Edin And Kefalas

In the 1960s and early 1970s, more unmarried women who became pregnant decided not to get married. As more teenage mothers remained single, public concern increased. Teen pregnancies were, often presented as a medical problem to be, treated with more access to clinics, birth control and abortion. There was a shift from viewing teen pregnancy as a moral problem to that of seeing it as a psychological or health problem (Adams, 1997).

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of teen pregnancy on the of lower ses adolescents. The scope of the problem, the social context of teenage pregnancy, and the consequences will be examined. teenage mother face difficulties and problems during and after pregnancy twice as much as more than older women and their pregnant “counterparts” who delayed childbearing until after age 20 .Low ses greater risk of becoming teenager pregnant and influence the development of both the course and persistence in antenatal depression and PPD and ) reported that the presences of depressive symptoms was associated with Black race, unmarried status, poor family background low educational attainment low monthly income, and receipt of assistance through Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, or WIC. Inadequate social support

The article “Delaying Parenthood”, BY the Baltimore Sun, illustrates the effectiveness OF implementing improved contraceptive access on Baltimore. The city, which experienced an outbreak OF teenage pregnancy, took action and cut their teenage pregnancy rates BY more than a third. OFficials implemented more informative sex education, but most importantly, teenagers received greater access to long-term, reversible contraceptives like IUDs. The goal OF the initiative revolves around the troubling facts that children born to teenagers are more likely to grow up disadvantaged in terms OF financial status, graduation rates, and possibility OF coming into contact with the law. Health OFficials began working with the schools and Planned Parenthood to demonstrate to students the severity OF their actions and the access they have to contraceptives.

For many years teen pregnancy has been a national social problem. Views have changed over the years as society has started to adapt to the thought of teen pregnancy. “Growing evidence suggests that pre-existing academic and economic hardships play a role in the continuing struggles of teen mothers. While 85% of young women who delay having their first child until at least twenty or twenty – one obtain a high school diploma or GED, only 63% of mothers who give birth by age seventeen do so” (Crosson- Tower p255)

During the mid and late 1960’s in United States, women, especially low-income women, had more children than they preferred. Research attributed this rise to the lack of access to contraceptives especially in lower income families leading to the difference in the economic affordability of women to have more children than desired. Evidence also showed unintended pregnancies or closely spaced pregnancies to pose adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as delayed prenatal care, premature births, and unfavorable mental and physical health effects on children. Additionally, unintended pregnancies, especially among teenagers, led to more poverty, increased dependence on publically funded services, incomplete education, and decreased ability

One can apply the concept of sociological imagination to the social problem of teen pregnancy. Almost everyone is affected, to some degree, by teen pregnancy. Whether you yourself were a pregnant teen, or one of your family members or friends, or one of their friends was; it is relatively easy to personalize at least one story of teen pregnancy and then use that example to help us address the issue as a society. What did the pregnant teen that you knew respond to? What help or assistance did she get? How did she treat her body during that pregnancy? What, if any, care could have been provided to her that was not? By using the idea of the sociological imagination we are able to take our own experiences with teen pregnancy and use them to illuminate the subject of teen pregnancy on a societal level.

Teenage pregnancy has been viewed as an issue for many years, not only for teenage mothers but for babies as well. Much importance has been placed on this subject for the reason that although these rates are declining, they remain elevated. The United States represents over 600,000 American teen pregnancies every year, making this the highest rate in the industrialized world (Steinberg, 2017). Unfortunately, ethnic minorities in the United States have a predisposition to the many social, educational and economic disadvantages that in fact shape adolescent sexual behavior and lead to the decision of adolescent motherhood. This paper will illustrate teenage pregnancy rates over the last few years, the factors that impact teen pregnancy, contraception and the likelihood of teen pregnancies across different ethnic groups.

Teenage birth rates, defined as live births per one thousand 15-19-year-old US females, declined by 10% from 2012 to 2013 from 29.4 to 26.5. In fact, the birth rate has been on a steady decline over the past 20 years, from 61.8 in 1991 to 26.5 in 2013. Teenage pregnancy represents both a health and social inequality in our society. Specifically, teenage childbearing is a public health issue because teenage mothers are more likely to experience negative social outcomes such as dropping out of school. This is a self-reinforcing cycle, as children of teenage mothers face higher chances of poor academic achievement as well as getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant in their teenage years (CDC). Although the overall rates of teenage pregnancy have dropped, ultimately, the variations in the rates reflect the intersecting disparities regarding race and ethnicity, income inequality, geography, and environmental factors, which in turn affect access to medical care, education, and resources.

Teenage pregnancy and parenthood are often seen as strictly negative and problematic, with the moral panic surrounding them only growing as media and government play a role in perpetuating these ideas of negativity surrounding them. Though it is a contentious issue, what are often ignored are the underlying causes of the social phenomena that are teenage pregnancy and parenthood. The experiences of poverty and social exclusion by many pregnant teens and teen parents have not been proven to be more severe than what these young people were experiencing before, so it brings into question the validity of the moral panic as well as the aims of programs meant to decrease teen pregnancy and parenthood. Looking at teen pregnancy and parenthood, first

One of the primary reasons that low-income students are more likely to give birth than other students is because they have low expectations for their future. Teenagers who give birth are

This week’s assignment had me take a closer look on how environment truly influences teen pregnancy rates in my community. Teens living in poverty have a greater likelihood of becoming pregnant than teens living in affluent communities. What causes this disparity? Social and environmental factors are in large part responsible for the disparity. The adults in lower- income families are often less educated, have a criminal history, hold low-income jobs, or are unemployed. Lower income communities are plagued by gun violence, gang inhabitance, and the availability of drugs. Teens that become pregnant at an early age, have parents that themselves were pregnant as teens ("Teen Pregnancy Facts, Teen Pregnancy Statistics Teen Pregnancy - Environmental

According to Finer & Zolna (2006) the lack of public funding for family planning is associated with unintended pregnancy among the poor in the United State and this is linked to low coverage of contraception. Between 2001 and 2006, the rate of unintended pregnancy among poor women increased by 10 percent. In fact, poor women are more than five times more likely than higher income women to have an unintended pregnancy.

Poverty Causes Teen Parenting, Not the Other Way Around is an article that brings attention to Kempner makes a good argument that having children at a young age does not affect young women because these young women are already on a downward economic trajectory. She substantiates her point by evaluating that teens who get pregnant tend to come from more disadvantaged families than those who do not become pregnant, concluding that growing up with few economic prospects can lead young women to choose teen parenting.

In the early 90’s, studies have shown that teen pregnancies occur on a regularly basis and has been severely increasing (Newsweek: Birth rates in U.S, 1991-96). As a result, this brings out a wrong impression of women to society.

Like Amy and Loeber (2009), when it comes to the ecological paradigm of teenage pregnancy, Corcoran, Franklin, and Bennett (2000) also believe one’s socioeconomic status is a huge factor that contributes to this problem. A person’s socioeconomic status a lot of times determines “education, expanded family size, single-parent household structure, and lessened resources in terms of employment and income.” These three authors claim that educational performance and goals “dictate the potential costs of child bearing at a young age.” Their studies have also shown that teenage girls’ relationships with the school setting and poorer performance in school serve a greater risk for adolescent pregnancy.