Original articleRunaway and Pregnant: Risk Factors Associated with Pregnancy in a National Sample of Runaway/Homeless Female Adolescents
Section snippets
Sample and sampling procedures
Data from the 1997 Runaway/Homeless Youth Management Information System (RHY MIS) were analyzed. This Administration for Children and Families (ACF) database is used by youth crisis shelters (serving runaway youth between 12 and 18 years of age) and transitional living programs (serving youth >18 years of age). Basic crisis shelters have developed to address the needs of runaway/homeless youth and to provide various short-term crisis services, with the intention of stabilizing family
Sample demographics
As shown in Table 1, the overall sample (N = 951) of female youth averaged nearly 17 years of age (mean = 16.6, SD = 1.3). Although most of these youth were European American (58.7%), substantial percentages were African-American (23.2%) or Hispanic (12.8%). Approximately one-fourth had dropped out of school (24.7%) and many had used alcohol (75.4%) or illicit drugs (61.2%). A minority of youth were living at home with parent(s) or another adult before seeking shelter services (38.3%), and
Discussion
Research indicates that pregnancy presents a challenge for any teenager and that those difficulties are amplified for runaway/homeless youth. This study is among the first to investigate factors associated with pregnancy and runaway behavior among a national sample of female adolescents accessing emergency youth shelter services. Although the rates of runaway/homeless adolescents who reported being pregnant at shelter entry cannot be stated definitively, similar rates have been reported
Acknowledgments
The Runaway/Homeless Youth Management Information System data used in this publication were made available by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and have been used by permission. The collector of the original data, Computer Services Corporation, Inc., the funder, the Archive, Cornell University and its agents and employees do not bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.
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