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Effects teenage pregnancy has on children
Effects teenage pregnancy has on children
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Its shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom that some parents dislike and do not allow their children to watch. These shows have been around for years and have had a tremendous amount of viewers. But many would argue if whether the show is educational and discourages teenage pregnancy or promotes it. Doctors have done a lot of research and say that the shows actually discourage teenage pregnancy. The shows discourage teen pregnancy based on the complications and struggles the families go through and how hard it is to start a family at such a young age, but most importantly it influences teenagers to be safe and cautious.
In 2009 16 and Pregnant had up to three million views a year (Sun). The statistics show that after the show first premiered that teenage birth rates dropped. After 2009 there was a 5.7% reduction in teenage pregnancy (“MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant’”. The show gave teenagers a better perspective on people their own age having babies. This gave teenagers a better look at how hard it really is and how much time they have to sacrifice.
Being a teenager is a lot of fun especially when you do not have many responsibilities. A teenager watching other teenagers lose most of their freedom gives them an eye opening experience. These shows provide a lot of educational information and teach serious life lessons. Although it may seem easygoing to teenagers, teenage childhood has a lot of sad and scary moments that most are not yet ready for.
One particular couple on 16 and Pregnant went through a lot as teenagers, not by having a baby so young but having to give it up for adoption. Catelynn and Tyler lost the one thing that meant the most to them, their baby Carly (Messer). Catelynn said “Giving up her baby girl Carly to a more...
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...see adolescents that are teen mothers or 16 and pregnant to have to go through so much so young. Teenagers have nowadays observed how tough it is to bare a kid and live within the ways MTV’s television programs display. The reality shows illustrate how teenage pregnancy really is. After becoming pregnant, teenager’s worlds will come tumbling down, going through high school and having a kid becoming too widely to grip. Those are the basic ideas of the television shows 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. To many people having to finish high school is difficult enough for ordinary teenagers. Adding a young child to the image can increase more stress, anxiety, and nervousness. These shows are amusing to many because it indicates the dreadful sides of having a kid at a young age and displays to teenagers the difficulties of having a baby when they their selves are still kids.
...he realization of having sex to young and getting pregnant. Even though these shows reveal some struggle that these young girls have being pregnant and having to raise a child at a young age, I also believe it shows the fascination of it, young girls are impressionable and they only see the families helping these girls, the fun to play dress up and buy nice things for a baby. To a girl that may just want to feel loved or have something to love these shows may give the wrong impression of the way to receive it. I do not believe any show of this nature can help the generation of the girls today. I believe any television show or music that exploits sex, nudity, or body image should be banned or never published to save this generation. Social media needs to have stricter bans with signing up to their sites to try and eliminate under age children to experience it.
Lowrey, A. (2014). MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant,’ Derided by Some, May Resonate as a Cautionary Tale. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/business/media/mtvs-16-and-pregnant-derided-by-some-may-resonate-as-a-cautionary-tale.html (accessed April 13 2014)
The MTV series 16 And Pregnant and its follow up series titled Teen Mom is a documentary like series that first aired in 2009 on June 11 and since then has had many seasons and sequels to follow it. Each episode in the series focuses on several young girls for 5-7 moths while they have to deal with the struggle of teenage pregnancy and “life after labor”. The initial idea or the show was to promote teen pregnancy prevention but, with many of the girls behaving scandalously and recklessly during the series, the show has become one of the most controversial on MTV.
It’s not acceptable for young viewers to be exposed to such inappropriate material. These shows and movies are teaching future generations poor morals. Morals are concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. People with low moral self esteem later on in life experience a hard time connecting with their peers. I think parents need to monitor what their children are watching whether that be on TV, Youtube, etc. Will you be the parent to let your children watch this type of
These shows make millionaires out of people who become famous for all the wrong reasons. Being selfish and dysfunctional seems to be the criteria for being on these shows. Watching these people get rewarded for bad behavior sends the viewer the wrong message. MTV promotes teen pregnancy on TV by making it look like a good and fun thing. As reported by Doctor Logan Levkoff, a teen development expert, although MTV portrays the consequences of teen pregnancy, “They are on the cover of magazines, getting paid, getting endorsement deals, and becoming calendar models. Even if MTV shows all the hardships, they’re still being supported in so many ways. The way we bring people into fame for really not doing anything has created a culture where it is exciting to be a pregnant teen and the fact of the matter is that most teens who are pregnant do not have the same experience that the girls on those shows have” (cite 1) MTV sends a positive message and makes teens believe that high risk behaviors as a teen are not only tolerable, but the gateway to fame. Some teens might even think that girls could get pregnant purposely just for the publicity and money. There are also other shows, for instance “Jersey Shore” and “Real World”. On these shows, you see attractive young men and women going to bars, partying till they can’t even walk, picking up strangers and taking them home and sleeping with them and all these behaviors are shown without co...
