Teen birth rates highest in most religious states
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32884806/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/
Teen birth rates highest in most religious states
Link may be due to communities frowning on contraception, researchers say
By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
updated 5:11 p.m. MT, Wed., Sept . 16, 2009
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health. (See chart below.)
However, the results don't say anything about cause and effect, though study researcher Joseph Strayhorn of Drexel University College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh offers a speculation of the most probable explanation: "We conjecture that religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."
The study comes with other significant caveats, too:
The same link might not be found for other types of religious beliefs that are perhaps more liberal, researchers say. And while the study reveals information about states as a whole, it doesn't shed light on whether an individual teen who is more religious will also be more likely to have a child.
"You can't talk about individuals, because you don't know what's producing the [teen birth] rate," said Amy Adamczyk, a sociologist at the City University of New York, who was not involved in the current study. "Are there just a couple of really precocious religious teenagers who are running around and getting pregnant and having all of these babies, but that's not the norm?"
Strayhorn agrees and says the study aimed to look at communities (or states) as a whole.
"It is possible that an anti-contraception attitude could be caused by religious cultures and that could exert its effect mainly on the non-religious individuals in the culture," Strayhorn told LiveScience. But, he added, "We don't know."
Bible states
Strayhorn compiled data from various data sets. The religiosity information came from a sample of nearly 36,000 participants who were part of the U.S. Religious Landscapes Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted in 2007, while the teen birth and abortion statistics came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For religiosity, the researchers averaged the percentage of respondents who agreed with conservative responses to eight statements, including: ''There is only one way to interpret the teachings of my religion," and ''Scripture should be taken literally, word for word."
They found a strong correlation between statewide conservative religiousness and statewide teen birth rate even when they accounted for income and abortion rates.
More abortions among teens in less religious states
For instance, the results showed more abortions among teenagers in the less religious states, which would skew the findings since fewer teens in these states would have births. But even after accounting for the abortions, the study team still found a state's level of religiosity could predict their teen birth rate. The higher the religiosity, the higher was the teen birth rate on average.
John Santelli of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University calls the study "well-done," adding that the results are not surprising.
"The index of religiosity is tapping into more fundamentalist religious belief," Santelli said. "I'm sure there are parts of New England that have very low teen birth rates, which have pretty high religious participation, but they're probably less conservative, less fundamentalist type of congregations."
Other factors that may have been important to consider include ethnic backgrounds of state residents, according to Adamczyk, the City University of New York sociologist.
"We know that African American women on average tend to underreport their abortions, which means they could also underreport the likelihood that they got pregnant," Adamczyk said. "If you're dealing with states with a high number of African American women, you might run into that problem."
Adamczyk's own, separate research has shown a nearly opposite correlation, at the individual level. "What we find is that more religious women are less likely to engage in riskier sex behaviors, and as a result they are less likely to have a premarital pregnancy," Adamczyk said during a telephone interview. But for those religious teens who do choose to have premarital sex, they might be more likely to ditch their religious views and have an abortion, she has found.
Cause and effect?
Adamczyk says the idea that anti-contraception principles could be behind the link is controversial, as studies on the topic have varied results. "The idea is that in the heat of the moment, a young woman who has said, 'I'm going to be a virgin on my wedding night,' is with her boyfriend and she says 'Let's just do it.' And since they didn't plan it, nobody has a condom. And so it increases their chances of a pregnancy," Adamczyk said.
Earlier marriage among religious individuals could also partly explain the finding.
"In the south, there is a higher rate of marriage of teenagers. And one possible explanation is just that in the southern states, which are also more religious, people just get married earlier and have planned pregnancies and those have perfectly good outcomes," Strayhorn said. He added that he doesn't think the earlier marriage idea explains the religion-birth link.
© 2009 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
Teen birth rates highest in most religious states
Link may be due to communities frowning on contraception, researchers say
By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
updated 5:11 p.m. MT, Wed., Sept . 16, 2009
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health. (See chart below.)
However, the results don't say anything about cause and effect, though study researcher Joseph Strayhorn of Drexel University College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh offers a speculation of the most probable explanation: "We conjecture that religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."
The study comes with other significant caveats, too:
The same link might not be found for other types of religious beliefs that are perhaps more liberal, researchers say. And while the study reveals information about states as a whole, it doesn't shed light on whether an individual teen who is more religious will also be more likely to have a child.
"You can't talk about individuals, because you don't know what's producing the [teen birth] rate," said Amy Adamczyk, a sociologist at the City University of New York, who was not involved in the current study. "Are there just a couple of really precocious religious teenagers who are running around and getting pregnant and having all of these babies, but that's not the norm?"
Strayhorn agrees and says the study aimed to look at communities (or states) as a whole.
"It is possible that an anti-contraception attitude could be caused by religious cultures and that could exert its effect mainly on the non-religious individuals in the culture," Strayhorn told LiveScience. But, he added, "We don't know."
Bible states
Strayhorn compiled data from various data sets. The religiosity information came from a sample of nearly 36,000 participants who were part of the U.S. Religious Landscapes Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted in 2007, while the teen birth and abortion statistics came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For religiosity, the researchers averaged the percentage of respondents who agreed with conservative responses to eight statements, including: ''There is only one way to interpret the teachings of my religion," and ''Scripture should be taken literally, word for word."
They found a strong correlation between statewide conservative religiousness and statewide teen birth rate even when they accounted for income and abortion rates.
