Adolescent Pregnancy

Reply to peer response:

The leading causes of teenage pregnancy include lack of knowledge about contraception or sex education, low self-esteem, unawareness, and lack of future goals. Other risk factors are engagement in sex at a younger age, alcohol addiction, drug use, poor school performance, and being a victim of sexual violence. The community resources in Florida include the Florida Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Grantees, which aid the State and Competitive Personal Responsibility education programs, Personal Responsibility Educational Innovative Strategies at Winker Park, Sexual Risk Avoidance Educational Program at Miami Gardens, Palmetto Bay, and Fort Lauderdale (Florida Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Grantees, 2019). NEFL Teen Pregnancy Task Force targets pregnant teenagers in Northeast Florida by releasing an updated community action plan indicating the agencies and service gaps (NEFL Teen Pregnancy Task Force, 2019). Thus, these resources have helped reduce the rate of adolescent pregnancy in the state.

The coalition provides mini-grants to implement the NEFL Teen Pregnancy Task Force strategies to reduce teenage pregnancies and births in the region. The task force addresses the high rate of adolescent pregnancies and births and develops elaborate prevention measures targeting repeat teenage births. In 2015, there were 11,956 infants born to teenagers aged between 15 and 19 years for a live birth of 20.3 for every 1000 teens, dropping by 7.3% from 2014 (Florida Adolescent Reproductive Health Facts, 2019). In 2018, the live rate was 18.5 for the same age group, but the rate fell by 12.1% for teenagers between 15 and 17 years and 3.8% for those aged between 18 and 19 years. Generally, the rate among Hispanics has reduced, but there is still great concern about awareness and prevention strategies.

References

Florida Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Grantees. (2019). https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/grants/florida-app

Florida Adolescent Reproductive Health Facts. (2019). https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/facts-and-stats/national-and-state-data-sheets/adolescent-reproductive-health/florida/index.html

NEFL Teen Pregnancy Task Force. (2019) – NE FL Healthy Start Coalition reduces infant mortality, improves children’s health. http://nefhealthystart.org/community-initiatives/nefl-teen-pregnancy-task-force/