Circumstances
and Behaviors
Youth
and Young Adults Building Oklahoma’s Future
Circumstances
Which Make Oklahoma Youth Vulnerable to Negative Consequences
Behaviors
Which Make Oklahoma Youth Vulnerable to Negative Consequences
What
Works — Linking Positive Youth Development with Risk Reduction
This
section of the report–complete with charts and graphics–is
available for download in pdf format
A
State Profile:
Youth and Young Adults Building Oklahoma’s Future
More
than a third of all Oklahomans (35.8%, or 1,250,816) are younger
than twenty-five years of age. Almost half of those (529,773)
are over the age of 14, perched on the very edge of adulthood.
Growing up is difficult in the best of circumstances. Some will
mature with grace, making us proud. Others, facing this transition
unprepared and unsupported through no fault of their own, will
simply terrify us.
The
successes and failures of today’s young people will determine
their futures and ours. Today’s youth will become tomorrow’s
teachers and doctors. They will set policy at Oklahoma’s
ballot boxes. They will run state agencies and be responsible
for Oklahoma’s security. From their ranks will come school
board and city council members, state and federal legislators,
Oklahoma’s governor, and maybe even the President of the
United States. They will also become tomorrow’s unemployed.
Those in poor health will fill our hospitals and die before their
time. Some will skirt the law. Many will be in prison. One will
be the police officer that arrives in your neighborhood to keep
another one from robbing or raping.
Why
do some young people succeed and others do not? There
are no easy answers. In 2004, the KIDS COUNT Factbook takes this
initial look at how teens and young adults are faring in Oklahoma,
highlighting some promising approaches to complex situations.
Living
with dismal circumstances becomes a risk factor for many young
Oklahomans, making them more vulnerable and less likely to become
self-supporting adults. Currently, more than one hundred thousand
(101,759, ages 15 through 24) young Oklahomans live in poverty.
Almost twenty thousand Oklahoma youth (19,758, ages 16 through
19) are disconnected, neither working nor in school. More than
five thousand older teen females are already mothers (5,150, ages
18 and 19). Almost seven hundred (660, ages 15 through 17) teens
live in foster care each month. Each year, more than thirty-five
hundred (3,592, ages 15 through 17) arrests of teens for drug
or alcohol crimes are made in Oklahoma. One hundred sixty five
teens (ages 15 through 19) die accidental or violent deaths each
year. These Oklahoma youth find themselves in circumstances where
they face increased odds against making a successful transition
to a productive, healthy adulthood. Some succeed in spite of risks
they face, others don’t. Some have already lost.
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The
Concept of Vulnerability
Most Oklahomans understand that some specific circumstances or
behaviors can affect an individual’s health or well-being.
The concept of “risk factors” is one used frequently
by public health officials. For example, it is commonly understood
that bad diets put people at risk for heart problems, that a family
history of cancer puts people at increased risk of being diagnosed
with cancer themselves, and that not wearing seat belts invites
the risk of death or disability from an automobile accident. A
similar concept applies to Oklahoma teens and young adults. It
is well documented that risks associated with specific circumstances
or behaviors can affect a young person’s health or well-being,
making them more or less vulnerable to a myriad of positive and
negative consequences.
Circumstances
Which Make Oklahoma Youth Vulnerable to Negative Consequences
Living
with dismal circumstances becomes a risk factor for many young
Oklahomans, making them more vulnerable and less likely to become
self-supporting adults. Currently, more than one hundred thousand
(101,759, ages 15 through 24) young Oklahomans live in poverty.
Almost twenty thousand Oklahoma youth (19,758, ages 16 through
19) are disconnected, neither working nor in school. More than
five thousand older teen females are already mothers (5,150, ages
18 and 19). Almost seven hundred (660, ages 15 through 17) teens
live in foster care each month. Each year, more than thirty-five
hundred (3,592, ages 15 through 17) arrests of teens for drug
or alcohol crimes are made in Oklahoma. One hundred sixty five
teens (ages 15 through 19) die accidental or violent deaths each
year. These Oklahoma youth find themselves in circumstances where
they face increased odds against making a successful transition
to a productive, healthy adulthood. Some succeed in spite of risks
they face, others don’t. Some have already lost.
Teens and Young Adults Living in Poverty
Poverty can sabotage a young person’s effort to become a
healthy, productive adult. For a teen or young adult, being poor
means living in a household unable to purchase enough food for
an adequate diet. It means being more likely than their peers
to stay too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. Poor
youth are less likely to receive medical care when they are sick
and are more likely to drop out of school. Poverty can be fatal.
