Psychology: Teenage Pregnancy and its Effects
Abstract
Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy under the age of 20 years. In healthy, well-nurtured teenage girls, menarche, the first menstrual period, normally takes place around the ages 12 or 13. A pregnancy can occur before menarche, but usually is possible after menarche. This article discusses occurrence of teenage pregnancy and its dependency upon a number of personal and social factors. This paper also discusses a research study by McLaughlin, Pearce, Manninen and Winges by the name “To Parent or Relinquish: Consequence for Adolescent Mothers” which makes an elaborate discussion on the subject of adolescent mothers and the comparison of life quality between mothers who relinquished their child for adoption and mothers who decided to parent their child.
Psychology:
Devastation had struck the family that day as the news slowly sank in. The reports had been handed in the morning but the feelings had remained volatile throughout the day. The older of the daughters had been reported to be pregnant. She had barely crossed into her 18th year. A decision was to be made by the family, the pressure building upon the parents and depression due to the social stigma that came with this event was taking its toll upon every member of the family, especially the two young women in their teen ages.
The family had known compassion, deep love and togetherness in happier times, but this situation stood as an ultimate test to this togetherness, for it was a question of the two lives of the mother and the baby, and everyone who was related to them. It was a decision to be made between a difficult nine months and the life thereafter, or an abortion of the child to be born. The elder daughter was under extreme pressure, and it reflected upon the younger daughter as well.
Suggestions flew in from every direction, and so did speculations and insinuations from relatives and friends. Some suggested aborting the baby, some told to relinquish the baby for adoption, some only expressed sham, and the rest announced a complete boycott of the family. The little number of people who did sympathize worried that since the baby was conceived at such a little age, it was a risk for both the mother and the baby, as the mother may have peril to life, and the baby born may have serious abnormalities.
This added worry to the parents and the daughters and made the situation even worse than it previously was. The family decided upon consultation from a gynaecologist and councillor, to help understand what choices the family had in that situation. The younger of the daughters had taken up a form of hatred towards her sister and completely rejected the idea of considering her as someone she was related to, because this younger daughter had to face stigma at school every day. It was an unusual happening for a middle class family and small town like this one.
The doctor had initially tested the elder daughter for both pregnancy and HIV, as definitely it was a failure or absence of contraception. The daughter admitted to having known very little as to what contraception actually was, and the parents realized that they had made a severe mistake in providing their daughters the right education. Luckily, only the pregnancy test turned out positive, which was a relief for the family. However, the dilemma remained as to what should be done, to abort the child or to carry it to the full term, and what should be done once the child comes to this world, should it be relinquished for adoption or should the daughter take care of child. The second option seemed a hefty deal, it was the question of the daughter’s education and career and in a competitive world where every individual needs to have an identity of their own, and this would be a huge set back. But the parents also knew that their daughter would not be able to handle an abortion.
Her parents tried speculating as to what should be done and how their daughter’s choice needed to be considered, and after painful hours of countless sleepless nights they made a decision, the baby would be brought into this world, for it was not its fault and to make it bear the punishment of death seemed unfair. The mother also felt that a separation from her child would be a blow to the daughter that she would not be able to handle. After consulting the doctor, and countless hours of counselling the family made a final decision to not only let the child be born, but that it would remain in the family and would be nurtured and taken care of.
The parents decided to support their daughter and teach their younger daughter acceptance and compassion, and the lessons of life that she would need to be a responsible person. The baby would be born and taken care of by the family, and the young mother would be supported to carry on pursuing her academic career. The path was difficult, they thought but less sorrowful, as they judged from the happiness of their daughter, who from the beginning was sorry for the situation and dreaded within that her parents might choose to take away the child that was growing in her.
Teens are the years when one transforms from a child into a matured person. These are the years of many rise and falls of the physique and emotions of an individual, when a person begins to comprehend and contemplate their unique sexuality. The incident narrated above may seem a happy ending to a shocking story, but neither is it an ending and nor do such situations always have such happy endings, for the woman and the child continue to have a life which is very different from the concept of conventional parenthood, sometimes leading to instability in life, emotionally, socially and financially.
Teenage pregnancy incidences fluctuate from country to country because of the differences in number of sexual activity, teenage marriage, general sex education provided and availability of reasonably priced contraception. There are concerns for teenage mothers especially younger than 15, associated more with socioeconomic issues than with the biological effects of age. In developed nations, teenage pregnancies are related with many social issues, which include lower education, higher poverty rates, and other negative consequences in the life of children of adolescent mothers. Adolescent pregnancy in developed countries conveys a social disgrace in many societies and cultures, as it occurs most frequently and usually outside of marriage.
There are many causes of adolescent pregnancy. In societies at some places around the world, early marriage and traditional gender roles are important influences in the frequency of teenage pregnancy. Lacking education on safe sex, either from parents, schools, or otherwise, is a great cause of teenage pregnancy. Teenagers who are not taught about methods of birth control and how to deal with peer pressure find themselves into having sex before they have any cognition of the vital realities of sexuality. Often teenage girls report to have been pressurized into intercourse by their boyfriends at a young age, and that no one taught these girls the ways to cope with this pressure or how to deny. However in societies where adolescent marry less frequently, as in many developed countries, young age at first intercourse and lack of use of contraceptive methods may be causes of teen pregnancy. Most teenage pregnancies in the developed nations appear to be unintended. In an attempt to decrease the ever increasing numbers of teenage pregnancies in Western countries, governments have introduced sex education programs, where the main objective is to reduce teenage pregnancies and STDs.
