New Research on Foster Teen Pregnancy Prevention from CHHSM Member UCAN

There’s good news in the work to prevent teen pregnancy: according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, teen pregnancy and birth rates in the United States have declined by approximately one-third over the past decade. However, there’s also much more to be done: one-third of girls in the United States still become pregnant as teenagers, and the United States still has the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates in the fully industrialized world.

Recently, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and CHHSM member UCAN (Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network of Chicago) collaborated on an initiative to reduce teen pregnancy among one population at especially high risk: youth in foster care. The two organizations conducted qualitative research including focus groups with foster teens and foster parents, a survey of Chicago-area child welfare service providers, and meetings with child welfare and teen pregnancy prevention organizations in Chicago and Washington D.C.. Their findings suggest new ways to reduce teen pregnancy among foster teens by encouraging positive, respectful relationships and peer support among young people and strengthening foster teens relationships with supportive, consistent adults.

The report notes that preventing pregnancy among foster teens can be particularly complicated because many of these young women, despite access to information about preventing pregnancy, want to have a child in order to experience having families of their own. Learning from peers about the real-life complications of teen parenting can help counteract these motivations, while education and youth development activities can help supply foster teens with positive adult role models and avenues for success outside of early parenting. Mental health services, work with boys and young men and more training for foster parents also provide strategies for preventing foster teen pregnancy.

What’s next in UCAN’s work with foster teens? Its project with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy continues, with work to make pregnancy prevention for foster youth a higher priority, developing and piloting a pregnancy prevention program for foster teens in Chicago, and providing tools for preventing pregnancy to foster teens and those who care for them.

Founded in 1869, UCAN (Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network) was established by St. Paul’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church (known today as St. Paul’s UCC, Chicago) to care for Civil War orphans. Today’s UCAN offers a full array of services for children and families through a network of community-based initiatives. To learn more about UCAN’s work in teen pregnancy prevention, read

“Fostering Hope: Preventing Teen Pregnancy Among Youth in Foster Care” at www.teenpregnancy.org; to learn more about UCAN, please visit www.ucanchicao.org.