For
young people, adequate resources are vital to becoming healthy
adults, to starting higher education, to beginning careers, and
to enabling independence. In spite of progress made throughout
the 1990’s, it is as though Oklahoma has accepted defeat
in the war against poverty for youth about to become adults. For
the first time in history, these young people will fare worse
than their parents. One of every five (101,759, or 21.4%) teens
and young adults (ages 15 through 24) in Oklahoma lives in poverty.
More than fifty thousand (50,835), or half of those young people,
live in extreme poverty in households where the income fails to
reach even half of the poverty line.
High
rates of child poverty among Oklahoma’s youngest are well
documented. The highest rates of poverty for those under age 18
are found among those age 4 and under. Poverty rates typically
decline over childhood. Then youth are abruptly thrown back into
poverty as they enter adulthood where rates for those just over
age 18 skyrocket to almost twenty-four percent (23.9%). Half (50.6%)
of these youth ages 18 through 24 who are poor live in extreme
poverty.
The
highest and worst rate of poverty for young people over the age
of 14 and under the age of 25 is found in Payne County where almost
half (45.2%) live in poverty. Payne County’s high youth
poverty rate results in part from relatively low-income university
students making up a large portion of its youth population. Wagoner
County has the lowest and best poverty rate (10.4%) among their
teens and young adults.
Disconnected Youth
(Not Working and Not in School)
Getting a good start as a young adult is vital to lifelong success.
Those who spend their young adult years unemployed and out of
school have a hard time finding and getting a job later in life.
Education is critical to maintaining employment. Almost one in
ten (9.3%) Oklahoma youth from the ages of 16 through 19 are not
engaged in either school or work. These nearly twenty thousand
(19,758) idle youth undergo a difficult transition into adulthood
and fail to get the good start vital to becoming self-supporting.
The
rate of young Oklahomans who are not connected to either work
or school is higher for all non-White races, except Asian, than
for Whites. In every racial group, young women are more often
idle than young men. Disability contributes to young people being
disconnected. One in eight (13.1%) idle youth over age 17 and
under age 25 is disabled.
The
proportion of idle teens ranges from the highest and worst rate
of almost seventeen percent (16.9%) in Okfuskee County to the
lowest and best rate of two percent (2.0%) in Grant County.
Births
to Older Teens
Consequences of sexual activity among teens too often include
unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Each year
about seventy-six hundred (7,606 average annual, 2000 - 2002)
babies are born to Oklahoma females under the age of 20. Compared
to women who delay childbearing until at least age 20, their risks
are greater.
Births
to older teens (ages 18 and 19) comprise over two-thirds (67.7%)
of all teen births in Oklahoma each year. Oklahoma birth rates
for older teens (96.9 per 1,000 females ages 18 and 19, 2002)
far exceed national rates (72.8 per 1,000 females ages 18 and
19, 2002).
These
young women, considered by many to already be adults, are often
overlooked by health and education initiatives. However, having
a child, even late in the teen years, complicates the process
of becoming an adult. Many older teen mothers are still in school
when they become pregnant and are less likely than their peers
to graduate. During the most recent three year period (2000 -
2002), almost half (44.6%) of 18 and 19 year old mothers had not
completed high school. With her education interrupted, the new
mother is less likely to ever finish school and more likely to
live in poverty. The children of 18 and 19 year old mothers are
often born too small or too early. Low birthweight is more common
among 18 and 19 year old mothers (8.7% annual average, 2000 -
2002) than among mothers age 20 or older (7.5% annual average,
2000 -2002).
Subsequent
births to Oklahoma teens who are already mothers are disturbingly
common. Almost one in every four (22.5%) births to an older Oklahoma
teen is a repeat pregnancy, with the first child likely born before
the mother even turned 18. Young mothers who have a difficult
first pregnancy or whose babies are born with problems have a
three-fold risk of repeating that poor outcome in their second
pregnancy. With more than one child, the teen mother has little
chance of returning to school or attaining economic self-sufficiency.
The
babies’ risks increase also. Children of teen mothers, more
often than children of older women, have mental retardation, live
in poverty, and grow up without a father. They will more likely
perform poorly in school, receive insufficient health care and
inadequate parenting, or be abused or neglected. They are more
likely to become teen parents themselves. If a teen mother gives
birth again as a teenager, all of her children are more likely
to have behavioral problems and less likely to be prepared for
school themselves.