Such as their parents. Their parents just don't seem to care about their own child's education, so their parents are not in the picture, and the teens are raising themselves. Meaning they don't communicate with their children. For example “sparkle” she is one of the characters in the documentary. Sparkle lives anywhere she can find to have a place to sleep. These students just don't seem to care about their grades.
In this generation, teen moms are becoming popular to society. You can turn on the TV and find shows such as “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant”, but are these shows good or bad? They actually help out a lot. TV shows about teen parenting have lowered birth rates for teens, show the struggles of teen parenting, and help teens use safe sex techniques.
Teen dramas as opposed to teen situation comedies have soap opera elements to them. Some teen dramas can be understood in relation to the long-running serial form in their emphasis on repetition and deferral of resolution, and in this respect, are close to soap opera in narrative organization (Moseley 54). A school setting or home residence is where many teen dramas take place. Similar to soap operas, teen dramas also center around place, character, and relationships, and emotional drama is often heightened through the use of close-up and (generally romantic pop) scoring (Moseley 54). Teen drama is geared towards an adolescent audience, therefore episodes address teenage issues: sex, drugs, self -esteem, love, and school violence.
Red and blue lights are flashing and the noise of the ambulance impels everyone to a point where they have to look outside and observe the situation, as if a mystical force was compelling them. From what they can see, the paramedic is holding a tiny hand telling her to hold on. As the stretcher rolls by, the onlookers notice a huge lump, or ball as a few may say, under the pallid cotton covers. What they also take note of is that the pregnant woman is not a woman at all, but in fact a teenager. As some are astounded that a child is being born from a child, others possibly will look at it as a “blessing in disguise.” The issue of teenage pregnancy is affecting our society in innumerable ways and has become one of our top social issues of all time. “The latest estimates show that approximately 1 million teens become pregnant every year” (East, Felice, and Associates 1). With this high number of teenage pregnancy, it is no wonder that many authors try to exemplify this common subject matter. Katrina L. Burchett, author of Choices, accurately and effectively depicts teenage pregnancy among female adolescents living with domestic issues.
Attention Getter: Nowadays, no one is astonished by the presence of pregnant or parenting teenagers. In fact we have a fascination with pregnant adolescents which is evident in the creation of “16 and Pregnant,” a MTV series that follows the real-life stories of American youth who have engaged in sexual activity and who have realized that reproduction system works because they are or will be parents to a cute baby boy or girl. We watch this series in anticipation of the child’s birth and to witness how the teen parents cope.
Kearney, Melissa S., and Phillip B. Levine. "Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of MTV's 16 and Pregnant on Teen Childbearing." NBER. Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
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.
I believe that the majority of teenagers today know the underlying themes of the media, and know that it is all scripted, however, the matter of fact is that teenagers can relate so much to the themes in the media that they slowly begin to believe it. Once they get introduced to the characters, they gradually start to consider them real, and relating to them more and more.
It is interesting to notice that two popular medias come together to make an impact in a cause. Although, initially when these shows were aired, many believed they are only going to contribute to the problem. However, as the shows progressed, the curiosity among the teens increased to learn the outcome of the teen’s life in the stories. The teens started communicating with their friends through the social media on what they have seen in these shows. As the show progressed, it did not only show the reality of the social and economic hardships faced by teen moms after giving birth to a child at a very young age but also educated teens by making them realize the hardship that lie ahead of a pregnancy. The critical part of realization comes from the discussions with their social media friends and the discouragement they receive which helps in educating the teens of pregnancy. This is evident from a spike in the Twitter and Facebook activities among teen population following the day of the shows.
Preventing teenage pregnancy has been a goal for many years now. Statistics have tried to keep up with the change in the teenage generation. Many people have different opinions on the subject of teen pregnancy, because to some people teens seem to be getting pregnant expeditiously in these times. People fail to realize that having a baby is a privilege to many people and not a problem. Many people take having a baby as a lightly. Getting pregnant and having a kid has many pros/cons. Having a child can be very hard on some people and cause them to break. When babies are brought into this world there are a lot of things to worry about. The greatest problem associated with teen pregnancy is financial instability. Most teens do not have the salary to support a child. In the prevention of teen pregnancy there are many things that are helpful. Abstinence is a for sure way of not getting pregnant. There are also other helpful ways to help prevent teen pregnancy, such as sex education and birth control. All of these things are essential in the helping to prevent teenage pregnancy.