I really feel for this situation. I agree that if this is a rural area where there isn't really much to so, after-school programs would most likely be beneficial.
ALso, parent education classes. Many parents put so much responsibility on the school staff it's amazing. It's like, what they don't learn at school they just don't learn.
Self-esteem is a big issue with teenage pregnancy. The attention these young girls get, when they may be getting very little elsewhere is very alluring. Attention from boys, friends, classmates, etc.
I used to do HIV education in high schools and middle schools in LA, Inglewood, Hawthorne, etc (Los Angeles). At the middle schools, I would talk about postponing sexual involvement, in hish chools, it was risk reduction (for HIV,STDs and pregnancy). Well, at one middle school, I am talking about postponing (which is appropriate for MOST of the students, not ALL). I had a 12 year old girl in the class who had TWO children. She was looking at me like "too late." First baby was by her first cousin, second was by someone in the 12th grade.
Situations like this also tend to be cyclical. I now a woman who is 45 years old and is a great grandmother. She had her daughter at 15, her daughter had hers at 15 and then her daughter had hers at 15. When you have children at such a young age, you still have a lot of growing up to do. The basic mistakes where you stop and say, "Wow, I will never do that again and I will teach my kids,one day not to do that either," haven't even been made. If I am 18 and my child is 7 years old, what can I possibly teach him/her? So when that child is 14 and I am 25, I am not thinking of teaching sexual responsibility, I'm still trying to get mine.
I am not speaking for all young people who have children. SOme have a tight support network and are able to graduate, do well, marry and have other children. Butthe majority end up depriving themselves and their children of a half-way decent life.
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