Currently,
the highest and worst rate of older teen births in Oklahoma is
found in Greer County where almost two hundred out of every thousand
(199.0 per 1,000) young women ages 18 and 19 have babies each
year. Young women ages 18 and 19 in Payne County have the lowest
and best birth rate (27.9 per 1,000) for their age group.
Teens
Living in Foster Care
Teens need permanency, stability and a family with whom to stay
connected. Poor outcomes for young people whose family lives have
been disrupted are well documented. Foster care youth are less
healthy than other poor children. Most studies show that former
foster care children do more poorly in school than other students.
The multiple school changes often associated with foster care
placements result in lower math and reading skills. Fewer graduate.
Challenges of foster care are intensified for older youth who
contend with high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy
and teen parenting. Consequences are life altering and long term.
Compared to other youth in the community, a higher proportion
of foster care graduates end up in the criminal justice system,
homeless, unemployed or dependent on public assistance.
Foster
care children are a particularly vulnerable population. Most children
and youth in foster care have been victims of poor parenting and
substantial abuse or neglect. Some have been abandoned or orphaned.
Children and youth are placed in state custody as a way to protect
them after it has been determined that their parents are unable
or unwilling to provide them care. They arrive in state care with
emotional, behavioral, developmental and health troubles that
reflect their difficult circumstances. Many foster care children
are further traumatized by the separation from their parents.
They struggle with difficult adjustments to new caregivers, often
facing multiple placements. Some youth stay in foster care for
a short time, then are reunified with their families. Others remain
in care for months or years. Some grow into adults in state care,
literally “aging out” of the system.
Once
in state custody, foster care children might be placed in regular
foster care homes with adults not known to the child. Some state
custody children are placed with relatives, or other adults they
already know, such as the parents of a close friend, teachers
or health care providers. Those “kinship” placements,
whether with relatives or other adults, may be paid or unpaid.
Some children are returned to their own homes under state supervision.
Oklahoma maintains some therapeutic foster care homes as short
term placements for children exhibiting severe behavior problems
and some psychiatric placements for youth experiencing severe
mental problems. Older foster care youth are substantially less
likely than other foster children to be placed with a family.
Congregate living facilities, such as group homes, are frequently
used for older youth in Oklahoma.
Currently,
Oklahoma’s foster care system serves more than six thousand
children and youth (6,258 annual average, FY2001-2003) each month.
One in eight (749, or 12.0%) of Oklahoma’s foster care children
are age 15 or older. Of these older youth, six hundred sixty (660)
are ages 15 through 17 and eighty-nine are age 18 or older, having
voluntarily remained in state custody in their foster homes to
complete high school classes or finish their GED. Each year, the
number of older youth in Oklahoma foster care steadily increases.
With
girls making up almost sixty percent (58.1%) of the youth age
15 and older in the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human
Services, older youth in foster care are disproportionately female.
The foster care population is racially diverse and disproportionately
non-White. One in five (19.9%) Oklahoma teens age 15 and older
in foster care is African American and one in ten (9.2%) is American
Indian.
Foster
families receive monthly payments to help defray some of the costs
of having an extra child in their home. Regardless, national studies
have documented that almost a third of the foster care population
lives in poverty while in foster care. Reimbursement rates fail
to fully compensate for the costs associated with the around-the-clock
care provided by a foster family. Currently, the highest and worst
foster care rate is in Coal County where during an average month
youth ages 15 through 17 live in foster care at a rate of almost
three thousand (2,857.1) per 100,000 teens. The lowest and best
rate (0.0 per 100,000) is found in nine Oklahoma counties (Cimarron,
Ellis, Grant, Harmon, Harper, Jefferson, Major, Roger Mills and
Woodward).
Arrests
of Teens for Drug
and Alcohol Related Offenses
There is a tendency to consider some use of alcohol as a normal
teenage right of passage. Since moderate drinking is typically
viewed as acceptable among adults, experimenting with alcohol
in adolescence may be inappropriately accepted. For many young
people, use of alcohol, or even drugs, does not become a regular
behavior or a permanent problem. Even so, because their bodies
are going through an important developmental period, the consequences
of alcohol and drug use can be much more negative for youth than
for adults.
Use
of drugs or alcohol can interfere with a young person’s
ability to learn by causing memory problems, learning problems,
reasoning difficulties and impairing brain functioning. Judgment
and social functioning diminish substantially. Coordination and
motor functioning become impaired. Because of the skills which
are adversely affected by drug and alcohol use, safely operating
an automobile becomes impossible. Intoxication is commonly involved
with traffic fatalities, violence and serious criminal behavior.
