Washington, DC (PRWEB) April 30, 2013
Hundreds of thousands of teens nationwide are expected to participate in the twelfth annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy on May 1, 2013. The purpose of the National Day is to focus the attention of teens on the importance of avoiding too-early pregnancy and parenthood through an interactive online quiz.
Fully 82% of U.S. adults say teen pregnancy is an important problem—72% describe it as a “very important” problem—according to a new national survey released in conjunction with the National Day by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Seventy percent of adults overall—including 80% of black, non-Hispanic adults and Hispanic adults—believe more efforts to prevent teen pregnancy are needed in their community.
On the National Day, teens nationwide are asked to go http://www.StayTeen.org and take the National Day Quiz, which challenges them to think carefully about what they might do "in the moment" though a series of interactive scenarios. This year, for the first time, teens will be able to insert themselves and their friends directly into the quiz by creating personalized avatars (a graphical representation of the user).
The nation’s teen pregnancy rate has declined 42% over the past two decades and the teen birth rate has been cut nearly in half. There have been impressive declines in all 50 states and among all racial/ethnic groups.
“The steady decline in teen pregnancy represents one of the nation's great success stories and the thanks go to teens themselves," said Sarah Brown, Chief Executive Officer of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, organizer of the National Day. "Despite all of this amazing progress, it is still the case that nearly three in 10 girls get pregnant by age 20 and that the U.S. still has the highest teen pregnancy rate among comparable countries. We hope that— in some modest way— participating in the National Day will help teens continue to think carefully about sex and contraception, the possibility of pregnancy, and the lifelong challenges of being a parent.”
About The National Campaign: The National Campaign is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to improve the lives and future prospects of children and families by preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy. For more information, please: