A Look at Teen Pregnancy
Introduction
Teen pregnancy is a global issue that affects girls (ages 13-19) in every culture and nation around the world. 33% of American teenage girls will become pregnant before they reach their 20s, which equates to approximately 745,000 teen pregnancies each year. Because these teens are not considered to be adults, they bring a certain amount of stress and burden to society whenever they become pregnant. Pregnancy centers, help centers, and government subsidies go into addressing the issue, which means the socio-economic cost of teen pregnancy is quite high (Do?an-Ate? & Carrin-Basham, 2007). Why does the problem continue to exist? There are numerous theories for why teen pregnancy has reached epidemic proportions. Some suggest it is cultural and point to Latino culture as a reason Latinas are at such high risk for teen pregnancy (Do?an-Ate? & Carrin-Basham, 2007). Others point to father absence (Ellis et al., 2003), sexual abuse in childhood (Boyer & Fine, 1992), and promiscuity and race as factors (Vundule, Maforah, Jewkes & Jordan, 2001). This paper will provide an overview of the topic, provide a brief literature review on the risk and possible protective factors for preventing teen pregnancy, and describe a proposal for a creative intervention that will help prevent teen pregnancy in the future.
Overview
Teen pregnancy is a major issue because it is so widespread, and because teen girls who become pregnant are more likely than adult women to suffer from a lack of prenatal care and pregnancy complications (Do?an-Ate? & Carrin-Basham, 2007). Many teens who become young mothers never complete their education and it is much harder for them to obtain a college...
For the children of teen mothers, it is just as bad: they are more likely to suffer from childhood neglect or abuse because their parents are basically still adolescents and do not know how to act like mature adults and care for a baby when they are still essentially children themselves (Boyer & Fine, 1992). Teen mothers are also to suffer from emotional and mental stress, just as their children are more likely to face cognitive and developmental risks because of the unstable nature of their situation when they are born into the world: their family is likely to suffer from intense socio-economic pressures as the single mother attempts to make ends meet while simultaneously raising a child on her own (Do?an-Ate? & Carrin-Basham, 2007).
Risk Factors
There are several risk factors for teen mothers. Both large households and single parent families have been found to be risk factors by researchers (Do?an-Ate? & Carrin-Basham, 2007; Vundule et al., 2001). The absence of the father in the girls life growing up is another major risk factor, as the father is believed to provide a stabilizing influence in a girls life and to give her an idea of what sort of qualities to look for in a potential mate (Vundule et al., 2001). Of course it is not a guarantee that just because the father is part of the family life of a girl as she grows that the girl will not be another teen pregnancy statistic, but not having a father in the picture is certainly a risk factor and a variable that is consistently found among cases of teen pregnancy in the U.S. (Ellis et al., 2003).
Another risk factor is being a foster child or adopted child. A girl who is removed from her biological parents are placed in foster care runs a higher risk of teen pregnancy than a girl who is raise by her biological parents (Vundule et al., 2001). Part of the reason for this is that when biological parents are absent or removed from care it is an indication of an unstable environment and children need stability growing up in order to navigate all the developmental conflicts and issues that naturally arise over the years. Without a family there to help guide them and support them, girls can feel adrift and thus turn to the first young man who…
References
Boyer, D., & Fine, D. (1992). Sexual abuse as a factor in adolescent pregnancy and child maltreatment. Family planning perspectives, 4-19.
Do?an-Ate?, A., & Carrión-Basham, C. Y. (2007). Teenage pregnancy among Latinas: Examining risk and protective factors. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 29(4), 554-569.
Ellis, B. J., Bates, J. E., Dodge, K. A., Fergusson, D. M., John Horwood, L., Pettit, G. S., & Woodward, L. (2003). Does father absence place daughters at special risk for early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy?. Child development, 74(3), 801-821.
Vundule, C., Maforah, F., Jewkes, R., & Jordaan, E. (2001). Risk factors for teenage pregnancy among sexually active black adolescents in Cape Town. South African Medical Journal, 91(1), 73-80.
Abortion trends varied widely by state as well. "Teenage abortion rates were highest in New York (41 per 1,000), New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware and Connecticut. By contrast, teenagers in South Dakota (6 per 1,000), Utah, Kentucky, Nebraska and North Dakota all had abortion rates of eight or fewer per 1,000 women aged 15 -- 19. More than half of teenage pregnancies ended in abortion in New Jersey, New York and
This large number was selected to ensure that the power of statistical tests used in the study is of sufficient power to draw valid conclusions. It is expected that given the sensitive nature of the subject, there will be large numbers of selected participants who will decide not to participate, will drop out, or whose parents will not sign the consent form. All participants selected will be taken from
Moreover, an 'abstinence-only' education program is sometimes perceived by teenagers as providing one-sided and medically inaccurate information. (Studies by Kirby, 1997 and Huberman, quoted in "Reducing Teenage Pregnancy" 2006) shift in attitudes towards teenage sexuality must occur in the U.S. To facilitate the development of appropriate policies and programs to reduce teenage pregnancy. Presently, sexual activity, rather than the pregnancies that can result from it, is seen as the
The result of this, as seen above, is that these mothers lack job skills, making it difficult not only to find employment that could adequately support themselves and their children, but also to retain these jobs once they find them. The result is that about 64% of children born under such conditions live in poverty, compared to 7% of children born to married women older than 20 and who
Teenage Pregnancy The disadvantages of teen pregnancy Teen pregnancy is increasing worldwide and the accompanying negative effects have dire implications for society. Countries have engaged in aggressive campaigns to arrest and limit the number of teens becoming pregnant. There has been limited success from the approaches utilized because of the multiple variables that influence a teenage to engage in sexual behavior. A critical part of the problem is that most teens are
Typically, class does have an effect upon teen pregnency for a variety of reasons. The urban poor tend to have less access to some of the opportunities and activities of middle and upper class girls; they are often alone longer during the day because their mother or grandmother is working; they often do not have access to the same amount of information about birth control and/or abstinance that other children;
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