Mankind, its numbers, health, and family arrangements: group report 3.

PIP: The population problem is an imbalance between numbers of people and limited resources. The resources of food, energy, and living space have been well documented as finite in a world with population expanding geometrically. Terrorism, breakdown of social order, and other social symptoms may also stem from this overcrowding. The economically more affluent nations are attempting to deal with unregulated fertility by developing and spreading information on means of conception control and granting equality of status to women to compensate for the reduction in the childbearing role. Social systems are very complex and changing the desire for children is quite difficult. In addition, people have a great capacity for ignoring potential disaster when surrounded by it. Liberty of the individual and control must be kept in balance. It is recommended that more effort be made to understand the motivations behind human reproduction and what social incentives exist to reduce family size. There is also need for contraceptive technology and for more effective dissemination thereof. Values and attitudes need to be changed and the mechanisms of communication, the institutional and organizational structures operating in the field of reproductive behavior, and the role of policy determination by the nation need to be studied. There is need for fertility control in conjunction with mortality control. The committee believes that basic minimum components of the quality of life may be imposed upon a people if necessary in order to preserve the diversity of cultural and individual differences.^ieng

Teenagers, contraception, and pregnancy.

PIP: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania started a family planning counseling program for teenage nulliparae in a nearby public high school in 1973-1974. Educational, informal counseling, and discussion sessions were held in the school on a weekly basis by a social worker, family planning nurse, family planning counselor, and male outreach worker. Following the classes, almost half the girls attended the hospital's Teen Clinic for physical examination and contraceptive supplies. Parental permission was not necessary for attendance at the classes or at the hospital clinic. A second program was started at another school in the year 1974-1975. The goal of the program was to offer family planning information in the early teen years and prevent unwanted pregnancy.^ieng

One hundred pregnant adolescents: treatment approaches in a university hospital.

PIP: In order to provide personalized antepartum, and postpartum care for unwed pregnant teenagers, the University of Pennsylvania Hospital established a Special Teen-Obstetrical Clinic in 1967. Patients who attended the Special Clinic showed a higher acceptance rate for contraception and a much higher school-returning rate than unwed teenagers who had been treated through the regular hospital prenatal and obstetrical clinic. The repeat pregnancy rate was disappointingly high for the Special Clinic patients, implying that specialized clinic programs will achieve little additional good if regular obstetrical care is high and personalized. The specialized clinic seemed to improve the general level of obstetrical care in the hospital.^ieng

Adolescent contraceptive use: comparisons of male and female attitudes and information.

Information and attitudes about contraception and pregnancy were assessed with a self-administered questionnaire in a sample of urban Black teenagers. Data were obtained from 607 male and female students in high school health classes and a demographically similar group of 123 never-pregnant teenage women in a family planning clinic who had not attended these classes. Males were less likely to recognize the risk of pregnancy, had less information about contraceptives, and fewer attitudes that supported contraceptive use than females who participated in the same shool health classes. More males than females indicated that school classes had been the main source of contraceptive information. Teenage women in the family planning clinic did not differ from the high school females in attitudes about contraceptives, but the school group had somewhat more contraceptive information. The female school group was more likely to have discussed contraception with parents, obtained more contraception information from their mothers, and discussed contraception more with male friends than the teenagers who requested contraceptives at the family planning clinic.