More abortions among teens in less religious states
For instance, the results showed more abortions among teenagers in the less religious states, which would skew the findings since fewer teens in these states would have births. But even after accounting for the abortions, the study team still found a state's level of religiosity could predict their teen birth rate. The higher the religiosity, the higher was the teen birth rate on average.
John Santelli of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University calls the study "well-done," adding that the results are not surprising.
"The index of religiosity is tapping into more fundamentalist religious belief," Santelli said. "I'm sure there are parts of New England that have very low teen birth rates, which have pretty high religious participation, but they're probably less conservative, less fundamentalist type of congregations."
Other factors that may have been important to consider include ethnic backgrounds of state residents, according to Adamczyk, the City University of New York sociologist.
"We know that African American women on average tend to underreport their abortions, which means they could also underreport the likelihood that they got pregnant," Adamczyk said. "If you're dealing with states with a high number of African American women, you might run into that problem."
Adamczyk's own, separate research has shown a nearly opposite correlation, at the individual level. "What we find is that more religious women are less likely to engage in riskier sex behaviors, and as a result they are less likely to have a premarital pregnancy," Adamczyk said during a telephone interview. But for those religious teens who do choose to have premarital sex, they might be more likely to ditch their religious views and have an abortion, she has found.
Cause and effect?
Adamczyk says the idea that anti-contraception principles could be behind the link is controversial, as studies on the topic have varied results. "The idea is that in the heat of the moment, a young woman who has said, 'I'm going to be a virgin on my wedding night,' is with her boyfriend and she says 'Let's just do it.' And since they didn't plan it, nobody has a condom. And so it increases their chances of a pregnancy," Adamczyk said.
Earlier marriage among religious individuals could also partly explain the finding.
"In the south, there is a higher rate of marriage of teenagers. And one possible explanation is just that in the southern states, which are also more religious, people just get married earlier and have planned pregnancies and those have perfectly good outcomes," Strayhorn said. He added that he doesn't think the earlier marriage idea explains the religion-birth link.
© 2009 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
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(You can see the state ranking table if you click the link and scroll down.)
http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm
the education of shelby knox
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427206/
yes is all about teens, but it's a really good movie.
well, errrr.......DUH. :roll:
and i say this not to downplay the importance, but just to shake my head at the idea that we need research to prove this correlation and that even with this, more than likely, it will not change a damn thing. that is the sad fact. kinda along the lines of abstinence only education. let's just keep teaching the same things over and over, with the same undesired/negative consequences......isn't that a descriptor of idiocy somewhere?
that's quite a humorous take except for one thing; even with 'less to do'...one could choose to fuck AND use contraception, and therefore....not have higher than average teen birth rates.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
When you gotta choose between your next pack of cigs, case of Busch Light, or condoms...you're going to have drunken unprotected sex and enjoy a nice drag after!!!!
Thanks!! Just added it to my Netflix queue.
This was my thought as well.
Does it show the kids are dumb or that their parents aren't doing their job...and is that because of their religious beliefs at all?
Yup. I saw it a while ago. But from what I do remember one point was that that type of religious people in that area of the country didn’t want sex ed taught in school. Not even that, they didn’t want to go anywhere near the subject.
If the kids had any questions pertaining to sex, the teachers were to respond with abstinence.
That’s not an answer. That’s some kind of religious agenda going on. Why did they want to keep these kids in the dark?
I'm thinking it's pretty difficult to connect those two factors. They aren't in a vacuum. Mississippi ranks near the bottom in education. Wouldn't that be a factor?
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
absolutely. there would certsainly be many factors...but this one issue could also be amongst them. hell, i look at sarah palin's daughter, educated, lots of life's adavantages and yet....pregnant and having a child. also a religious home. and hey, absolutely nothing wrong with religion but i think what may be correlated here is the lack of education about BC, and/or the encouragement to use BC.....but instead abstinence only education. that to me is the real issue. they may well be one's religious beliefs, but hey.......teenages don't live in a vacuum either, and many will make choices outside of their religious upbringings.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
Back in the olden days... I was banging this married gal who always tried to get me to covert to Christianity (Born Again) because of my wicked ways. We'd talk and I said I couldn't understand how Christianity and adultery equated.
Her view was she wasn't really committing adultery, because we weren't having vaginal sex... just oral and anal sex. I accepted that because hey... free blow jobs and backdoor, right? I was very wicked in the olden days.
Hail, Hail!!!
Twisted. See religion is all about rules. People twist them to fit their needs/fears/ways to manipulate.
Certainly an odd perspective... even odder to me, all these years later.
She was really a nice person. She said she prayed for me all the time because of my wicked life... back then, I was a scotch swilling, pot smoking, recreational cocaine user. She would cry while telling me how bad she felt about my going to Hell for Eternity and all. I told her I didn't do things I needed to be forgiven for (is banging a married woman considered adultery... if I'm not married?)... but, it was nice that she cared for me.
The other strange thing was with her kids (2 daughters and 1 son). She would say stuff like how she would not tolerate them having any pre-marital sex because it was against her beliefs at the same time I was banging her from behind... while she was married.
Hail, Hail!!!
Ahh.blanket statements and prejudice are always a good idea.
"Religion" is a very diverse field. Some are as you described....some are not.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
I agree. You cannot condemn or condone an entire religion based upon the actions of single individuals.
Hail, Hail!!!
Seems pretty simple, don't it?
Hail, Hail!!!
this is true.
i've seen a lot of shady situations thou like what cosmo described and it can't help but color my feelings towards religion.