Cohesive, trusting communities buoy at-risk youth throughout adolescence

摘要

Despite significant reductions in the U.S. teenage pregnancy rate over the last 20 years, disparities based on race/ ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location persist. The most recent data show, for example, that African-Americans had the highest teenage pregnancy rate of 121.6 pregnancies per 1,000 15-19-year-olds in 2008, which was three times higher than that for non-Hispanic white teens (at 44.8 pregnancies/1,000 teens). Recent national analyses also show wide variation in teen birthrates by geographic locale, with teen birthrates in rural counties higher than in other areas of the country regardless of age or race/ethnicity. In fact, the teen birthrate increases steadily as the level of urbanization decreases. Moreover, a disproportionate share of teen parents are from households with incomes either below or just above poverty-level. In this issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, Kogan and colleagues analyze protective factors against teen pregnancy among adolescents facing a "trifecta" of risks: poor, working-class African-American teens living in rural Georgia or Iowa. Kogan and colleagues' findings reveal that living in a supportive and cohesive family and community at age 11 years initiated a chain of events that led to an optimistic future outlook at age 16 years, which in turn, led to successful avoidance of pregnancy by age 19 years. These findings are important because although the risks associated with teenage pregnancy have been thoroughly investigated, less is known about early determinants, particularly those found in youths' environs, and specifically from a protective vantage point. Kogan et al.'s findings reinforce the need for ecological resilience models that take into account the influence of risk and protective factors in youths' contexts, from several socialization domains, and across development. This is a relatively new approach in adolescent health studies, because most theory and research on parenting and families usually ignore community context, and community studies generally do not consider parenting behavior or family functioning; yet, all three processes (community, family, and parenting) are known to be correlated and all can function as supportive controls that decrease youths' deviant and risky behavior.