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Teens Identify Risk Factors
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER, Courant Staff Writer
August 16, 2003
Copyright © 2003 by the Hartford Courant
Reprinted with permission of the Hartford Courant

This summer, Alberto Medina realized why he stays in school.

"My role model is my brother," he said. "And sports - those are the things that keep me from dropping out."

Medina, who will be a freshman at Bulkeley High School, said he learned to think of school success in those terms this summer as one of nearly 40 Hartford-area teens who participated in the Institute for Community Research's seven-week Summer Youth Research Institute.

Teens spent the program studying the teen dropout rate, an issue they selected, using surveys, interviews and mapping techniques. They concluded that three factors - teen pregnancy, drug abuse and family problems - lead to stress, which in turn can lead teens to drop out of school.

They presented their findings on poster boards and PowerPoint presentations Friday.

In the fall, many will work on plans to address the dropout rate. Last year, when summer participants studied teen sex, they spent the year making a public service announcement and leading focus groups on the media's role in promoting factors that lead to teen sex, said Damion Sincere Morgan, a prevention reseearch educator at ICR.

Participants said they chose to research dropouts because it is not discussed as often as issues such as sex and drugs. Working in smaller groups, they produced visual displays of their data, including charts of statistics on teen pregnancy and maps of where teens buy and use drugs in the city.

One set of posters showed photographs of graffiti and drug-related items found in and around Bulkeley, Weaver and Hartford Public high schools.

Jerrod Collins, 16, said he was surprised when he learned that teen pregnancy was a major factor in making students drop out of school.

After looking at surveys of teens, parents, police officers and school staff members, Jose Oyola, 15, said he was surprised people used drugs in parks and schools, not just in houses.

The program follows the ICR's philosophy of encouraging people to research topics that interest them, which leaders hope will ultimately lead to community action and positive changes. It is funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Capital Region Workforce Development Board, Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and National Institute on Mental Health.

Hartford's dropout rate fell 3 percentage points between the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 school years, from 7.9 percent to 4.9 percent, school officials said.