Youth Health Services, Development Programs, and Teenage Birth Rates in 55 California Cities

  • Mike Males University of California, Santa Cruz

Abstract

Many advocacy groups depict sexuality education, abstinence education, health services, and development services to teenagers as pivotal factors in their birth rates. Data from California’s 55 largest cities for 1990-2002 allow regression analyses of the associations between levels of health and development services to youth, socioeconomic factors such as poverty, and environmental factors such adult birth rates on rates of and changes in births to teenage mothers. The analysis found teenage birth rates vary 30-fold from California’s richest to poorest city. Socioeconomic and environmental factors, chiefly adult birth rates and youth poverty rates, are associated with nearly 90% of the variance in teen birth rates. Contrary to assertions by many advocates, lower-income teens have greater access to health, sexuality education, and development services, and the availability of these services is not associated with lower rates of or greater reductions over time in teenage birth rates.
Published
2006-03-01
How to Cite
Males, M. (2006). Youth Health Services, Development Programs, and Teenage Birth Rates in 55 California Cities. Californian Journal of Health Promotion, 4(1), 46-57. https://doi.org/10.32398/cjhp.v4i1.732