BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Births to girls between the ages of 12 and 16 dropped 14.5 percent at five Cincinnati hospitals in 1997, consistent with a decline throughout the nation.
That represents the fourth straight year that a study by Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI), a sex-education program in Cincinnati Public Schools, has found a drop in births to girls in that age group.
The study found 284 babies were born to girls ages 12 to 16 at five city hospitals in 1997, a decrease from 332 in 1996. Figures for 1997 are not available for Hamilton County or Ohio, but births to girls in that age group dropped 11.4 percent from 1995 to 1996 in Hamilton County, and 8.2 percent during that time in Ohio.
Nationally, births to girls ages 15 to 19 dropped 11.9 percent from 1991 to 1996.
"I got the picture; I'm not pregnant and I don't plan on being pregnant any time soon," said Misty Smith, 13, who took a PSI course while a seventh-grader at Losantiville Middle School.
Others across the country seem to be saying the same thing.
"There has been a reduction in the number of kids who are sexually active, and there is more of an emphasis on condom use, according to national polls," said Dr. Claire Brindis, director of the Center for Reproductive Health Policy at the University of California at San Francisco, who has studied teen birth trends for more than a decade.
No one can say to what extent the decline is due to less sexual activity or to more responsible sexual activity, but the lower rates are accompanied by smaller numbers of some sexually transmitted diseases in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and a report last monthby the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found declines in teen abortions in nearly all of the 42 states that reported data.
The statistics are good news to a nation where nearly 1 million teen-age girls become pregnant each year and more than 200,000 girls have abortions.
Dr. Brindis attributed the changes to a plethora of reasons, noting that traditional abstinence and sex-education camps have both gotten their messages across, and that mentoring programs and even job-training programs played a part in reversing the trends by building kids' self-esteem.
She said said some sex education courses are successful, but they must include intensive training, role playing to teach skills, and peers as teachers.
"Most of the sex education classes seem to be quite late and quite limited," she said.
PSI, started by Children's Hospital Medical Center and funded by Cincinnati's United Way & Community Chest, is an abstinence-based program taught to students in grades 5-8. The program, which was fully implemented in 1992, includes information about contraception and is taught by older peers.
"Because of the age, we send a pretty strong message of abstinence," said Christopher Kraus, coordinator of the PSI program. "But we'll answer questions about contraception because we think kids need and deserve to get their questions answered."
To gauge the program's effectiveness, Mr. Kraus began studying births at three hospitals -- Bethesda Oak, University and Good Samaritan -- in 1991, before full implementation. His most recent study included 1996 and 1997 numbers from two additional hospitals, Christ and Franciscan's Mount Airy Campus.
Mr. Kraus said the two hospitals were added because program organizers learned that more Cincinnati Public Schools teens were giving birth at those hospitals.
He said 90 percent to 95 percent of Cincinnati Public Schools students who have babies give birth at the five hospitals.
In 1993, when the study only looked at births at three hospitals, there were 391 births reported. Since then, the figures have consistently declined, mirroring the national trend.
"While the PSI program cannot claim credit for this dramatic trend, it would be reasonable to infer that PSI is among many factors responsible for the decline in births to young teens," Mr. Kraus said, adding, "a lot of people in the field of pregnancy prevention believe in a multifaceted approach."
Jason Thomas, 12, took the class as a seventh-grader at Walnut Hills.
"They do role playing and stuff so you won't be bored," he said. "The class I was in, the kids really did pay attention because the teachers aren't adults, they're kids too.
"It at least gives you a little bit of caution. It's not going to change everybody's mind, but at least it gives you a little caution."
