Teen Pregnancy among Asians and Pacific Islanders in California (2001)

Over the past two decades, there has been a national focus on the issue of teen pregnancy. However, the agenda created to address this important issue has been based on an incomplete understanding of the available data. Figure 1 presents the picture of how teen pregnancy has been constructed as a racial/ethnic issue.1 The impression given is that teen pregnancy is not a concern for Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs). The diversity of the API subpopulations that comprise this aggregate, however, is obscured. As a result, API communities are often ignored by public health campaigns, policy makers, and community services programs working on the critical issue of teen pregnancy prevention. In 2000, a collaborative project was developed with the goal of debunking the myth that adolescent pregnancy is not an issue for the API community and to inform policy makers of the need to provide resources to support teen pregnancy prevention efforts in the API subpopulation communities.