Births to Teens
“A Community Partnership of the Caring Communities Initiative”
Butler County Community Resource Council
Core Result: Healthy Children and Families
Benchmark: Births to Mothers Under Age 19
February 2002 
Objective
To decrease the rate of births to mothers age 15 to 19 from 75.3 per 1000 in 1998 to 66.0 per 1000 by 2003
Strategies
What Worked?
Youth Education
The Postponing Sexual Involvement educational program in two Butler County schools focuses on helping pre-teens (grades 5-7) to gain the skills to resist social and peer pressures to engage in early sexual involvement. Social skills training including assertiveness, resisting peer pressure, and basic factual information is presented. School districts partner with the Butler County Health Department and teen peer educators to implement the program Note: Poplar Bluff (PB) and Neelyville (N) Pre/Post Test Results for 1999-2000 School Year Below.
Parental Communication
Baby Think it Over uses computerized infant dolls to simulate the experience of caring for a baby. Seventh through ninth grade girls and boys ‘care’ for the dolls, including feeding and comforting functions. Feedback from students indicates an enhanced appreciation of the challenges of parenting and an expressed desire to postpone becoming a parent until they are adults. The Baby Think it Over Program appears to increase parental communication to children regarding sexual issues. The Children’s Trust Fund indicates that parental communication can enhance a child’s decision-making skills and can contribute to postponing sexual involvement.
New Efforts for FY 01
Targeting Teen Parents to Reduce the Occurrence of Repeat Pregnancies
Research indicates that the most likely teenager to have a child is one that has already had a child in the past two years. Consequently, the Community Partnership is now working with teen mothers.
The Missouri Volunteer Resource Mothers model is a part of the Missouri Mentoring Program. The Resource Mothers approach uses a trained coordinator to match volunteer mentors who are experienced mothers with pregnant or parenting teens. Research indicates the model is effective in reducing child abuse and neglect and repeat pregnancies.
Results
The teen pregnancy rate for girls ages 15-19 has declines in Butler County at a rate faster than the decline in the state rate. The rate in 1995 in Butler County was 79.0 per 1000 girls 15-19. The rate in 1999 was 70.2 per 1000 girls 15-19.
Funding/Return on Investment
In FY01, Caring Communities funds of $5,981 were leveraged with $19,924 of other funding. The extremely modest cost in terms of Caring Communities funds saved untold thousands of dollars due to the high cost associated with teen pregnancy. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, three out of five teen mothers drop out of school and 75% of teen mothers dropping out depend on public assistance.
Noteworthy
In 1997, Butler County ranked 101st out of 115 counties in teen pregnancy rate for girls ages 15-19, according to the Missouri Kids Count. By 1999, Butler County had improved 88th out of 115 counties.
