What is the problem?
why do we have a continuing unacceptably high rate of births to young people? The basic answer is clear—it is a change in our culture combined with a biological change in beginning fertility. Adult attitudes, values, and behaviors surround young people with inconsistent, often conflicting and, many times, negative messages about responsible sexual behavior. The impact of change on youth from a more conservative and consistent culture to this new one is compounded by the fact that the beginning age of fertility has been lowering 3 months every 10 years for the last 100 years. Whereas a hundred years ago, on the average, girls did not become fertile until around age 17; half of all girls now have the capacity to become pregnant before age 12! Boys’ fertility follows roughly a year later. The result of these two changes is that we now have a generation of youth who are making decisions about sexual actions in an environment that is sexually provocative but contains few sexual rules. They are making these decisions without having completed some of the most important phases of their growth and development, including their cognitive, psychosocial, and moral growth. Indeed, without yet knowing fully who they are, and without yet being able to clearly see the consequences of their actions, young people are deciding to have sexual intercourse, deciding protection is an option rather than a necessity, and deciding to have a baby before they have a chance to complete their education and become financially self-supporting.