Repeat births represent over one in five births to teenagers each year, or about 110,000 births. The Alan Guttmacher Institute highlights some promising approaches to help teenage mothers delay second births and become self-sufficient.

A majority of teens believe that they should not be sexually active, according to a survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. A panel of 25 teens from across the country discusses the survey results and offers recommendations for how adults, schools, government and media can help prevent teen pregnancy.

Researchers conclude that the traditional "sex" or "no-sex" dichotomy used to study teen sexual behaviors may not be sufficient in prevention efforts. According to this article from Family Planning Perspectives, prevention efforts must be tailored to the specific needs of teenagers with differing sexual experiences and expectations, and must address the social and psychological context in which sexual experiences occur.

Most adults want teens to wait until they are more mature before engaging in sex, but how to effectively help teens delay is a matter of considerable controversy. This article from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that adults helped protect sexually active teens from pregnancies and STDs by improving communication with teens and expanding teen reproductive health services. Beginning with community mapping that gave the adults a "reality check" on teens in their communities, different neighborhoods ended up with different strategies but positive results.

The authors of this article in the Journal of Adolescent Health argue that pregnancy prevention programs may be more effective if they address adolescents' unrealistic positive illusions about the consequences of teenage childbearing and their perceptions of invulnerability to negative outcomes, rather than merely teaching them how to use contraceptives.

Get facts, figures and tips from this campaign, designed to reduce the teen pregnancy rate by one-third between 1996 and 2005.

Health and Human Services recently awarded $20 million dollars to California, Michigan, Alabama, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia for lowering their out-of-wedlock birth rates. The study raises important questions about teen and unwed parenthood, and what states can do to prevent it.

The National PTA offers guidance and resources for talking to teens about sex.

Learn about efforts around the country to reduce teen pregnancy in the national strategy from the Department of Health and Human Services.

In an age of teen pregnancy, drug addiction, and AIDS, grandparents are no longer people of leisure. Today more than 3.5 million children grow up in households headed by a grandparent, and nearly 1.5 million live exclusively with their grandparents. With limited resources and education, many grandparents fail to realize what help may be available to them and how to get it, according to author Renee S. Woodworth, Director of the American Association of Retired Persons Grandparent Information Center, in the February/March 1996 Bulletin of ZERO TO THREE.