Document Type

Report

Publication Date

3-2017

Publication Title

The Lincy Institute Issue Brief Social Services Series No. 4

Publisher

The Lincy Institute

Publisher Location

Las Vegas, NV

Issue

5

First page number:

1

Last page number:

8

Abstract

Globally, the sexual and physical health of adolescents is of paramount concern. Teen pregnancy has been linked with socioeconomic disadvantage (Bissell, 2000), increased maternal mortality (Nove, Matthews, Neal, & Camacho, 2014), and poor child outcomes (Chen et al., 2007); while sexually transmitted diseases threaten to shorten life spans, increase disease burdens, and compound pregnancy complications (Glasier, Gülmezoglu, Scmid, Moreno, & Van Look, 2006). Although national teen birth rates have decreased to a historically low rate of 22.3 per 1,000 girls, research suggests that teen birth rates among foster care youths are disproportionately higher (Carpenter, Clyman, Davidson, & Steiner, 2001; Dworsky & Courtney, 2010). The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies (2015) reports that youths in foster care are nearly twice as likely to become pregnant compared with youths in the general population. Disparities faced by youths in the foster care system call for continued and focused work in the area of sexual health and pregnancy prevention.

Keywords

Foster care; DREAMER project; TPP program; Teen pregnancy; Southern Nevada Health District; Clark County Department of Family Services

File Format

pdf

File Size

1.561 KB

Language

English

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