High school is the time when many students plan their future and answer the questions: what college to go to, what classes to take, which sports to play, what major to study, and even which clubs to join. The questions of love and dating are also key points many teenagers start to explore. However, when a teenager gets pregnant, those questions begin to change: how to tell their parents, what to do with the baby, and how to pay for everything. Teenage pregnancy has always been frowned upon, but with movies such as Juno showing adolescents the mistaken humor of the situation, the serious consequences of teenage pregnancy (health risks and extreme expenditures) are suppressed. One of the most important decisions they’ll be faced with is the question of the potential parent’s education. Teen mothers need to make enough money to support their new family, but how can this be accomplished while they are in school? Teenage pregnancy affects high school drop-out rates and the pursuit of higher education because these young people don’t think ahead. Society and media have played a huge role in dulling the consequences of unplanned pregnancies. They feel shunned, and sex education and communication with their parents have failed.
When an unwanted plus sign appears on a pregnancy test, the woman will usually rush back to the store to buy every different brand they can for verification. Four bottles of water and eight positive signs later, the soon-to-be mom stops hitting the snooze alarm on her wake-up call to assess the situation. She must now sift through her options and decide what her next move will be. Fortunately, there are many organizations that specialize in assisting with unplanned pregnancies such as American Adopti...
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..., taking the risks of having an abortion is sometimes the better choice for her. Even though they can talk to counselors and specialists, the final decision is always left up to the mother. Earlier and thorough sex education classes that integrate parents and their kids will help lower teenage pregnancy rates and thus help to reduce high school dropout rates.
Getting pregnant should not be on the agenda of a high school student however, seven hundred and fifty thousand girls per year will be expecting a new member in their family (“Teenage Pregnancy Statistics” 1). Communities and families need to realize that they are still children who made a mistake, and they’ll need guidance to help them move on in life.
“It ended with a chair” (Page, Juno). This chair needs to be the chair moms and dads sit down in to talk to their kids about abstinence and safe sex.
In May 2006 the silence cries of Kaylib Neal began to fill the delivery room as young Kizzy Neal slightly tilts her head with the energy she has left to take a glace at her new son. Although this moment is one of the happiest times of Kizzys life, she still wishes she could have waited to experience this moment at a later time in her life. At the age of only thirteen, Kizzy is one among the thousands of teenage girls who become pregnant each year in the United States. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 34% percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20. Eight in ten of these teen pregnancies are unintended and 79% are to unmarried teens. There are many preliminary causes for such a high In Kizzy’s case, the blame is put on the lack of sexual education within her school. She claims that because she did not received adequate information on this subject, she was unaware of what she was getting herself into. The question is: will the opportunity to experience sex education classes make a difference in preventing teen pregnancy? Sexual education, in a broad sense, is a series of courses taken by adolescents throughout their school years in order gain a better understanding of aspects that pertain to sexual activity. Beginning as early as third grade, the students learn what sex is, what its consequences are and how to prevent those consequences. Being of the main consequences of engaging in sexual activity, Teen Pregnancy is commonly spoken about within these classes. Given that teens are being informed of this consequences within accurate sex ed. Classes, providing comprehensive classes in a school environment does not cause an increase in teen pregnancy.
Teen pregnancy is surprisingly decreasing over the years. According to Farber, “the most recent studies have shown that there has been a decrease in the rate of pregnancies among all teenagers and among sexually active teenagers (16). Although this issue seems is decreasing this is still a problem faced by many teenage girls today. Each year, 7.5 percent of all 15-19 year old women become pregnant (Maynard 1). Not only does this issue affects the pregnant teen but it also affects the economy. Teen pregnancy affects graduation rates. Many teen mothers cite pregnancy as the key reason of them not finishing school. Only 40 percent of teen mothers finish high school (Teen Pregnancy Affects Graduation Rates). The 60 percent of teen mothers that do not finish high school not only influence their future, but the future of their unborn baby. The best solution to help teen pregnancy become obsolete and save many teenagers futures is abstinence. Abstinence is the best solution because this solution has four advantages such as, it has the highest effectiveness, it teaches other important life skills, it aids teens in school and it halts the spread of STDs among adolescents.
According to www.cdc.gov, in 2013, a total of two hundred and seventy-three thousand, one hundred and five babies were born to women fifteen to nineteen years of age. Though this is low for the typical rate of teen- child births, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations. There are many stories of teen mothers who feel like they have their lives together, and consider their stories “success stories”. What most teens don’t understand, is the difficulties of being a mother, especially at such a young age. Teen pregnancy has more negative outcomes than positive outcomes, as shown by a girl named Haley in her teen pregnancy story. The best way to prevent teen pregnancy is through information
As times continually change, it is inevitable that statistics will change as well. For each student that fails to graduate from high school, another statistic comes about. An American epidemic that forever seems to be looming on the horizon is the issue of teenage parenting and pregnancies. According to an article pertaining to teen pregnancies compiled from teenhelp.com, the United States has been deemed the leading nation for teenage pregnancies in the Western industrialized world. Due to this statistic, it is important to evaluate what can be done to set up teenage parents for success, as well as what can be done for children born in to young families. In an article on teenage parenting compiled by Linda Mangel, it is said that nearly seventy percent of teenage mothers do not complete their secondary education, and because of this, it becomes evident that a solution is crucial. Secondary schools would benefit from considering the implementation of daycare systems in order to increase the graduation rate for teen parents.
