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Because of the continuing unacceptably high birth rate among young people, preventing teenage pregnancy raises some questions that need to be answered. For example, what do we know about approaches that might be used to reduce teenage pregnancy? What can we learn from past program attempts? What new program models appear to hold promise? Also, we need to ask if we have accepted some answers that hinder our understanding of what needs to be done to reduce teen pregnancy.
A decade ago, Richard Jessor described experimentation with many of the behaviors that place youth at risk for potentially harmful outcomes (smoking, drinking, early sex, and drug use) as becoming the norm for adolescents. He theorized that these behaviors are chosen by young people in a purposeful way-they serve as functional transition markers, helping young people move from a more childlike state to self and peer affirmation of a more adult status. One can become a drinker as opposed to a nondrinker, a smoker as opposed to a nonsmoker, and sexually experienced as opposed to being a virgin. Society legitimizes these markers by defining an age below which the behaviors are deemed to be inappropriate and, therefore, illegal. For example, there is an age below which one is not allowed to drink, an age below which one is not permitted to buy cigarettes, and an age below which an act of sexual intercourse is considered a crime (statutory rape). Therefore, certain behaviors are associated formally with a more grown' up status.
At one time, smoking, drinking, or having sex was thought to be engaged in only by so-called problem youth; now such behavior has become part of the adolescent experience. Currently, 8 million of the nation's 30 million 7th to 12th grade students drink almost weekly. Moreover, 41% of white youth, 17% of black youth, and 32% of Hispanic youth smoke. Half of all high school seniors have had some experience with marijuana. The average age of first intercourse for American teens is 15.2 for girls and 15.7 for boys. Jessor concluded that telling youth to "just say no"-that is, never to engage in such behaviors, is unrealistic. Instead, he suggested three approaches to help youth manage their participation in such behaviors: insulation, minimization, and delay...