Research and Summary

Research Question: What socioeconomic factor (specifically, population density, political leanings, and poverty rates) affect a region's teen pregnancy rates?

Hypothesis: Rural, poor, conservative areas will have higher rates of teen pregnancy due to the effects of poverty and abstinence-based education.


Variable 1: Rural vs. Urban Areas (i.e., Teen Pregnancy Rates as Function of Population)

Note that the data is essentially random and has no distinct pattern. After noticing the two outliers at the top of the graph, these data points were removed to provide a better graph, which follows:


Still this graph doesn't convincingly show that the teen pregnancy rate can be appropriately expressed as a function of population.

What about the political disposition of a region? If a locale tends to vote for conservative candidates, we hypothesize that there will be a larger number of teen pregnancies due to the fact that conservative areas typically lack comprehensive sex education.

As this chart shows, there is a general trend between the political disposition of a region and the teen pregnancy rates. As hypothesized, conservative areas typically exhibit higher rates of teen pregnancy than liberal ones.

What about poverty rates? It's also hypothesized that poverty rates and teen pregnancy rates should have a positive correlation with each other (i.e., higher poverty rates have higher teen pregnancy rates).

As with the population hypothesis, there is, ostensibly, little correlation between teen pregnancy and the poverty rate. However, elimination of the 3 outlying points yields a much better chart as shown below:

From this is appears that the teen pregnancy rate is closely related to poverty when the outliers are accounted for.

Summary:

Teen pregnancy rates are a complicated issue with many different variables to consider. From the research we've done, it's apparent that political leanings and poverty rates are typically important factors in the rate. It's also noteworthy to mention that 7 points do not make a deep data set, and thus more information would be needed before conclusive statements could be made.

News Articles

Article 1
This article, from Cowlitz County (where Longview is located) is about how the town is experiencing an upswing in birth rates across the board, despite the significant economic downturn. Additionally, one person expects it to continue increasing as the economy fails to recover.
Article 2
This article, from King County shows how high poverty areas in Seattle have higher rates of teen pregnancy. It goes on to state that Planned Parenthood will initiate a Teen Outreach Program designed to reduce these rates.
Article 3
In this article a table is presented showing the teen pregnancy rates across the US. Areas in the South are prone to higher birthrates while the East and West Coast experience lower incidences of teen pregnancy.
Article 4
This link leads to a series of articles on teen pregnancy in Orange County. The most salient point is that the region has roughly halved its teen pregnancy rate from 7% to 3.5% in two decades. Another report shows a correlation between abstinence education programs and a rise in teen pregnancy rates.

Case Study - Jesse Shao - Bellevue, WA

Data Compilation:

Population of Bellevue, WA (2010): 122, 363

Median Income (2008): $81,184

Men’s Median: $66,456         

Women’s Median: $47,124

Per Capital Income: $56,906

Below Poverty Line: 3.8% Families and 5.7% Population

NOTE: *A majority of those living below the poverty line were either under the age of 18 or over the age of 65.

Crime: As of 2006, Bellevue was ranked within the Top 25 safest cities in the United States of     America. The Bellevue Police force is strongly supported by the community.

Politics: In the 2004 Election, 57% of the voting residents of Bellevue, WA voted for Democrat John Kerry.

Education: Has four main public high schools, Bellevue High School, Interlake High School, Newport High School and Sammamish High School including two alternate High Schools, International School and Robinswood High School.

NOTE: *As of 2010, Newsweek ranked Interlake at 14^th, International at 21^st, Newport at 46^th, Sammamish at 58^th, and Bellevue at 81^st in the top 100 high schools in the nation.

Pregnancy Rates: Per 1,000, King County had 38 per 1,000 females between the age group of  15-19. No data was available for Bellevue alone. If Bellevue were  representative, that would mean it would have a 3.8% teen pregnancy rate.

 NOTE: *According to The Center for Disease Control, one third of women under the age of 20 get pregnant in the United States.

 NOTE: *The national average is 53 per 1,000 women for teen pregnancy, making Bellevue, WA far below the average.

Government Programs: 

Bellevue alone has six programs, which address teen pregnancy and safe sex. 

Three of which primarily focus on teen pregnancy. 

These three include:

1.)    Emergency Contraceptive Line
2.)    Planned Parenthood
3.)    Sex Information Line

NOTE: *The teen population age group 15-19 only accounts for approximately 6,300 members in the Bellevue community.

