State Level Public Policy Choices as Predictors of State Teen Birthrates

Abstract

The findings of this study confirm that there is a relationship between US state level policy choices and teen birth rates. The predictors of state teen birth rates--high poverty rates low school completion rates low public welfare expenditures and high unemployment rates--are depictive of opportunity structures devoid of opportunities or reasons for hoping for a better future. This is compounded by low expenditures for both education and public welfare which are directly linked to the low school completion rates and high poverty rates that are so strongly predictive of high teen birth rates. These findings are consistent with those of other studies conducted throughout the world for 25 years or longer that also have shown an association between high birth rates low levels of educational attainment and high rates of poverty and unemployment. The role that state level policy choices play in this configuration is depicted statistically in the present analysis. All of this suggests that family professionals have a very strong advocacy role to play in their respective states and nationally as well in changing attitudes that underlie states spending choices and the federal governments too in terms of the costs that high teen birth rates entail. Counseling family life and sex education family planning services although important are insufficient for addressing the underlying conditions with which high teen birth rates are associated: poverty and low levels of education and aspirations for it. To address such conditions opportunity structures must be created in the states and communities in which poor teenagers live.