Posted on 09/17/2009 9:55:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health.
However, the results don't say anything about cause and effect, though study researcher Joseph Strayhorn of Drexel University College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh offers a speculation of the most probable explanation: "We conjecture that religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."
The study comes with other significant caveats, too:
The same link might not be found for other types of religious beliefs that are perhaps more liberal, researchers say. And while the study reveals information about states as a whole, it doesn't shed light on whether an individual teen who is more religious will also be more likely to have a child.
"You can't talk about individuals, because you don't know what's producing the [teen birth] rate," said Amy Adamczyk, a sociologist at the City University of New York, who was not involved in the current study. "Are there just a couple of really precocious religious teenagers who are running around and getting pregnant and having all of these babies, but that's not the norm?"
Strayhorn agrees and says the study aimed to look at communities (or states) as a whole.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I think the best way to read this is that religious communities let the children actually be born than abort them like in non-religious communities.
Abortion could play a role here, as well as the fact that the more conservative states tend to be more rural and thus, the opportunity to fool around is more present...it’s just something to do on a boring Friday night.
What’s your point? I missed something.
And the questions they asked DO NOT pertain to Christianity ( as such) most of those statements for the “very relgious” would apply to Muslims as well. And it is known that the ROP encourages young marriage and lots of babies
State | Birth rate | Religiousness |
---|---|---|
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. | ||
Mississippi | 1 | 1 |
New Mexico | 2 | 22 |
Texas | 3 | 12 |
Arkansas | 4 | 7 |
Arizona | 5 | 33 |
Oklahoma | 6 | 10 |
Nevada | 7 | 34 |
Tennessee | 8 | 4 |
Kentucky | 9 | 9 |
Georgia | 10 | 11 |
Louisiana | 11 | 5 |
Alabama | 12 | 2 |
South Carolina | 13 | 3 |
North Carolina | 14 | 8 |
District of Columbia | 15 | 100000* |
Wyoming | 16 | 100000* |
Missouri | 17 | 16 |
Florida | 18 | 23 |
West Virginia | 19 | 13 |
Alaska | 20 | 46 |
Colorado | 21 | 41 |
Indiana | 22 | 17 |
Kansas | 23 | 15 |
Delaware | 24 | 27 |
Hawaii | 25 | 18 |
South Dakota | 26 | 21 |
Ohio | 27 | 26 |
California | 28 | 37 |
Montana | 29 | 20 |
Illinois | 30 | 31 |
Idaho | 31 | 14 |
Oregon | 32 | 38 |
Virginia | 33 | 19 |
Utah | 34 | 6 |
Michigan | 35 | 29 |
Maryland | 36 | 25 |
Nebraska | 37 | 24 |
Washington | 38 | 35 |
Iowa | 39 | 32 |
Pennsylvania | 40 | 28 |
Wisconsin | 41 | 40 |
Minnesota | 42 | 36 |
Rhode Island | 43 | 43 |
North Dakota | 44 | 30 |
Maine | 45 | 47 |
New York | 46 | 42 |
New Jersey | 47 | 39 |
Connecticut | 48 | 44 |
Massachusetts | 49 | 45 |
Vermont | 50 | 49 |
New Hampshire | 51 | 48 |
Cause everyone knows that if it is a “highly religious” state they winnow out the non believers and send them to the heathen outlands.
Minority communities in MS and NM may explain some of it.
and lumping Humanism in with Christianity to discredit genuine Christianity and God.
The LEFT hates Christianity and tries it's best to mock it. I doubt that this was a “conservative” group. I suspect those considered “Christianity” would hardly pass the grade up yonder ... . MSNBC will use this to ridicule genuine Christianity and push using birth control and sex education at earlier and earlier ages.
These journalists really have an agenda. I wonder if they learn it in journalism classes or if it is self-selection. Could be they’re not very smart.
They may get A’s in journalism classes but they flunk research design. Nothing in their data says it’s the religious folks who are having the babies.
Can’t have anything to do with low abortion rates. Surely not.
Judging by the top 10 alone, I would assume that the “undocumented” play a role in these numbers...
Sounds logical. Even teenagers from religious homes grow up in a culture where "sex for fun" is considered a human right. It all stems from the Enlightenment/Reformation idea that the individual is the basic unit of society, and that no one has the right to limit an individual's liberty.
The truth, of course, is that the family, not the individual, is the natural basis of human society, and that outside of a context of marriage and procreation the sexual act becomes meaningless and harmful.
The worship of individual liberty has made slaves of us, by shacking us to our primal desires. Until our current liberal/libertarian social environment collapses, the best thing a parent can do to prevent their children from fornicating is to raise them as part of a loving family that is explicitly at odds with the prevailing culture. Step One: get rid of television and radio in the home.
It takes a huge leap to conclude that it’s the religious teens who are having the babies.
It reminds me of a study showing an extremely high correlation between the number of churches and the number of taverns in cities. But you can’t conclude there’s a causal relationship between religion and drinking. Bigger cities have more of both!
Who ever funded this guy didn’t get their money’s worth. Bad study. What did they expect, the guy’s name is Strayhorn.
anti-Catholic-anti-Mormon-slander-ping-alert
Mississippi is number one, it is also more than 37% black.
As a teacher in the South I can't remember a semester where I haven't taught 3 or 4 pregnant students. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/03/04/2008-03-04_bronx_teen_pregnancy_rate_soars.html
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