Teen Birth Rate

Why Is This Important?

Babies born to teenaged mothers have a higher risk of low birthweight, preterm birth, and infant mortality. Children born to teens are more likely to grow up in poverty, grow up in a single-parent family, and have low attachment to and performance in school. Those children are also more likely to be placed in foster care and to be incarcerated in adolescence, and more likely to drop out of high school, to become teenaged parents, and to be unemployed or underemployed as an adult. Teen parents, both boys and girls, tend to have lower educational achievement, largely because of the demands of early parenting. By age 22, only half of teen mothers have completed high school, compared with 90% of their peers who did not give birth, and teen fathers have a 25 to 30 percent lower probability of graduating from high school.

Definition

Teen Birth Rate is the number of births to females in the age group per 1,000 of the age group female population.

Data Sources

• Birth Certificate Data, Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
  (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

From 2010 to 2020, the teen birth rate in New Mexico for 15- to 19-year-old girls has declined by 59%, to a rate of 21.8 per 1,000 in 2020. That rate of decline is higher than the national rate of 55% over the same time period (National Centers for Health Statistics, 2020). Over the past few decades, NM has had one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation but in 2020 had the eighth highest (NCHS, 2022). Decreases in fertility rates from 2010-2020 among NM girls aged 15-19 years by mother's race/ethnicity: * American Indian: 53% * Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander: 61% * Black/African American: 46% * Hispanic: 53% * White: 48% * Overall: 59%

What Is Being Done?

Confidential reproductive health services are provided at low- or no-cost at county public health offices, statewide, and some community health centers and school-based health centers. NM DOH FPP also funds community education programs focusing on service learning and positive youth development, adult/teen communication, and comprehensive sex education. Service learning and positive youth development programs promote positive outcomes for teens by providing meaningful service to develop and practice life skills. Through community engagement and positive relationships, teens develop self-efficacy and adopt healthy behaviors enabling them to reach their full developmental potential. Wyman's Teen Outreach Program (TOP) is an evidence based, nine-month, youth development program designed for youth ages 11-19. The curriculum allows for adaptable lessons based on maturity, level of understanding of a topic, and relevant events and issues affecting teens. TOP is based on three main components: Educational Peer Group Meetings, Positive Adult Guidance and Support, and Community Service Learning. These main components assist teens in achieving the three main goals of TOP: Life Skills, Healthy Behaviors, and a Sense of Purpose. In addition to these attributes, TOP has also seen evidence based behavioral outcomes in the form of a lower rates of school suspensions, course failures, and teen pregnancies. Project AIM (Adult Identity Mentoring) is an evidence-based program designed specifically for youth ages 11-14. This six-week program promotes motivation for students to reduce risky behavior. Project AIM is based on the Theory of Possible Selves and Prevention vs. Promotion Motivation. Youth are encouraged to think about their "Future Selves" and how their choices can directly impact their future images, both positively and/or negatively. Youth in both TOP and Project AIM are encouraged to visit either a Public Health Office or School Based Health Center to learn about the services available for teens. Teens also have the opportunity to ask questions at the clinics, which fosters communication between the teens and staff. Other State Agencies that work with teen pregnancy prevention include: Office of School and Adolescent Health provides primary care and behavioral health care at School-Based Health Centers. Family planning services are provided where approved by the school district.

Evidence-based Practices

Confidential clinical family planning services including shared-decision making counseling, birth control and laboratory tests. Increased access to confidential, low- or no-cost family planning services through county public health offices, community clinics, and school-based health centers. Increased access to most- and moderately-effective contraceptive methods for teens, such as the hormonal implant, the IUD (intrauterine device), pill, injectable, and ring. Service-learning and positive youth development programs, adult-teen communication programs. Telemedicine services to increase access to birth control for high-risk populations in areas with clinician shortages.

Other Objectives

New Mexico Community Health Status Indicator (CHSI), New Mexico Early Learning Indicator

Available Services

Family planning clinical services offer access to confidential reproductive health services at low or no cost. Confidential clinical family planning services including shared-decision making counseling, birth control, and laboratory tests. Find a family planning clinic: https://www.opa-fpclinicdb.com/ BrdsNBz New Mexico offers teens and free, confidential, and medically accurate answers to sexual health questions via text message in either English or Spanish. A teen texts a question and a trained health educator responds within 24 hours, with an average time of 6 to 8 hours. Teens text NMTeen to 66746 to opt in to the service.

More Resources

Power to Decide: the Campaign to Prevent Unplanned Pregnancy [https://powertodecide.org/] OPA: Office of Population Affairs [https://www.opa-fpclinicdb.com/] Bedsider Birth Control [https://www.bedsider.org/] Sex in the (Non) City: Teen Childbearing in Rural America [http://thenationalcampaign.org/resource/sex-non-city] Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT data center[http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/] National Center for Health Statistics [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/teen-births.htm] Guttmacher Institute: Pregnancies, Births and Abortions Among Adolescents and Young Women in the United States, 2013: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity [https://www.guttmacher.org/report/us-adolescent-pregnancy-trends-2013]

Health Program Information

New Mexico Department of Health Family Planning Program [https://nmhealth.org/about/phd/fhb/fpp/]