Extensive alcohol and drug use increases the risk a young person
will develop serious medical complications.
Alcohol
use is too common among Oklahoma teens. Each year almost two thousand
arrests are made charging youth ages 15 through 17 with driving
under the influence of alcohol, drunkenness or violating liquor
laws. After alcohol, marijuana remains the drug of choice for
Oklahoma teens ages 15 through 17 and was involved in four out
of five (82.6%) of their arrests for drug possession and half
(53.2%) of their arrests for drug manufacturing or sales. Drug
and alcohol arrests among youth ages 15 through 17 are four times
more likely to be males than females.
Currently,
the highest and worst arrest rate is in Okfuskee County where
during an average year youth ages 15 through 17 are arrested for
drug- and alcohol-related offenses at a rate of almost seven thousand
(6,812.7) per 100,000 teens. The lowest and best rate (0.0 per
100,000) is found in three Oklahoma counties (Cimarron, Ellis
and Major).
Violent
and Accidental Teen Death
Violence among teens typically involves carrying weapons, physical
fighting and involvement in gang activity. Consequences can be
serious — altering lives or ending them.
It
is common for youth, especially males, who have been exposed to
violence in their homes and personal lives to carry weapons and
act violently themselves. Smoking cigarettes and using drugs or
alcohol strongly predict that a young person will act violently.
Depression frequently predicts violence by a young person, turned
inward toward one’s self or outward towards others. Gang
members and youth who associate with peers who are involved in
delinquent behaviors have high rates of participation in violent
crimes. Youth can, and often do, face legal consequences for their
violent behaviors.
As
children age, the severity of violent behavior escalates. A violent
elementary school child may bully his classmates. A violent high
school student might commit assault, hurting or killing another,
or attempt suicide, hurting or killing himself.
Anti-social
behavior often accompanies violent behavior, causing young people
to be rejected by their peers and their teachers. As youth fail
to regulate their emotions, they do poorly in school, skip classes
and receive suspensions. School failures and school dropout rates
increase as violence increases. If violent youth survive to adulthood,
their difficulties continue. As adults they will frequently confront
severe depression, termination of employment, dishonorable discharge
from the military, alcohol and drug dependency, incarceration
and high mortality rates.
Motor
vehicle crashes are the most common cause of accidental teen death.
Serious injuries and fatalities are increased when young drivers
and passengers fail to wear seatbelts. Recreation can hold dangers
for young people. Death or serious disabilities can be caused
by sports-related injuries, boating and swimming accidents, hunting
injuries or bicycle accidents. Injuries, and deaths resulting
from injuries, are more common among young males than among young
females.
Today,
accidents and injuries are the leading cause of death among adolescents
and young adults. During the most recent three-year period an
average of two hundred three youth from the ages of 15 through
19 died each year. Four of every five Oklahoma teen deaths (165,
or 81.8%) were the result of accidents or violence.
Just under half of all deaths (44.2%) of Oklahoma African Americans
ages 15 through 19 are violent, making violence the leading cause
of death for young African Americans. Accidents are the leading
cause of death for Whites (61.8%) and American Indians (61.0%)
of the same ages in Oklahoma.
During
the last two years (2001 and 2002) in Oklahoma, an average of
twenty-six young people each year stood on the brink of adulthood
and committed suicide instead. Over forty percent (42.3%) of the
violent deaths of youth ages 15 through 19 in Oklahoma during
this period resulted from suicide. Most suicide victims were White
male youth.
Currently,
the highest and worst death rate is in Greer County where during
an average year youth ages 15 through 19 die accidental or violent
deaths at a rate of over three hundred (330.7) per 100,000 teens.
The lowest and best rate (0.0 per 100,000) is found in eleven
Oklahoma counties (Beaver, Coal, Dewey, Harper, Jefferson, Marshall,
Noble, Okfuskee, Roger Mills, Tillman and Woodward).
The
section of the report–complete with charts and graphs–is
available for download in pdf format.
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Behaviors
Which Make Oklahoma Youth Vulnerable to Negative Consequences
Taking
risks is a part of growing up. Children cannot make new friends
without chancing rejection. Teens cannot explore their own intellect
without risking embarrassment in class. Young athletes cannot
develop without pushing themselves physically. It is not unusual
for young people, exploring the edge of adulthood, to be extreme.