Personal Experience:

Growing up in Bellevue, WA, I went to Bellevue High School, which is where all the kids whose parents either owned businesses downtown or worked at Microsoft in Redmond went. The sex education received was fairly balanced, discussing both topics of abstinence and birth control. In my four years at that high school, never once did I hear or see anything about anyone in my school getting pregnant. Furthermore, I had friends from every high school in the city and the only time teen pregnancy was mentioned was in reference to Robinswood High School, which at the time was fitting because that was where teens who either had bad grades, some kind of criminal record, were expelled from another school or were of low socioeconomic standing went. Bellevue accounted for about 1.500 kids with Newport right behind it at 1,200 and Interlake and Sammamish with a total of 1,600 combined and International School somewhere in the ballpark of 400. That already accounts for more than two thirds of the teen population in Bellevue, so without a single mention of teen pregnancy in that regard, says quite a bit.

Summarizing Findings (Bellevue):

• High socioeconomic standing. Other communities that reported with high socioeconomic standings had lower teen pregnancy rates.
• Low rates of divorce. Other communities that reported low rates of divorce also had lower teen pregnancy rates.
• Outstanding public education with high accessibility to government programs such as Planned Parenthood. Other communities which reported to have a good public education system and ease of accessibility to government programs like Planned Parenthood were likely to have lower teen pregnancy rates.
• Overall, Bellevue, WA is representative of how all these factors would influence teen pregnancy.

Case Study - Tyler Shay - Longview, WA

Population of Longview, WA (2010): 36,562

Median Income (2008): $35,171
Men’s Median: $38,972
Women’s Median: $26,625
Per Capital Income: $18,559
Below Poverty Line: 12.3% Families and 16.7% Population
NOTE: *One quarter of those living below the poverty line either under the age of 18 and 6.8% were over 65.

Crime: As of 2006, Longview was ranked amongst the most crime-prone areas of any size in the US. There is a 10% chance of being a victim or either violent or property crime here.

Politics: In the 2004 Election, 50.8% of the voting residents of Longview, WA voted for Democrat John Kerry.

Education: Has two public high schools: R. A. Long and Mark Morris. Both teach a comprehensive sex education course as part of a mandatory health curriculum.


Pregnancy Rates: Per 1,000, Cowlitz County had 52 per 1,000 females between the age group of 15-19. No data was available for Longview alone. If Longview were representative, that would mean it would have a 3.8% teen pregnancy rate.
NOTE: *According to The Center for Disease Control, one third of women under the age of 20 get pregnant in the United States.  NOTE: *The national average is 53 per 1,000 women for teen pregnancy, making Longview, WA average.
Government Programs: Longview alone has 3 clinics for pregnancy, including Planned Parenthood and a low-income Family Health Center.

Churches: There are 53 reported churches in the Longview area, all of which are Christian
 
Personal Experience:
Growing up in Longview, WA, I went to R.A. Long High School, populated primarily by kids of lower economic standing. Many of my classmates were the children of mill workers, and drug and alcohol abuse was rampant, particularly as the mills were downsized and the poverty rate increased. I don’t personally recall any teen pregnancies, but I hung out with a pretty tame group of people so I’m not likely to be the best representative. I do remember two of the class presidents being involved in drug and alcohol abuse pretty heavily; in one case he died from a head wound inflicted while drunkenly boxing and in another the student body president was sent to prison for selling cocaine.

Summarizing Findings (Longview):
 

• Low socioeconomic standing. Other communities that reported with lower socioeconomic standings had higher teen pregnancy rates.
• Low rates of divorce (13.42%). Other communities that reported low rates of divorce also had lower teen pregnancy rates.
• Poor public education with moderate access to pregnancy support centers (approximately 3 serving a community of ~35,000). Poor public transportation system compounds problems.
• Longview shows how ostensibly rural towns can affect the teen pregnancy rate.

Sources Cited:
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/wa/longview/crime/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowlitz_County
http://www.co.cowlitz.wa.us/health/assessment/2004ReportCardVO.pdf

Case Study - Aaron Litzinger - Mukilteo, WA

Mukilteo:

Population: 20,388 (2009 estimates)

Median Income for household: $51,425

Median Family income: $62,623

Based on per capita income, Mukilteo ranks 29th of 522 areas in the state of Washington.

General fertility rates: 15-44 (per 1,000 women)

Snohomish County:

2008- 66.8

Washington State: 

2008- 66.6

Teen birth rate ages 15-17: (per 1,000 women)

Snohomish County:

2008- 10.4

Washington State:

2008- 15.5

During the past decade, the crude birth rate has not changed significantly.

