on TV (“The Baby Borrowers,” “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”), and in the real-life sagas of 16-year-old former Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn Spears and the supposed pregnancy pact among 17 Massachusetts high school students.

Some worry that unrealistic portrayals – from glamour shots of pregnant celebrities to movies like “Juno,” in which a precocious high schooler happily hands over her baby to a rich, beautiful adoptive mother – make child-bearing seem a bit too easy.

But those who work with teens say peers have a much bigger influence on how teens view having babies. Many high schools in San Diego County have programs for teen mothers, enabling them to learn parenting skills while continue their education.

Such openness is perhaps good for the mothers and their babies, but it can also give the appearance to other teens that getting pregnant isn't so out of the ordinary, said Lori Butler, executive director of Girls Inc. of San Diego County, which offers teen pregnancy prevention programs.

“Peer pressure, home life and culture have a lot more influence on a girl than a particular celebrity,” Butler said. “Teen pregnancy doesn't have that much of a stigma anymore.”
Dramatic declineReducing the teen birth rate has largely been a success. From 1991 to 2005, the teen birth rate dropped more than 34 percent, according to the CDC. In California, rates dropped 46 percent.

Some credit California's dramatic decline to the state's refusal to accept federal dollars for abstinence-only sex education.

“Abstinence-only education programs are a proven failure,” said Vince Gill, vice president of public affairs at Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside counties. “They have no effect on teenagers' decision to have sex. The only effect is that teenagers are less likely to use condoms.”

With the teen pregnancy problem seemingly under control, groups working on prevention saw funding shifted to other public health issues, such as obesity. In California, funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs was cut by 37 percent in fiscal 2007-08. Further cuts are expected this year.

In 2007, the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey of some 14,000 high school students found that after years of decline, slightly more students reported they'd had sex, while condom use rates appeared to have leveled off.

Better treatments for HIV and AIDS may mean teens are taking more risks.
And experts trying to convince teens to hold off having babies face other challenges. While many teen pregnancies are unintentional, some teens believe a baby will solidify their relationship.
“That happens more frequently than any adults or parents could possibly imagine,” Butler said.
Hazel Herrera was 15 when she became pregnant. Her grandmother kicked her out of the house. Though the pregnancy was unplanned, she wanted to have a family with her boyfriend and never considered abortion.

“I was really happy about the baby,” she said. “Having a kid is a blessing to me. I knew everything was going to be OK. I'm a Christian. I thought God would provide.”
Herrera found a place to live at the Martha and Mary House, a maternity home in Escondido that takes in pregnant women and teens.

Now 18, Herrera, her now husband and their nearly 2-year-old son live with her mother and sister in La Jolla. She spends three to four hours on buses daily, taking her son to day-care before heading to classes at San Diego Mesa College. She picks him up in the late afternoon and takes the bus home.

“They expected me to not be able to provide a good home or a life for my baby. I didn't think of it that way,” she said. “I could do anything anybody else could do.”
Political landscapeStill, many teen mothers face serious hurdles. Less than 40 percent of teen mothers graduate from high school, Alpert said. Teen moms and their children are more likely to live in poverty.

Given the political landscape, it's no surprise that Bristol Palin's revelation was seen through the prism of the abortion wars. Sarah Palin favors abstinence-only sex education and is an opponent of legal abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
Some believe the abortion debates have hijacked the discussion about teen pregnancy, drowning out other options.

Sarah Jensen, executive director of the Adoption Center of San Diego, speaks to young women at high schools and colleges about today's “open” adoptions, in which the birth mother can choose the adoptive family and remain in contact with the child.

“Adoption really isn't discussed in pro-choice or pro-life circles,” she said. “You don't often hear how rewarding adoption is for the birth mother. When they choose adoption, they are able to choose the future for their baby.”

Cassie, 16, became pregnant as a high school sophomore. She knew she did not want to raise the child.