Unless youth behavior risks death, disability or other long term
negative consequences, adults applaud the courage of their young.
Oklahoma kids are good, even though some of the risks they take
are dangerous.
The
Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) monitors health risk behaviors
that contribute to death, disability and social problems among
young people. In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),
Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) and local public high
schools collaborated to complete the first statewide survey which
can be compared to national data. Administered in randomly selected
classrooms in randomly selected schools, YRBS provides data representative
of all state and national public high school students during the
spring of 2003.
Behaviors
Contributing
to Injuries and Violence
Results from Oklahoma’s YRBS demonstrate that numerous high
school students engage in behaviors that increase their likelihood
of violent or accidental death. One in ten (11.1%) rarely or never
wears a seat belt when someone else is driving. During the 30
days preceding the survey, almost a third (30.6%) had ridden with
a driver who had been drinking alcohol and nearly a fifth (17.1%)
drove themselves after drinking. More than twenty percent (21.8%)
of Oklahoma’s high school students had carried a weapon
during the 30 days preceding the survey and more than twenty-eight
percent (28.4%) had been in a physical fight during the year before
the survey. Seven percent (7.0%) had attempted suicide in the
prior year.
Compared
to high school students nationally, Oklahoma students are more
likely to wear seat belts when someone else is driving. While
all high school students ride with drivers who had been drinking
at about the same rate, Oklahoma students were more likely to
drive themselves after drinking. While a smaller percent are involved
in physical altercations, a greater proportion of Oklahoma high
school students carry a gun, knife or a club as a weapon than
is common in other places. Rates of forced sexual intercourse
and dating violence are about the same in Oklahoma as in the nation.
Results from YRBS indicate that suicide is attempted less frequently
in Oklahoma, although mortality data documents that rates of completed
suicide for young people in Oklahoma are among the highest in
the nation.
Behaviors
Contributing to Addiction,
Dependency and Substance Abuse
Tobacco addiction typically begins in childhood. More than three
quarters (76%) of adult smokers in Oklahoma acquired the habit
before they turned 18. Tobacco use in Oklahoma remains the leading
cause of preventable death, killing more than six thousand Oklahomans
every year. Today’s young Oklahomans will become part of
that grim statistic when one in every three teen tobacco users
will die prematurely from their tobacco use.
The
2002 Oklahoma Youth Tobacco Survey documents recent improvement,
reporting that tobacco use dropped for Oklahoma high school students
between 1999 and 2002. Unfortunately, rates of current tobacco
use remain painfully high. YRBS 2003 documented that cigarettes
had been tried by two thirds (64.1%) of Oklahoma’s high
school students and more than one in four (26.5%) still smokes
cigarettes.
Even
with a legal drinking age of twenty-one in Oklahoma, alcohol use
is common among children and youth. Four of every five (78.6%)
high school students admit to already having tried alcohol at
some time in the past. Almost half (47.8%) of all Oklahoma youth
in high school currently drink alcohol.
Too
many Oklahoma youth are entangled in the drug culture. Two in
five (42.5%) high school students have tried marijuana and one
in five (22.0%) still smokes it. One in ten have tried some form
of cocaine (9.2%), inhalant (9.9%) or methamphetamine (9.9%).
Some still use. About three percent (3.4%) of Oklahoma high school
students acknowledge that they currently use cocaine powder, “crack,”
or “freebase”. About the same rate of high school
students (3.9%) acknowledge currently sniffing glue, breathing
the contents of aerosol spray cans, or inhaling paints or spays
to get high.
Oklahomans start young. Before the age of 13, one in four high
school students smoked cigarettes (23.7%) or drank alcohol (26.8%).
One in ten (11.1%) had tried marijuana. The younger people are
when they try marijuana, the more likely they are to become drug-addicted
adults.
Compared
to high school students nationally, Oklahoma students are more
likely to try and more likely to continue smoking cigarettes and
drinking alcohol. Oklahoma youth are slightly more likely to try
marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines and slightly less likely
to try inhalants. The rate of current drug use among Oklahoma
high school students is slightly lower than comparable national
rates.