The teen birth rate significantly declined in both Snohomish County and Washington State between 1999 and 2003. Since 2003 the rates have not significantly changed.

From 1999 through 2008, the teen birth rate in Snohomish County was significantly less than the Washington State teen birth rate.

General fertility rate:

The general fertility rate is defined as the number of live births per 1,000 women

between the ages of 15-44.

Between 2003 and 2008, the general fertility rate in Snohomish County increased significantly. The general fertility rate in Washington State significantly increased between 2002 and 2008.

In 2008 the general fertility rates in Snohomish County and Washington State were similar .

Education: Has 3 high schools, 4 middle schools, and 10 elementary schools. Only 1 high school, 2 middle schools, and 4 elementary schools are actually in Mukilteo. It has its own district. Kamiak is one of the most expensive high schools built in America.

National recogniton: In 2009, Mukilteo was ranked as number 10 of Money Magazine's top 100 small towns of America to live in. Fall of Troy is from Mukilteo.

Sex ed: More conservative. No demonstration of condom use or easy access to sexual health items. Mainly abstinence based. The area is mainly made up of well-off families.

Summary:

•                     A high standard of living

•                     Highly rated schools

•                     No easily accessible resources about sex

•                     There is still a low birth rate even without resources or thorough sex ed program.

Case Study - Ashley Rinck - Ellensburg, WA

Personal Experience:
My name is Ashley Rinck and I am from Ellensburg, WA which is a small college town in the dead center of Washington. My first sex ed class though was in elementary school and I went to elementary school in Issaquah, WA. Our sex ed class was pretty thorough I would say. We learned all about safe sex, how to use a condom, what all of the male and female parts of the body were and their functions. In this class they did split up the boys and girls into different class rooms. I’m pretty sure that we all learned the same material though but they did this to make it more comfortable for asking questions by being in the same sex peer groups. We were able to freely ask any questions; some even asked about how gay people have sex. We learned about birth control of all different kinds. We learned about pregnancy and how the body changes. We learned about all the STI's (at that time called STDs) and how they affected the body. They showed us what condoms looked like and even handed out pads and tampons to the female students. I think that my sex ed class was more thorough that most. Then in middle school, which I did attend in Ellensburg, WA, we had sex ed again. At this community they were pretty thorough but the teachers did push abstinence. I think that they kind of tried to scare people into staying abstinent which of course didn’t work. I think that because I grew up in a college town that high school was a little wilder. The sex ed was pretty much the same as it was when I was in elementary but they just pushed us not to have sex.
In my high school I did see teen pregnancies. I know a girl who had an abortion and two girls who followed through with their pregnancies. I am sure that there were other teen pregnancies that I didn’t know of because of the alternative school. When someone did become pregnant they usually chose to switch to the alternative school which was held up on the CWU campus. I think that Ellensburg is a small town and people are more likely to get pregnant because of the small town feel. People in Ellensburg get married early and have children early as well. I also think that since Ellensburg is a small town the college influences earlier involvement in sex.
Summarize Findings (Ellensburg, WA):
According to the findings Ellensburg is low on the teen pregnancy rates compared to the United States as a whole. Ellensburg is low crime and high education and I think this helps the teen pregnancy rate stay low. Though I did observe pregnant teens in high school, this wasn’t the norm.  

Data Compilation:
Population of Ellensburg, WA (2009): 17,408

Males: 8,482	(48.7%)
Females: 8,926	(51.3%)

Median resident age:	23.6 years
Washington median age:	35.3 years

Estimated median household income in 2009: $24,459 (it was $20,034 in 2000)

Ellensburg:	$24,459
Washington:	$56,548

Population density: 2641 people per square mile 
For population 25 years and over in Ellensburg:
High school or higher: 85.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher: 32.0%
Graduate or professional degree: 12.6%
Unemployed: 12.1%
Mean travel time to work (commute): 15.4 minutes
For population 15 years and over in Ellensburg city:
Never married: 51.8%
Now married: 33.6%
Separated: 1.3%
Widowed: 5.3%
Divorced: 8.0%
The ratio of number of residents in Ellensburg to the number of sex offenders is 2176 to 1.
The number of registered sex offenders compared to the number of residents in this city is smaller than the state average.


Crime:


Full-time law enforcement employees in 2009, including police officers: 37 (27 officers)

Officers per 1,000 residents here:	1.56
Washington average:	1.59
The number of violent crimes recorded by the FBI in 2003 was 28. The number of murders and homicides was 0. The violent crime rate was 1.8 per 1,000 people Politics:  44.94% of the people in Ellensburg, WA are registered as Democrats. 53.01% are registered Republican.

