One community member, Jay Coffelt, is a long-term resident of Kansas City in Jackson County, Missouri. Jay is passionate about researching and awareness of issues like teen pregnancy at the county, state, and national levels. Although not directly involved as a parent of a pregnant teen and not being a teen himself, Mr. Coffelt’s community passion is beneficial in providing insight to the level of community empowerment present in Jackson County, Missouri with regards to a major health issue like teen pregnancy. From a community members’ perspective, it was noted that there seems to be a lack of resources available to pregnant teens and their families as well as a lack of ways community members can be involved in the issue. When asked about his ability to participate in decision making regarding teen pregnancy or to attend forums discussing teen pregnancy, Mr. Coffelt was unsure if those resources were available to him. Another important finding from Mr. Coffelt’s interview was the frequent comparisons he made to an adjacent county in Kansas. Having lived in both counties, Mr. Coffelt was able to recall more available resources, awareness, and guidance for teen health and community members in the adjacent Kansas county compared to Jackson County in Missouri. Through the interview, it was determined that Mr. Coffelt felt an increased level of empowerment. According to Clark, “...empowered individuals gain new skills and power to influence others and to affect the outcomes of
Many studies show that MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” led to fewer teen births. It is thought to be that when teens tune into the show, they learn to practice safer sex. “16 and Pregnant” was named one of the best ways to campaign about the issue of teen pregnancy. The show was a way to attack the issue of teen pregnancy head on. Comparing to all fully developed countries, the U.S, has the highest rates of teen pregnancy. This was seen as a major problem to many that was aware of the problem. Even though the number of teen pregnancies was high, there was nothing really being done to expose the harsh reality of being a teen mom. Lauren Dolgen, President of MTV’s series development, felt as if the situation needed to be addressed. Her goal was to give teen moms out there a chance to have a voice and to tell their stories.
Teen pregnancy falls into the category of pregnancies in girls age 19 or younger (NIH). Although statistics have shown a decrease, the number of teen pregnancy in the U.S. is still relatively high compared to the rest of the world. Sexual health is one of the top priorities in early adolescence health in the United States. Consequences of having sex at a young age generally results in unsafe sex practices. The consequences can be due to the lack of knowledge about sex education, and access to birth control/contraception (NIH, 2005). Due to the lack of knowledge and access to birth control, adolescents involve in risk taking when they start to explore sexual intimate relationships.
Over the past decade, teen pregnancy has become a more common occurrence. C. Write Mills explained the concept of the social imagination as the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and a larger society. The social issue of teen pregnancy can be looked at from a personal and public perspective. As a result of women becoming pregnant so early in life, many young women as well as their child and family can struggle emotionally and physically. Society is also changing due to the increasing amount of early
I am interested in discussing teen pregnancy and the options that are out there for the teens who find themselves in this situation. I don’t think enough is being done to educate or prepare these teens about how their lives will change in the event of pregnancy.
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)
Oklahoma has been ranked number two in teen birth rates according to a Tulsa World article. Teen pregnancy has always been a problem in America. More and more teens are becoming pregnant every day. Most of them can’t afford the expenses of birth control. Others do not know how to prevent it. Teen pregnancy can also cause education problems with the teen. Teen moms are not mature enough to handle raising a kid. Many kids who have parents who were young when they had them are more than likely going to grow up to be just like their parents. These children and today’s teens need to be educated on how to have a healthy relationship. Oklahoma has found many different ways to get the teen pregnancy rate down. Teen pregnancy is one of the highest
The healthy people are apart of the foundation for many federal prevention initiatives. I decided to look at the federal teen pregnancy prevention initiative. This initiative provides grant funding to support teen pregnancy prevention approaches and demonstration projects to test innovative strategies. Their goals for this program include reducing the rates of pregnancies and births to youth in the target areas, increasing youth access to evidence-based and evidence-informed programs to prevent teen pregnancy, increasing connections to community-based clinical services, and educating stakeholders about effective strategies to reduce teen pregnancy (healthypeople.gov). There are three government offices that are connected to the teen pregnancy
Americans take great pride in their leadership among nations. Such a distinction becomes embarrassing however when the title is claimed for the highest teenage pregnancy rate of any developed nation with nearly one million pregnancies each year. There has been extensive research on the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy which has yielded important information about pregnancy rates and risk factors. Researchers concur that pregnancy is a time of dramatic transition. A first time pregnancy propels the mother from the status of woman to mother. While these changes are noteworthy for the adult woman confronting pregnancy, their effect is frequently magnified when the expecting mother is an adolescent. Adolescent childbearing has become a
An ongoing epidemic in the United Sates is teen pregnancy. In America, our society is run down by many problems. Most are caused by the older generation, but this problem has risen with the younger generation around the age of 15-19. The peak of the teen pregnancy trend started in 1990 when 60 teen girls out of 1,000 had a teen birth ("About Teen Pregnancy.”). For every 1,000 females in 2013, on average only 27 out of the 1,000 had gone through teen birth ("About Teen Pregnancy.”). Over the years, it seems that the trend is winding down and that less and less teens appear to becoming pregnant. In 2013, the teen pregnancy rate decreased by 10% since 2012 and 57% 1990 ("Teen Birth Rate | The National Campaign.”).