More information on the effects of teen pregnancy would cause a larger decline in pregnancy rates. Although there are many books and students are educated on human development. If teens were better educated then it would help them to make better decisions. Not much information is given on what effects of becoming pregnant or the resources available to pregnant teenagers. For example, there is less than a 2% chance that a teen mother will have earned a college degree by the time she is 30 (11 Facts about Teen Pregnancy). One of the effects of teen pregnancy is depression due to the many fluctuating hormones. The loss of any supports from friend or colleagues throughout the pregnancy cycle leaves the mother feeling alone. Parents don’t know what to do and are unprepared to deal with their child’s pregnancy. A second effe...
The amount of babies born from unplanned teenage pregnancies or out of wedlock is astounding. “If you are a boy,” you are “twice as likely to end up in prison as the sons of mothers aged 20 and 21. If you are a girl, you are three times as likely to become a teen mother yourself compared to mothers who had a child at age 20 or 21.” (Marcus, Ruth). “Statistics for teenage mothers themselves are similarly daunting. Only half obtain a high school diploma by age 22 compared to 89 percent of women who did not give birth as teenagers. Less than 2 percent of mothers who give birth before age 18 obtain college degrees by age 30. Half live below the poverty line -- and as their children grow older, the family 's chances of living in poverty increase” (Marcus,
Teen pregnancy is affecting the graduation rate in high schools. “Approximately 1,000 high school students will drop out with each hour that passes in a school day in America” (National Women’s Law Center, 2007). Teen pregnancy first came into view in the 1950’s. In different states teens that were pregnant were not allowed to attend school, most of them had to switch schools out of state in order to attend. Teenage pregnancy was normal in previous centuries and common in developed countries in the twentieth century. As higher education became available to women, they began to start their families later in life. By the 1950’s, parents were encouraging their kids to stay in school and to not marry until they graduate high school so they can focus on school better. Today, any teen pregnancy is frowned upon and they are getting judged. Parents want their kids to enjoy all the benefits of higher education before they begin their families. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “in 2011, a total of 329,797 babies were born in the United States to girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.” Teenage pregnancy is the number on...
In addition to the question of which teenagers become pregnant, interest is shown in the social consequences of early parenthood. Adolescent parents (mostly mothers) may find that they have a "lost or limited opportunity for education." The higher a woman's level of education, the more likely she is to postpone marriage and childbearing. Adolescents with little schooling are often twice as likely as those with more education to have a baby before their twentieth birthday. Some 58% of young women in the United States who receive less than a high school education give birth by the time they are twenty years old, com...
When teen’s get pregnant do they really know the consequences and the changes that it causes their bodies to go through? Most teens go into their pregnancy
The female teen stares into the eyes of her newborn son, not realizing the type of life her and her son will have in the near future. Katrina L. Burchett excellently explicates teenage pregnancy among female adolescents living with domestic problems in her book titled Choices. The various elements that aid to the wide range of teenage pregnancies in the world should all be taken in to consideration. Getting pregnant at an adult is no longer substantial or conventional in our society. Everyday, female young adults are getting pregnant, which is why it is a social issue for the youth today.
Tsai and Wong (2003) acknowledged many risks factors, which is a contributor to teen pregnancy. The influence involves numerous sexual partners, drug abuse, unprotected sex, use of or lack of contraceptives, poor attendance, school performance, and lack of family support, etc. Teen pregnancy is a main issue in every health care system, and affects a young girl’s ...
Teenage pregnancy is an epidemic that has been highly debated and publicized during the past few decades. Although it has been statistically proven to be on the decline since the 1950s, it is still a major discussion and topic of concern especially for the health of the unborn child and the mother. The aspect of teenage pregnancy might have been approved and a regular occurrence in the 1950s, but now with the multitude of contraceptives and preventative methods it is heavily frowned upon.
Other causes of teen pregnancy can be due to the “teen rebellious stage”, and girls that feel like they aren’t getting enough attention and think getting pregnant is the only way to feel important (Kirby 89-94). Most teen girls are asked to drop out in the later stages of pregnancy because they do not to “encourage” other girls. High schools are starting to try to educate girls in their care they not only want to teach them about sex, they want to teach them what to do if they ...
The concept of comprehensive social intervention has been defined as the process of identifying social problems in an attempt to eradicate them. In looking at the broad range of social characteristics and the behavior associated with teen pregnancy, it is obvious that the emphases placed on the effort to recognize and alleviate teen pregnancy can be celebrated through the effectiveness of education, family planning, and abstinence. However, the attempt to analyze and deal with the cause-and-effect relationship with teen pregnancy is an attempt in understanding the social world itself. In 2006, statistics show that there was a significant increase in teen pregnancy after a decade long decrease. The potential for understanding this increase motivates us to look beyond simple explanations for cause-and-effect behavior and to look at what interactions may be occurring between variables that result in specific behaviors or social conditions. What is it that influences behavior? In looking at teen pregnancy in the realm of the family, it is evident that a large number of family structures have evolved, or perhaps devolved, into a variety of combinations which challenge responsible parents to consistently expose their children to the role models and the types of behaviors that are important for their children to emulate as they mature. People are molded by circumstances and experiences, all of which can positively or negatively influence our behavior.
Today in this society many teenagers are having sex and not realizing what could happened after they have done it. Parents and teachers aren’t teaching their children proper information about sex. Teenagers believe nothing can happen and that sex isn’t a probable cause. Unfortunately, there are many risks that come along with teen pregnancy many of those include a life surrounded by poverty, medical and health issues, less schooling along with more dropout rates, and lower career ambitions. Teen pregnancy has many causes such as no access to protection, wanting to tie down a guy, Missing love or attention from parents, peer pressure mixed with "trends”, and sadly teenagers most common, lack of knowledge.