Peer pressure has been indicated as a factor in encouraging both girls and boys to have sexual contacts. Increasing sexual activity among adolescents manifests into increasing teenage pregnancies. Drugs and alcohol have known to encourage unintended sexual activity. Drugs with the strongest linking to teenage pregnancy are alcohol, "ecstasy", cannabis, and amphetamines. Adolescents may not possess the proper knowledge of, or access to, conventional means of averting pregnancy, as it may seem embarrassing or frightening to seek such information. Prejudices are extremely difficult to overcome. Over apprehension about side-effects, for example weight gain and acne, often affect choice. Teenage girls in relationships with boys older than them, particularly with adult men, more likely become pregnant in comparison to teenage girls in relationships with same aged boys and are also carry the baby to term rather than aborting it.
An adolescent mother in an industrialized country can be affected educationally. Teenage mothers more likely leave high school; have already dropped out of school prior to becoming pregnant. Young motherhood in such situations may upset employment and societal classification. Less than one third of adolescent mothers receive of child support of any form, hugely increasing their probability of turning to the government for aid. The connection in between earlier pregnancy and failure to complete high school reduces career opportunities for many young women.
Premature motherhood can affect the psychology and social development of the infant. Children of teen mothers often are prematurely born with low birth weights, exposing them to many other enduring conditions. The adversities just begin at birth for these children, as they are at higher risks and are usually inundated by rationality, language, social and emotional delays. Developmental frailties and behavioural problems are amplified in infants born to adolescent mother, with their mothers’ lacking emotional stimulations as through loving gestures for example touching, smiling, and oral communication, or show sensitivity and acceptance toward the baby’s needs. Adolescent pregnancy and motherhood can impact younger siblings.
McLaughlin et al. in their journal article “To Parent or Relinquish: Consequence for Adolescent Mothers”, studied two groups of adolescent mothers who took part in a counselling from Options for Pregnancy, a service associated with the Adoption Services of the Western Association of Concerned Adoptive Parents (est. 1977), amongst which one group decided to relinquish their child for adoption, and the other group decided to parent their child on their own. All these mothers had rejected the idea for abortion. McLaughlin et al. studied a total number of 269 women who were adolescent mothers, 146 of which belonged to the first group and 123 belonged to the second. Initially a number of 331 participants were handed out questionnaires, of which 269 returned completed form (McLaughlin et al, 1988). The questionnaire included questions regarding emotional and psychological well-being, social standings and their satisfaction with life and the decision that they had taken, whether it was relinquishing the child for adoption or parenting the child. The study also took into account the personal dispositions like familial background, religion, ethnicity, education and employment in terms of years of experience before birth, and span of married life.
It was noted from this study that demographically the satisfaction index did not vary by a large statistic in both the groups, pointing out that both the groups were satisfied with their initial decision. When it came to their emotional and psychological well-being, mothers who parented their child should early degradation in comparison to the other group of women; however, the reasons for the degradations were completely different for both the groups. Economically, mothers who chose relinquishing their child for adoption had more chances of better employment, with a statistical probability of 28 per cent more than parenting mothers. Also the members of the first group were less likely to be married, while teenage mothers would be married on an average of 36 months after marriage. The next child conceived is earlier in the parenting teenage mothers, with 52 per cent of the group bearing a child after 36 months of the first child. Educationally the results were mixed, though parenting mothers showed greater commitment to studies especially if the stayed in a family with their parents.
The study summarized the significant advantages that adolescent mothers have who relinquish their child for adoption, over the ones who decide to parent their child. The journal also suggested of an on-going longitudinal research upon the same subject may produce even more resolved results. This journal showed a variation from the conclusions of experienced councillors who propounded that relinquishing mothers became pregnant again soon. The journal then suggests the use of these findings to answer the socio-psychological consequences of relinquishment and adoption by social workers in their work in this field (McLaughlin et al, 1988). The study, however, does not mention anything about the consequences of these decisions upon the child of adolescent mothers, and what kind of life they lead psychologically, socially, economically and in general health.
Conclusion
Every individual has the right to live their life the way they wish it to be, but with the right comes the fundamental duty of every individual to let others live a healthy life as well. Teenage conception is a vice in every sense of the word and needs to be controlled and reversed in frequency of occurrence. Though governments and organizations work to achieve this goal, it needs to begin at the basic grass root of society, the individual itself. Awareness, research, self-control, development of moral ethics, contraception and abstinence, and maybe many more, are some tools that can help in reversing the growing number of adolescent mothers all over the globe.
References
McLaughlin, Steven D.; Pearce, Susan E.; Manninen, Diane L.; Winges, Linda D.(September 28, 1988): To Parent or Relinquish: Consequence for Adolescent Mothers; Health and Human Issues, University of Wisconsin-Madison; ISBN #0-87101-156-7
