Interventions to Support Teen Mothers in California and Reduce the Disparities related to the effects of Teen Pregnancy

The US teen birth rate has slowly been declining; however, teenage pregnancy is still prevalent. In 2018 the US teen birth rate was 17.4 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 years, totaling 179,871 births (National Vital Statistic Report). California’s most recent birth rate was 13.6 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 years in 2020 (CDC, 2020). Few studies focus on teen mothers’ health, life needs, and outcomes as a result of adolescent pregnancy and subsequently, adolescent parenting. Additionally, few studies have looked at the cultural differences and views of adolescent pregnancy and parenting within the Hispanic population, which are greatly impacted by the teen births. This paper includes a literature review of the scholarly published articles, national data, organizational webpages and other publicly available resources to identify existing resources and interventions related to adolescent parenting services and to identify effective evidence-based strategies that can inform practical interventions. The Socio-Ecological Model, a behavior change model which states that an individual influences and is influenced by the people, places, relationships, and experiences within their environment, and therefore, interventions need multi-level action planning to achieve substantial health behavior change, was applied to review existing interventions and resources identified at each level of the Model. Familial attitudes, financial and emotional support, and other social and structural assistance can affect the adolescent mother’s ability to improve their own life outcomes related to education, health, and self-efficacy. Recommendations at each level are provided with emphasis on individual feedback for informing quality services, relationship building and understanding cultural differences, community partnerships to improve efficiency of local services, and policies that include adolescents in creating improved sexual health education