Yarmouth teen pregnancy research project contacting people for survey
A research project that will investigate why teen pregnancy rates are higher in Yarmouth is contacting local people to participate in a survey.
“We are now in the process of contacting larger numbers of youth to obtain their views about what factors might be behind high rates of teen age pregnancy,” says Don Langille, professor, community health and epidemiology, Dalhousie University and project lead. Teen pregnancy rates are higher in Yarmouth than in many other similar towns in Nova Scotia.
The purpose of the three year study is to gather information about the factors that determine the occurrence of adolescent pregnancy. The first stage of the project included initial developmental interviews with key informants including youth, youth not in school, educators, health care professionals and parents.
These interviews were conducted in the winter of 2007 and provide insights into the influences of factors influencing adolescent sexual risk taking. Findings were used to develop the interview guide for the second phase of the project which involves in-depth interviews with youth in order to develop an understanding from adolescents’ perspectives of factors influencing youth sexual risk behaviours. This stage of the project is currently underway.
The project will continue by conducting focus groups with three separate groups of parents, educators and healthcare professionals in Yarmouth to further explore findings from the initial developmental interviews and subsequent adolescent interviews. The focus groups will be followed by surveys of both students and youth not in school, scheduled for the spring of 2008. The surveys will include questions about risk behaviours and factors influencing which can lead to teenage pregnancy.
After the survey data has been analyzed, focus groups will be conducted with youth and adults representing key areas [parents, educators, healthcare professionals]. Participants will be asked to consider the research findings and provide their views about the various influences on adolescent pregnancy which have emerged. Focus group interviews will be aimed at identifying what youth and adult stakeholders see as the most important factors relating to adolescent risk taking behaviours, the potential for intervention on such factors so as to decrease risk-taking, and how each works as a determinant in risk-taking.
A two day facilitated workshop in April 2009 will involve the Yarmouth Working Group for the Prevention of Teen Pregnancy, researchers and community members selected for their work in youth programming, insights into youth sexual health and responsibility for policy and planning for youth health and education. The workshop will lead to recommendations for preventive interventions.
“To clear up any confusion about the rate at which young women in Yarmouth become pregnant as teenagers, what the research team did was calculate the proportion of young women aged 15 to 19 who become pregnant over this five year period, that is, from the first day after they turn 15 to the day before they turn 20,” says Langille.
Using data available up until 2002, the research team found that in Yarmouth, 25 per cent of young women became pregnant during these teenage years, whereas the average of all 101 Nova Scotia communities studied was 12 per cent.
“This number is likely lower now in both Yarmouth and the province, since the provincial overall yearly rate of teen pregnancy has decreased in Nova Scotia recently, and there is no reason to think that Yarmouth has not shared in this decrease,” says Langille.
The team has not had the resources to compare Yarmouth to the province in the years after 2002, since such analyses are costly. “So, while we can’t say what the current experience with teenage pregnancy is in Yarmouth, we have seen that in the past Yarmouth has had this outcome more commonly than other communities, says Langille. “Our research is meant to find out what can be done to help young people in Yarmouth to have good sexual health, and avoid outcomes like teen pregnancy,” he adds.
Project partners include, Dalhousie University, South West Health, physicians, Tri-County Regional School Board, Yarmouth County Community Health Board, Tri-County Women’s Resource Centre, Université Sainte-Anne,Tri-County Pregnancy Care Centre, Community Services, Planned Parenthood, RCMP Yarmouth detachment, parents and youth.
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Source: www.novanewsnow.com