Education: Ellensburg, WA, schools spend $4,404 per student. There are 20 pupils per teacher, 416 students per librarian, and 344 children per counselor in Ellensburg, WA schools.

Colleges and High Schools: Central Washington University, Ellensburg High School, Morgan Middle School, Lincoln Elementary, Mount Stuart Elementary,  Valley View Elementary, and the Ellensburg Christian School (K through 6^th grade with a few 7^th and 8^th grade classes), Alternative School (K-12)

Pregnancy Rates: (Kittitas County) :
All ages: 57.7 per 1000
15-19: 25.7 per 1000
15-17: 19.4 per 1000
18-19: 29.2 per 1000      
 20-24: 44.5 per 1000
25-29: 130.0 per 1000
30-34: 139.6 per 1000
35-39: 51.6 per 1000
40-44: 12.7 per 1000

Help Centers:
We have a Planned Parenthood, Care Net Pregnancy Center, and Kittitas County Public Health.


Info from:
http://censtats.census.gov/data/WA/1605321240.pdf
http://www.bestplaces.net/city/washington/ellensburg#
http://www.city-data.com/city/Ellensburg-Washington.html
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehsphl/chs/chs-data/abortion/htmltables/tb17.htm

Case Study - Michele Hamm - Irvine, CA

Personal Experience:
 
My name is Michele Hamm and I was born raised in Orange County, California. I live in a town called Irvine. There are four high schools in California and I went to the most high-income school. The other three schools are very old fashioned and Northwood (my high school) was only ten years old. Through the Irvine School District, as a student you are supposed to go through elementary school, middle school and high school with the same people. There are normally three schools that feed into each other and lead to another school. For me, my experience was very different. I didn’t end up going to the high school that I was supposed to feed into. Therefore, my sexual education was somewhat non-existent. At my middle school, Venado, as a seventh grader you were supposed to receive a very graphic and exclusive sex ed course. But for my class of students, they changed the grade of sex ed course to the eighth grade, so my class didn’t receive sex ed. For any other student that was going into high school, this would be no problem because they would receive sex ed in high school. For me, Northwood did not have a sex ed program, only a mandatory health class that had to be taken.

Since I did not receive a real sex ed course, I can only elaborate on the health course I took in high school. There were a variety of topics that we covered in the course. We barely spent a week on sexual education and spent more of our time on drug and alcohol abuse along with nutrition and anatomy. I don’t remember ever being handed a condom or how to protect myself if I decided to have sex. Although my sexual education experience was unique, I think most kids in Irvine were either very well educated or did not have sex, because I remember there being one actual pregnancy that took place in my high school. I can only speak for the more wealthier side of town, because I believe that the other schools in the town had more experience with teen pregnancy.

Population of Irvine (2010): 212,375 
Men: 101.485                        
Female: 108,231

Median resident age (2009): 33.1
California Median age (2009):  33.3

Middle Class Income (2009): 84,850

Ethnicity (2009):
White Asian Hispanic Black Other	45.1% 39.0% 9.2% 1.6% 5.1%
Education (2009): High School Graduates College Graduates	96% 65%

Religion:

Religious Group	Number of temples, mosques, churches, or synagogues	Number of adherents	% of total population	% of total adherents
Roman Catholic	61	779,647	27.4	61.2
Jewish	28	60,000	2.1	4.7
Mormon	115	48,776	1.7	3.8
Independent Charismatic	13	43,100	1.5	3.4
Muslim	16	39,583	1.4	3.1
Southern Baptist Convention	77	32,652	1.1	2.6
Presbyterian USA	38	25,740	0.9	2/td>
Assembly of God	71	21,918	0.7	1.7
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	37	22,140	0.8	1.7
Missouri Synod Lutheran	30	19,073	0.7	1.5

Politics: Irvine, as being part of Orange County, is known for a a Republican county. Many people say this because of the high economic standing of the people who live in these places.

Pregnancy rates: More than 10% of teen births nationwide, numbering 50,000 in 2002, took place here in California.  And some 3,100 of these births occurred in Orange County. The teen pregnancy rates from 15-19, involved 65% pregnancies to 17-19 year olds and 35% to 15-17 year olds.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Anywhere around Irvine, aka Santa Ana and Los Angeles, you will find many planned parenthoods and other government run programs. But actually in Irvine I think we have one Planned Parenthood. This is because of the high economic standing of this city.



References:
http://www.cityofirvine.org/about/demographics.asp
http://www.city-data.com/city/Irvine-California.html