Teen-Pregnancy Educators Rethink Their Message to Latinos

Teen pregnancy rates are declining more slowly among U.S. Latinas than in other groups, prompting public-health advocates to rethink educational programs aimed at the Hispanic community, reports Newsweek. In the past, pregnancy-prevention campaigns targeting Hispanics were identical to ones directed at black and white teens, apart from being translated into Spanish. This was designed in part to avoid using potentially offensive cultural stereotypes. By contrast, new campaigns developed by the nonprofit National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancys Latino Initiative take into account attitudes about gender and sexuality prevalent in Hispanic culture, including an emphasis on demureness for teenage girls and on virility and machismo for boys. Newer literature distributed by the campaign also stresses delaying pregnancy rather than avoiding it, in a bid to counter the perception among some Hispanics that pregnancy-prevention messages are anti-family. –Wendy Pollack