The Office of Adolescent health stated that “Females under 20 years of age that became pregnant in 2011 was 38,729 in California”. Adolescent pregnancy is an issue that does not discriminate because it affects different racial, cultural, groups, and socioeconomic status. Out of these mothers there was a range of every race, but Hispanics held the highest amount. The Office of Adolescent Health also stated that “In California Non-Hispanic white numbers were 4,957, Non-Hispanic black was 3,403, American Indian or Alaska Native was 403, Asian or Pacific Islander was 1,304, and Hispanic were the most with 28,640”. The numbers prove that Hispanic teenage girls are more likely to become pregnant. Although, all races have numbers of adolescent pregnancy in California. The
Teen Pregnancy and the Link to Poverty in the U.S. with A Focus on Western Ma Especially Holyoke and Springfield Mass
The issue being addressed is teen pregnancy rates in the United States. We can measure this problem by giving statistics on teen pregnancy related information and by describing the magnitude of the problem. Teen pregnancy exists everywhere in the world but the main focus of this policy memo is going to be that of the United States.
Raising a child as an adult can be very demanding at times, but can you imagine how difficult it would be to raise a baby as a teen, when you are still a child yourself? Although the teen birth rate in the United States has been on a decline for the past decade, teen pregnancy is still a significant issue affecting many people (Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing). Teen pregnancy has been considered morally and ethically wrong in the United States for centuries (Sprague). Taxpayers all across the country, the parents and the child are all stakeholders of this social epidemic and are affected in many ways such as economically, educationally, and martially.
(Introduction) Since the late 1990s teenage pregnancy in the United States has declined. In the United States teenagers become sexually active earlier than those in other countries. The vast majority of teenagers who are sexually active do not use any type of protection. Since this is not being done it allows the rate of unexpected pregnancies to be higher than if protection was being used. Teenagers start early having sexual intercourse for various reasons such as sexual pleasure, intimacy with someone special, or to increase his/her social status. According to Manlove, Steward-Steng, Perterson, Scott & Wildsmith (2013), in the United States five hundred thousand teenage girls between the ages of thirteen to eighteen years of age give birth
Teen pregnancy is a very controversial social issue and the vast majority of Americans consider the outrageous rate of teen pregnancies a severe issue, certainly a problematic occurrence that is believed to be a moral decline in our country. Teenagers are physiologically capable of reproducing but not emotionally or financially prepared to be parents at such a tender age. Through various research studies a plethora of determinants has pin pointed teens unprecedented pregnancies. One cause of this problem is the apparent indication of social separation or disadvantage. Within this issue you would find poverty, single parent households, educational disadvantages on the parents behalf, a lack family/parental support, and unemployment. A child’s educational performance, inappropriate sexual acts, and inferior apprehensions about their futures play a vital role in teen pregnancies as well. Amongst the listed disadvantages the three that take precedent are lacks of family communication, sexual abuse, and poverty. Furthermore, teen mothers do not fit the ideal ideology of the normative scheduling of motherhood, therefore, ultimately resulting in negative consequences for them and society. What needs to be understood is, as to why the numbers of teens are becoming parents at such a vernal age.