Adolescent sexual decision-making: contraception, pregnancy, abortion, motherhood.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M D Resnick.
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BACKGROUND: The present study aims to determine the prevalence of inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents and to determine sociodemographic, personal, psychosocial, and behavioral correlates of inadequate consumption. METHODS: Data presented in this study were taken from the Minnesota Adolescent Health Survey, a classroom-administered questionnaire, which was completed by 36,284 adolescents in grades 7-12. Chi-square analyses and multivariate logistic regressions controlling for socioeconomic status, ethnicity, age, gender, and BMI were done. RESULTS: Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables was common among the study population. Less than daily consumption of fruits and vegetables was reported by approximately 40% of adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Ethnic differences in eating patterns were also apparent in that American Indians were at highest risk for inadequate fruit consumption and African Americans were at greatest risk for inadequate vegetable consumption. Psychosocial correlates of inadequate intake included low family connectedness, weight dissatisfaction, and poor academic achievement. Frequent dieting was associated with inadequate fruit consumption but not with vegetable consumption. Health-compromising behaviors such as binge eating, substance abuse, and past suicide attempts were correlated with inadequate intake. CONCLUSIONS: The results stress the need for intervention programs aimed at increased consumption of fruits and vegetables among adolescents. While programs need to reach all adolescents, approaches need to be suitable to those at highest risk for inadequate consumption, in particular those from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
CONTEXT: Although a limited amount of research has retrospectively explored the childhood and adolescent heterosexual experiences of lesbians, little is known about the prevalence of heterosexual behavior and related risk factors or about pregnancy histories among lesbian and bisexual teenagers. METHODS: A secondary analysis was conducted using responses from a subsample of 3,816 students who completed the 1987 Minnesota Adolescent Health Survey. Behaviors, risk factors and pregnancy histories were compared among adolescents who identified themselves as lesbian or bisexual, as unsure of their sexual orientation and as heterosexual. RESULTS: Overall, bisexual or lesbian respondents were about as likely as heterosexual women ever to have had intercourse (33% and 29%, respectively), but they had a significantly higher prevalence of pregnancy (12%) and physical or sexual abuse (19-22%) than heterosexual or unsure adolescents. Among sexually experienced respondents, bisexual or lesbian and heterosexual women reported greater use of ineffective contraceptives (12-15% of those who used a method) than unsure adolescents (9%); bisexual or lesbian respondents were the most likely to have frequent intercourse (22%, compared with 15-17% of the other groups). In the sample overall, among those who were sexually experienced and among those who had ever been pregnant, bisexual or lesbian women were the most likely to have engaged in prostitution during the previous year. CONCLUSIONS: Providers of reproductive health care and family planning services should not assume that pregnant teenagers are heterosexual or that adolescents who say they are bisexual, lesbian or unsure of their sexual orientation are not in need of family planning counseling. Further research should explore the interactions between adolescent sexual identity development and sexual risk behaviors.
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Interviews with minors at four Minnesota abortion clinics revealed that 43 percent used the court bypass option that is part of that state's parental notification statute. The proportion who did so increased with age and was most common among lower socioeconomic groups. A discriminant function analysis showed that perceived maternal supportiveness was a key difference between those who went to court and those who notified their parents. Young women who attended religious services frequently were less likely than those who did not tell their parents of their abortion plans. Minors who notified only one parent--and still had to go to court under Minnesota law, which requires notification of both parents--were more likely than those who told neither to come from a single-parent household and to have good communication with their mother.
School-based clinics in St. Paul have provided comprehensive health services, including reproductive health care, for almost two decades. This study examines the effects of those clinics on the birthrates in their respective schools, using a newly developed methodology with numerous advantages over previous methods for estimating student birthrates. Confidentially matching the names of female students from school records with the names of mothers on birth records at the Department of Health provided birthrates for each of the St. Paul public high schools with clinics for each year between 1971 and 1986. The results show that birthrates fluctuated dramatically from one year to the next, but school-wide birthrates were not significantly lower in the years immediately following the opening of a clinic than in the years preceding it.