Behaviors
Contributing to Unintended
Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Disease
Results from Oklahoma’s YRBS demonstrate that numerous high
school students engage in behaviors that increase their likelihood
of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Half
(50.0%) of Oklahoma’s high school students report that they
have already engaged in sexual intercourse. More than a third
(37.2%) are currently sexually active, having had intercourse
during the preceding month. About two-thirds (64.3%) of the currently
sexually active high school students (or their partner) used condoms
during their most recent sexual encounter. Considerably fewer
(17.7%) relied on birth control pills. One in four (25.3%) currently
sexually active Oklahoma high school students reported having
used drugs or alcohol before their most recent sexual encounter.
Among
all high school students, eleventh grade girls are the most sexually
active, with almost half (47.0%) reporting sexual intercourse
during the preceding month. Oklahoma girls are more likely to
be currently sexually active than Oklahoma boys from the tenth
grade on. Professionals believe this data suggests that the sexual
encounters of many high school girls are with older youth no longer
in high school or other male adults.
More
Oklahoma high school students report being sexually active than
do their peers around the nation. While all sexually active high
school students use condoms at about the same rate, Oklahoma students
are only about half as likely than youth around the nation to
use birth control pills. The rate of Oklahoma high school students
using alcohol or drugs before engaging in sexual intercourse is
significantly lower than comparable national rates.
The
section of the report–complete with charts and graphs–is
available for download in pdf format.
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What
Works — Linking Positive Youth Development with Risk Reduction
Historically,
programs attempting to help young people avoid risk-taking behaviors
used a “problem” approach — focusing on the
risks, trying to increase what young people knew about them and
trying to change attitudes. Less attention was paid to what assets
or “protective factors” each young person had internally
or in their environment that might help buffer them against risk.
With sufficient protection, a young person’s resiliency
can help them beat the odds. Over the past several years research
has accumulated to demonstrate that programs which develop youth
assets, combined with those that reduce risk-taking behaviors,
hold the promise to help Oklahoma’s youth successfully grow
to be productive adults.
Good
individual social and problem solving skills are key. Young people
do best when they maintain a commitment to their own education
and when they stay connected to their family, their school and
their community. Here family matters. When the teen’s parents
effectively manage family conflict, their children do best. Youth
thrive when their parents have clear expectations for them and
monitor teen behavior. Youthful transgressions are best met with
reasonable, consistent consequences. School and community are
vital. Youth do best in places where drugs are scarce and firearms
are not readily available. High community and school expectations
combine with the active involvement of parents and other adults
to support youth.
Oklahoma
has led the nation in documenting the relationships between specific
youth assets and risk behaviors. Research from the HEART of OKC
Project (Healthy, Empowered And Responsible Teens of OKC), a partnership
between the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy and the University
of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, studied nine youth assets
as they related to specific youth behaviors, and identified ways
to translate research into practice. (see chart pp. 20-21 in the
pdf version.)
Facilitating
a young person’s successful transition to adulthood requires
multiple and ongoing interventions and consistent, nurturing and
positive adult and peer relationships. Youth who have not yet
engaged in risky behaviors are to be educated. The attitudes and
habits of young people who are already involved in risk-taking
behaviors are to be modified. Young people who are currently in
trouble are to be helped. Even then, more is required. As noted
expert, Karen Pittman, Director of the Forum for Youth Investment,
explains, “Problem-free is not fully prepared. We need to
define what we want youth to do as forcefully as we articulate
what we do not want.” Effective youth development involves
prevention, preparation and participation. Successful youth learn
the behaviors to avoid and the skills, values and capabilities
to develop.
Much
is known about what can be done to help Oklahoma teens succeed.
Research has documented that programs can encourage healthy and
safe lifestyles, can reduce teen pregnancy and risky sexual behavior,
can reduce teen substance abuse and violence, and can involve
youth in healthy activities and relationships. Relationships are
key to adolescent well-being, with quality parent-child relationships
topping the list. Parents matter in the lives of their children.
Caring, positive adult and peer role models and mentors matter
in the lives of all adolescents. Effective programs engage youth
in addressing their own problems and creating their own programs.
Oklahoma has some good beginnings.
No
single factor or set of factors will predict with certainty that
a youth will suffer harm or be protected from it. Everyone knows
a youth in dire circumstances who, in spite of being exposed to
multiple risks, grew up to be a stellar, productive adult; or
a teen who had multiple advantages yet lost their way in life.
To ensure the majority of young Oklahomans grow up healthy, caring
and capable, more adults and communities must become actively
engaged in the lives of the youth around them. Caring, engaged
adults will determine the path and the promise of Oklahoma’s
youth. Their future is Oklahoma’s future.
The
section of the report–complete with charts and graphs–is
available for download in pdf format.
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