“I knew I wouldn't be able to provide for a child and go to college,” she said. “My mom was a single mother, and she struggled. I wanted my child to grow up with two parents.”

Scared, she considered abortion. Then she realized she would always wonder what could have been if she'd had the baby. With the help of her mother and the Adoption Center, she chose a family from Poway, who will adopt the baby after she delivers this fall.

Cassie did not want her last name used because at her school, teens who get pregnant either have an abortion or raise the baby. She didn't think they would understand.
“I'm at peace with it,” she said.

Above all, those who work with teens would like to make sure girls don't have to make such life-altering decisions in the first place.

“We are a very accepting culture, which is a very good thing. We don't rightfully believe in stigma,” Albert said. “But there is a difference between shame and stigma. We have to make sure we're telling teens that pregnancy is not in your best interests.”

this story can be found at http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080913/news_1c13teenprem.html

Teen Birth Rate Up for First Time in 15 Years in California

2008-09-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Teen Birth Rate Up for First Time in 15 Years in California

Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
CaliforniaHealthLine.org

After 15 years of declines, California's teen birth rate increased in 2006, according to a report issued today by the not-for-profit Public Health Institute, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The report, called "No Time for Complacency: Teen Births in California," found that the state's birth rate for teen births increased from 37.2 per 1,000 teens in 2005 to 37.8 per 1,000 teens in 2006. California's teen birth rate still is below the national average of 41.9 births per 1,000 teens (Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/21).

The number of teen births in the state increased to 52,770 in 2006 from 50,433 in 2004 (Kisken, Ventura County Star, 5/21).

Areas in the Central Valley, the Los Angeles-San Bernardino county region and the Imperial-Riverside-San Diego county region had the state's highest teen birth rates. According to the study, teen birth rates were up in 32 of California's 40 state senate districts.

Methodology

The report used data from 2006 and only studied teens between the ages of 15 and 19, the standard age group for reporting teen births from the state Department of Public Health and other government agencies, according to study author Norman Constantine, a clinical professor of public health at UC-Berkeley (Walker, Orange County Register, 5/20).

Costs
According to the report, teen births cost taxpayers statewide $1.7 billion in 2006, up from $1.45 billion in 2002.

Constantine said the study calculated taxpayer costs by analyzing factors such as:

Loss of tax revenue based on the teenage parents' lowered income;
Reliance on Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, welfare and other public assistance programs; and
Increased costs for foster care placement.

Causes for Increased Rates

Teen health experts said that the increase cannot be attributed to one factor but that a growing teenage population likely is a contributing factor (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/21). Others blame the rise on ineffective sex education, parents who do not talk with their children about sex and differences in the way some Hispanic families view adolescent pregnancy (Ventura County Star, 5/21).

Constantine said the rise can be attributed to a leveling off of funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs and a halt in the decline of the poverty rate (Orange County Register, 5/20).

However, Bonnie Sorensen, chief deputy director of policy and programs at the state Public Health Department, said the increase is not statistically significant and characterized it as more of a "leveling off" (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 5/20).

Cuts to Pregnancy Prevention Programs

State programs specifically designed to prevent teen pregnancy saw a 37% budget cut last year and are expected to see another 10% drop in funding under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) proposed budget, according to Shanie Scott, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

Scott said, "I believe that the latest budget cuts that are already in will affect 30,400 teens, and parents who will lose services" (Goldeen, Stockton Record, 5/21).

Budget cuts would reduce funding by about $1.5 million for three teen pregnancy prevention programs operated by DPH if lawmakers approve the governor's budget plan (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 5/20).

this article can be found at http://www.californiahealthline.org/Articles/2008/5/21/Teen-Birth-Rate-Up-for-First-Time-in-15-Years-in-California.aspx?p=1

Their V.P. Nominee’s Kin Proves the Hypocrisy of Republicans’ Stance on Sex Education

2008-09-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Commentary: Their V.P. Nominee’s Kin Proves the Hypocrisy of Republicans’ Stance on Sex Education
Date: Friday, September 05, 2008
By: Judge Greg Mathis, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

When Republican senator and presidential nominee John McCain named Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, he not only made history by selecting just the second woman to run on a major party ticket and the first Republican to do so, he also exposed the deep hypocrisies of the Republican party.

