The National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

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2013 National Day a Success!

Thanks to the hard work of individuals in communities, coalitions, and programs across the country and the nearly 200 organizations and media outlets that serve as National Day partners, more than 460,000 individuals nationwide participated in the twelfth annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The purpose of the National Day is straightforward. Too many teens still think “It can’t happen to me.” The National Day helps teens understand that it can happen to them and that they need to think seriously about what they would do in the moment.

On the National Day, and throughout the entire month of May, teens visited The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy’s teen website—StayTeen. org—and participated in our online National Day Quiz, which challenged them to think carefully about what they might do "in the moment" through a series of interactive scenarios.  This year, for the first time, teens were able to insert themselves and their friends directly into the quiz by creating personalized avatars (a graphical representation of the user).  In addition, this year’s quiz was available on mobile devices for the first time ever.  Nearly one-quarter of this year’s participants took the quiz on a mobile device.

The National Campaign wishes to thank all of our friends and partners who went out of their way to make this year's National Day a great success.  Without your dedication and creativity, we could never have reached so many teens this year. We look forward to working with you throughout the year and on the 2014 National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

 

Why a National Day?

The extraordinary declines in teen pregnancy and childbearing over the past two decades proves that progress can be made on tough issues. In fact, few social problems have improved quite as dramatically over the past 20 years as teen pregnancy.  

The latest news on the teen pregnancy front has been incredibly positive. The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. has declined 42% since its peak in 1990 and is now at a nearly 40-year low, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics. There have been impressive declines in all 50 states and among all racial/ethnic groups.

Despite this progress, it is still the case that nearly 3 in 10 girls get pregnant by age 20 and that the U.S. still has the highest teen pregnancy rate among comparable countries. This suggests that we all need to continue helping teens postpone their families until they are older, through school, and in stable, committed relationships.

We hope that—in some modest way—the National Day Quiz will help teens think carefully about sex, relationships, contraception, the possibility of pregnancy, and the lifelong challenges of being a parent.

 

Making a Difference

Each year, we ask teens to tell us what they thought about the National Day Quiz in a post-quiz evaluation survey and many do. This year, more than 4,600 teens shared their feedback on the National Day.  Among our preliminary findings:

• 88% said the Quiz made them think about what they might do in such situations;
• 70% said some of the situations in the Quiz were things that they or their friends had faced;
• 69% said they’d talk to their friends about the situations described in the Quiz;
• 67% said the Quiz made them think about things they hadn’t thought about before;
• 66% said the Quiz made the risks of sex and teen pregnancy seem more real to them;
• 62% said they’d encourage others to take the Quiz;
• 60% said they ’d learned something new from the Quiz about the consequences of sex; and
• 44% said they’d talk to their parents or other adults about the situations described in the Quiz.

Here’s what some of them had to say about the quiz:

• "I think it is an eye-opening, realistic quiz. It discusses the situations people aren't always comfortable talking about."
• "It was very life-like and  it had a great impact on me. It helped me think about how I would react to these encounters in real life and gave me great tips and information to take in!"
• "I thought it was pretty fun and I liked that you could make your crush and your best friend. And I thought the scenarios were really great because most teens will get into those."
• "I think that the quiz is a great way to inform teens about teenage pregnancy and how to avoid it. It was fun creating my avatars and I liked how realistic the questions were.  I definitely related to the stories!"
• "I thought it was cool. It was very informative and wasn't boring at all. I loved how interactive it was."

Stay tuned to this space in the coming months for more details from the 2013 National Day evaluation.

 

National Day Partnerships

The National Campaign works with a variety of partners to make the National Day a success year after year. National Day partners include a diverse group of media outlets, health sector leaders, education leaders, businesses, youth-serving groups, groups representing elected officials, fatherhood and male involvement groups, faith-based groups, and other prominent national organizations. Many of these groups promoted the National Day to their members, affiliates, customers, audiences, and contacts in ways The National Campaign could never have afforded or accomplished on its own. For a complete list of National Day Partners, visit our National Day Partner page.

In addition, the National Day continues to be a remarkable organizing event for states and communities nationwide. To help these state and local promotional efforts, the National Campaign develops and distributes a variety of teen-friendly materials—such as National Day buttons, lanyards, and pens—to help raise awareness of the National Day among teens and adult professionals who work with teens. For a state-by-state breakdown of activities, please visit our 2013 National Day Activities section.

 

Learn More

If you have have any specific questions about the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, please contact Michael Rosst at 202-478-8507 or mrosst@thenc.org. To receive timely updates about the results of the 2012 National Day, please sign up for our National Day Notification Network.