"Best Bets" to Prevent Pregnancies and Births:
Attends Schools with Higher Income, Lower Crime Levels

The characteristics of the student body of a teen's school are also associated with adolescent reproductive health. A recent study shows that attending a school with a low percentage of economically disadvantaged teens receiving free school lunches is associated with reduced likelihood of a school-age pregnancy among non-Hispanic white teens, even after controlling for individual family socioeconomic status (Manlove, 1998). No association was found among non-Hispanic black or Hispanic students. The minority composition of a school's population is also associated with school-age pregnancy and parenthood. Attending school with a higher minority population is associated with a greater risk of a school-age pregnancy among non-Hispanic white females (Manlove, 1998) and with a greater risk of teen parenthood among males and females (Zill, et al, 1995).

Adolescent perceptions of crime in their schools are associated with the likelihood of school-age pregnancy. Among a sample of "at-risk," students in grades 7-12 in Minnesota, Chandy, Harris, Blum, and Resnick (1994) found that females who perceive widespread vandalism at their school were more likely to become pregnant than female students who did not. Within a national sample, Moore et al. (1998) found that non-Hispanic white students who reported a high level of school crime were at a higher risk for a non-marital school-age birth than students who did not report a high level of school crime. Additionally, Moore, et al. (1998) also found that black females had a reduced risk of a non-marital school-age birth when teachers rated the school as safe.