State Leads Nation in Rate of Teen-Age Births, Study Says : Behavior: Researchers also find that more than 15% of teen-age girls in California became pregnant in 1993. A third of those were in L.A. County.

A wide-ranging new study of teen-age pregnancy released Tuesday found that California leads the nation in rates of children giving birth to children and that almost a quarter of the young mothers have two or more babies.

The study said that for every 1,000 California girls ages 15 to 19 in 1993, 154 had become pregnant, a far higher incidence than nationwide, where 111 pregnancies occurred for every 1,000 teen-age girls. A third of the state’s teen-age pregnancies occurred in Los Angeles County, it said.

The report said that since 1987, the birth rate among California teen-agers has climbed by nearly 20%.

The study by the nonpartisan Senate Office of Research concluded that almost a quarter--16,405 of the 70,091 teen-age births in California--represented the second or third babies born to the teen-agers, 70% of them unmarried.

In general, the study said, teen-age pregnancy may be a symptom of low incomes, poor academic achievement, dysfunctional families and a history of sexual abuse.

The study, conducted for California lawmakers searching for ways to curb teen-age pregnancy, found that along lines of race and ethnicity, Latinas accounted for 60% of the births in 1993, the last year for which figures were available.

Latinas were followed by whites at 23%, African Americans at 11%, and Asian Americans and other minority groups at 6%, the study said. Most teen-age pregnancies occurred in Southern California and the Central Valley.

The report was announced as Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) unveiled two bills aimed at curbing pregnancies among teen-agers through a proposed $20-million public education campaign targeted at youths and a $12-million expansion of pregnancy prevention classes in public schools.

Lockyer said the proposed campaign, which would use television heavily, would be modeled after the successful anti-smoking efforts of the state Department of Health Services.

The Senate researchers drew on information from various public and private organizations.

The report also tended to debunk certain popular notions, including the belief that teen-age girls are impregnated by boys of the same age. Only about 30% of the fathers were teen-agers; 56% were men age 20 and older.

While birth rates for other ethnic groups have tended to flatten or fall during the last 13 years, the study tracked a steady increase among Latina teen-agers--from 40% in 1980 to 60% in 1993.

In 1993, birth rates for Latina teen-agers were 123.2 per 1,000 for those ages 15 to 19. For African Americans, the rate was 97.9; whites, 36.2, and Asian Americans, 30.6, the study said.

“We don’t have any (clear) sense why it is so high among Hispanics,” said Karin Caves, Lockyer’s press secretary.

She said researchers suspect that part of the reason may be because of the Latino population’s dramatic increase in California; Latinos may not use abortions as much as other groups, and many Latinos are closer to the poverty line than whites and Asian Americans.

However, Blanca Hernandez, a social worker who counsels pregnant Latina teen-agers at the Inglewood Youth and Family Center, said the No. 1 problem confronting Latino families is a lack of communication between parents and their daughters about sex.

She said Latina teen-agers typically are caught between strict cultural standards brought from other lands and the conflicting environments in which young people must operate in California.

Hernandez said daughters are supposed to study hard in school and never mention even having a crush on a boy or bringing him home for a visit--not to mention discussing issues of sex and pregnancy.

“They are not going to talk about having a boyfriend, much less having sex, because that is a big no-no in the Latino community,” Hernandez said. “Parents do not listen to the kids. They don’t say, ‘Well, what do you value?’ These kids are balancing two different worlds.”

As a consequence, Latinas may find themselves vulnerable and unprepared to fend off a premature pregnancy or deal with its consequences, she said.

Of the counties reporting more than 1,000 teen-age births in 1993, the report said most occurred in 14 counties. Of these, 33% occurred in Los Angeles, followed by San Diego, 7.6%; San Bernardino and Orange, 6.6%; Riverside 4.9%; Fresno, 4%; Sacramento, 3.7% and Santa Clara, 3.4%.