The United States has the highest teen pregnancy and teen birth rates of all industrialized countries, despite the decline in instances of pregnancy among teens in the past decade, experts say.

Yesterday, a group of experts met at the Penn State Conference Center to discuss the current research related to teen pregnancy and prevention programs at the 2004 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Conference. The conference, which is open to the public, continues today from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"Conferences for teachers and health professionals dealing with teen pregnancy prevention are critical for helping these professionals become more comfortable teaching sex education," said Nora Gelperin, director of training and education at the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University. "They also learn the latest research on what does and doesn't work with kids."

Gelperin spoke yesterday about the trend of young adolescents engaging in oral sex.

The conference opened with an introduction and welcome by Joe Fay, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Fay encouraged adults to talk to teens about sex because "it is easier for [teens] to do it than to talk about it."

If teens are taught to fear sex, they are less likely to engage in it rationally, he said.

"Be the one that educates teens, not the one that controls them," he said. "Use them as resources, not as problems."

He concluded his talk by leading the audience in a chant: "If it is to be, it is up to me."

Following Fay's introduction was the opening keynote address by Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Brown said the campaign's goals are to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy through research, state and local action, and cooperation with the entertainment industry.

Rather than stressing abstinence and condom use, Brown said the community must look at the issue from a larger frame, including problems such as poverty's relation to pregnancy, responsibility of fatherhood and out-of-wedlock births.

Anastasia Snyder, assistant professor of rural sociology and demography, said last week that the main focus of the event is for people who work in the fields of youth development and sex education to develop and deliver programs that help prevent teen pregnancy, among other problems such as substance abuse and youth violence.

"I think parents, friends and the community all have a role to play in preventing teen pregnancy," said Snyder, who helped organize the event. "The community can help by providing programs and positive structured activities for youth to get involved with."

Snyder is one of the 27 experts who will speak at this two-day conference, and she said her speech today will focus on risky sexual behavior and peer influence among teens in rural areas.

At a very basic level, teen pregnancy is related to poverty and overall economic well-being, Snyder said.

"Teen pregnancy is thought of as an indicator of poor outcomes, because people in poverty don't feel like they have a future," she said. "Youth who have a more positive future orientation have better outcomes across the board."

Cheryl Dellasega, professor of humanities, is one of the keynote speakers and will talk today about relational aggression and bullying among adolescent girls and how these problems are related to teen pregnancy.

"If a girl doesn't have a network of support from her peers, she may be more likely to become pregnant," Dellasega said. "We see girls who are connected and part of the school scene, and they have different outcomes than girls who are more alienated."

She added that her new book, Girl Wars, discusses the type of relational aggression she will speak about at the conference.

Dellasega said the conference includes discussions about HIV prevention, which she said makes it a very "forward-thinking conference."