Introduction
Defining the problem of teen pregnancies in the United States
Body 1- Factors that contribute to teen pregnancies
Peer pressure
Absentee parents
The media is hugely glamorizing pregnancies in teens
Rape and sexual abuse
Body 2- what is the impact of teenage pregnancies on individual?
Increased complications during the pregnancy
Post natal depression
Increased risks of marriage breakdowns
Body 3- the impact on the society
The parents of the pregnant teens take on the responsibilities of the child and the increased pressures many lead to greater stress
The child is not the focus of the parent’s attention and this may cause psychological issues.
Poor performance academically
Body 4- How can we help?
Deliver better sexual education
Make contraception’s available to them
Teach them the benefits of abstinence and let them decide
Conclusion
Teenage pregnancies; the problems and the solutions
Teenage pregnancy could be defined as an unintended pregnancy during a person’s adolescent years. Teen pregnancies are a growing social issue in the US because it is posing very adverse consequences for the teenagers of our country. It is even more of a worry when we look at the rate of teenage pregnancies in our country. In the year 2010, around 614,400 teenagers had become pregnant; about 89,300 had a miscarriage while 157,500 opted for legal abortions during the year. In the end, around 367,700 teenagers ended up giving birth to their children and, therefore, bearing the burden of teenage parenthood. To look at things reasonably, none of the given alternatives is what we would consider favorable for our children and all of them have their own problems mostly ranging from health concerns to psychological issues like anxiety and depression. Teenage pregnancy, therefore, is a problem that we should be making attempts towards reducing as much as we can.
There are more than a few factors that are contributing to pregnancies in teenagers in the United States. One of these reasons could be peer pressure. The younger generation of the present is at greater pressure and the will to fit in with the people they go to school with and with this attribute, they become more likely targets of their peer’s opinions and wishes which in many cases leads them to make decisions that they are not yet ready to make on their own. The Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that greater than 29 percent of the teens who had gotten pregnant admitted that they had given into pressure from their peers and had sex. Another very common reason for teenage pregnancies is the Absenteeism of parents of the teens. This means that they have no guidance from home concerning sexual education, the teenagers are less likely to make wise, sustainable decisions about their sex life.
Another factor that drives these adolescents into the decision of pregnancy is the fact that the practice has exaggeratedly been glamorized by the media in the movies, TV shows and in the news. These teenagers see pregnancy as a dream come true, and the troubles and responsibilities that come with parenting are factors that very little light is shed upon in these movies. The reality only becomes clear to these teens once the burden actually falls on their shoulders. There are shockingly many teenagers in the US who become pregnant following sexual abuse or rape. The Guttmacher Institute reports that 5 percent of all the teen births are a consequence of rape.
The health professionals have been able to relate teenage pregnancies to a number of health consequences; these observations suggest that these consequences affect not only the mother herself but also the newborn child. These teenage women mostly report increased the risk of complications during pregnancy, increased chances of postnatal depression and in married women, and these teenage pregnancies also pose risks of early marital breakdown. There are however a few studies that attribute successful parenting to the adequacy of resources and social support and give a little credit to the age of the mother. Research also states that high rate of teenage pregnancy could ultimately translate into a high rate of deprivation in the children. There is, however, a general consensus over the fact that this rate could not affect deprivation as much if the mother of the infant is socially well off.
The fact that teenage pregnancies don’t impact just the mothers but also the newborns alone is enough to bring our attention to the matter that these teenage pregnancies don’t just affect one person rather they affect all the participants of the family that the unwanted child is born into, and it also goes on further to affect the society as a whole. The family of the childbearing mother is the unit which suffers most in the aftermath of the teenage pregnancy. In most of the cases, the teenager’s parents are the individuals who mostly look after the newborn. Since both the grandparents in the family have roles that are extensively wide in scope and very much time-consuming, they may distract that mother from looking after her own infant like she should. The Role Strain theory says that a person who performs in multiple roles puts that person under a lot of pressure; so much that the person becomes unable to undertake duties in any of the roles properly.
A child that is not the focus of the parent’s attention could grow up later to suffer from a number of attention deficiencies and may not even do very well in school, which may further impair the child’s ability to perform well in life in general. When all other factors within the society are ruled out, says a study, children of these teenage mothers are more likely to be put into special education classes, and there is also considerably increased the risk of mild problems in education. The same study, however, later observes the results of teenage parenting by changing the mother social status, the financial backing, and the marital status and determines that the age is not so much a problem as these other social factors may be.
There is plenty that we could do to prevent teen pregnancies in our society, and most of it rely to sound educating these teenagers on the subject. The very first precaution is that sex, as well as safe sex, be explained to the children and that they are educated sufficiently to be able to make smart decisions moving forward. It is essential that we promote this practice not only at home but also provide sex education to the children in schools. Sex should not be made a topic for them that they do not feel comfortable discussing. These children should also be made aware of the consequences of unsafe sex and problems like STD’s, and unplanned pregnancies should be made clear to them. In educating these children, it is also important to teach them contraception and make these different techniques of contraception widely available to them. These teenagers can also be convinced of the importance of abstinence in their lives and the relationships that they engage in.
Teen pregnancies are a delicate issue amongst our kids these days, and it needs to be dealt with immense delicacy as well. If we do in fact prove successful in this attempt to bring the rate down, we could help create more prosperous households come the future where the mothers a sufficiently educated and both parents have sound enough careers to support the families that they have. There could be less number of children that would feel like they had become a burden to their parents and in this way, their emotional, as well as physical well-being, could be sufficiently improved upon. All in all, it is the effort worth making.
Works Cited
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Ralitza V. Gueorguieva, R. L. (2001). Effect of Teenage Pregnancy on Educational Disabilities in Kindergarten. American Journal of Epidemiology, 212-220.
Sammons, M. B. (2011, August 18). 9 Ways To Prevent Your Teen's Pregnancy. Retrieved from PopSugar: http://www.popsugar.com/moms/9-Ways-Prevent-Your-Teen-Pregnancy-27331501
Solomon-Fears, C. (2016). Teenage Pregnancy Prevention: Statistics and Programs. 15: January.
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