Palin recently admitted that her unmarried daughter was five months pregnant. The self-professed party of "family values," Republicans rushed to support Palin, her daughter and her decision to not only keep the child but to marry the teen-aged father.

While the high schooler’s choice was a difficult one to make it, along with her privacy, it should be respected. The Republican Party, however, does not get off so easily.

Now that one of its own has fallen victim to the abstinence-only education it supports, the GOP should finally admit that its sex-education curriculum is not only limited but harmful.

For years, Republicans have fought the inclusion of a comprehensive sex education program in schools. In an ideal world, a child would be taught to wait a few years, until they are emotionally ready to handle the consequences, before having sex while also learning about birth control and disease prevention. In a Republican world, students learn about abstinence, but don’t receive information about or access to condoms or birth control.

Gov. Palin’s daughter lives in a Republican world. Now, at 17, when she should be thinking about prom and graduation, she is on the verge of marriage and motherhood. Is her life ruined? Not by a long shot. Many teen mothers go on to do great things. But her life is forever changed.
A parent can instill good values in a child and give them all the love and attention they desire. From up high, the Republicans fail to realize that, at some point, these children mature and begin to make their own decisions. Indeed, good parenting goes a long way, but it needs to be supplemented with information and access. The Republican platform of abstinence-only education leaves too much to chance and sets up many young people for failure.

Children born to teen mothers are more likely to live in poverty, less likely to graduate from high school and apt to be teen parents themselves. If a class that touches on the importance of condoms could prevent an unplanned pregnancy, why not add it to curriculum? Eliminating it doesn’t deter young people from having sex. It does, however, encourage them to have unprotected sex.

When conjuring up the image of an unwed teen mother, many conservatives have painted the picture of someone living in the inner city, someone black or brown, living off the government with no ambition and no family support. It’s interesting to see how quickly the party has rallied in support now that the face of teen pregnancy is one of their own. Politics as usual? Perhaps. But it’s hypocritical just the same.

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Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

this article can be found at http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/gmathis905

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

2008-09-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008
Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High
By Kathleen Kingsbury

TIME Magazine

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies — more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town. School officials started looking into the matter as early as October, after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant. By May, several students had returned multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and on hearing the results, "some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.

The question of what to do next has divided this fiercely Catholic enclave. Even with national data showing a 3% rise in teen pregnancies in 2006 — the first increase in 15 years — Gloucester isn't sure it wants to provide easier access to birth control. In any case, many residents worry that the problem goes much deeper. The past decade has been difficult for this mostly white, mostly blue-collar city (pop. 30,000). In Gloucester, perched on scenic Cape Ann, the economy has always depended on a strong fishing industry. But in recent years, such jobs have all but disappeared overseas, and with them much of the community's wherewithal. "Families are broken," says school superintendent Christopher Farmer. "Many of our young people are growing up directionless."

The girls who made the pregnancy pact — some of whom, according to Sullivan, reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for baby showers — declined to be interviewed. So did their parents. But Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby. "They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland says. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."

The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center. Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and junior ROTC. "We're proud to help the mothers stay in school," says Sue Todd, CEO of Pathways for Children, which runs the day-care center.

But by May, after nurse practitioner Kim Daly had administered some 150 pregnancy tests at Gloucester High's student clinic, she and the clinic's medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts. Currently Gloucester teens must travel about 20 miles (30 km) to reach the nearest women's health clinic; younger girls have to get a ride or take the train and walk. But the notion of a school handing out birth control pills has met with hostility. Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide this for our children." The pair resigned in protest on May 30.

Gloucester's elected school committee plans to vote later this summer on whether to provide contraceptives. But that won't do much to solve the issue of teens wanting to get pregnant. Says rising junior Kacia Lowe, who is a classmate of the pactmakers': "No one's offered them a better option." And better options may be a tall order in a city so uncertain of its future. — With reporting by Kimberley McLeod/New York

Click to Print Find this article at: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html

Halting teen pregnancy - By Shauntel Lowe - UNION-TRIBUNE

2008-09-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

Halting teen pregnancy
Organization stresses deep communication
By Shauntel Lowe
UNION-TRIBUNE

May 29, 2008

SAN DIEGO – A self-described “goody goody,” Altara Briales was earning A's and B's in high school and was known as a bit of a homebody.
And she was pregnant.

She's the type of person Children Having Children Inc. has been targeting.
A community organization based in southeastern San Diego, Children Having Children has spent more than 20 years trying to prevent teen pregnancy.

Since its incorporation in 1986, the organization headquartered at the Tubman-Chavez Multicultural Center on Euclid Avenue has provided workshops and classes for parents and their children centered on sexual health issues. Children Having Children is also part of the Southeast San Diego SHIFT Alliance (Sexual Health in Families Today), a partnership of community and health organizations that provide free workshops in English and Spanish about sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence and family planning.

The organization was founded by Joye Goodwin and is now led by executive director N. Diane Moss and Elneda Shannon, chairwoman of the board of directors.

There is much work to be done.

Like Briales, Moss' mother got pregnant in her teens, although she was married, and gave birth to Moss when she was 17.

Briales said her mother was “extremely surprised” that her daughter was pregnant at 16 and did not even know she was sexually active.

Moss said many times parents are afraid to talk to their children about sex because they think it will encourage them.
“Sexuality is part of human nature. Part of preparation (for life) is talking about sexuality. It's not going to make them have sex; that's not the trigger. At some point all humans will engage in sexual behavior,” she said.

In 2006, there were 1,203 births to girls ages 15 to 17 in the region, a rate of 18.7 births per 1,000 girls in that age group in San Diego County, according to the latest data from the state Department of Public Health Center for Health Statistics. That is down from 24.3 per 1,000 in 2000 and 19.5 per 1,000 in 2005.

Edward L. Murray III, treasurer and former chairman of Children Having Children's board of directors, is a clinical psychologist at The Alafia Wellness Center in Lemon Grove. He said many of the young girls he counsels have a history of family discord, molestation and neglect.
“These emotional needs are paramount to them and they are desperately in search of a way to get them met, at least seemingly to get them met, and so they end up being into deeper relationships than they should and sexually involved,” he said.

Murray said many teens look to other teens to meet their emotional needs. “They reach out, and in the case of a young teen, to a person of the opposite sex to fulfill that need. Of course it doesn't work, but it seems that way for a little time,” he said.

Shannon said some young people use sex to gauge their self-worth.

Moss said the best thing parents can do is show their children that they care.

“The No. 1 factor in preventing teenage pregnancy is a caring adult stepping up and paying attention to a young person. If I know you care and we have that connection, it goes a long way,” she said.

Moss said decisions about risky behavior, such as sexual activity and drug use, are often influenced by the teens' outlook on their future.

“If people don't think tomorrow is promised to them, they're more likely to participate in risky behavior,” she said. In southeastern San Diego, the group's primary focus, many teens have to deal with persistent threats of violence in their communities, she said.

Murray said teens are at a critical juncture in their development, a time when they are learning how to make decisions. Teaching people to think, he said, is the “greatest gift” people can give.
“Children Having Children looks at how we can encourage teens to look more critically at what their choices are and what the consequences of those choices will be and give them some tools for making choices that empower them to have a better life,” he said.

And a better life is what Briales is giving her 6-year-old daughter, Akilah, and 8-month-old son, Tayveon.

“I learned to live for them,” she said. “It's not just about me. All my actions have an effect on my kids. My kids are always No. 1. I have to live for them. I have to reach for the stars and go after everything I want to do.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Shauntel Lowe is a freelance writer in San Diego.