Teenage Pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is defined as an unintended pregnancy during adolescence (Langham 2015). It is one of the many ways a tenagers’ course of life can greatly change. Although the increased teaching about contraception has reduced the number of adolescent pregnancies, the rate is still substantially higher. Approximately 750,000 of 15- to 19-year-olds become pregnant each year, according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, though many teenagers do not believe that they will get pregnant if they engage in sexual activity (Langham 2015). These facts cause one to wonder why so many young girls become pregnant at an age when they apparently should not be.
Research shows issues many teenager go through, such as peer pressure, absent parents, glamorization, lack of knowledge, teenage drinking, and sexual abuse are the core causes of teen pregnancy (Citation). During adolescence, many teenagers feel the need to fit in and many times let their friends influence their decision to have sex when they do not entirely understand the consequences associated with the act. They have sex to feel cool and sophisticated, but the result in some cases is an unplanned pregnancy. 33% of pregnant teens stated that they thought that they were not ready for a sexual relationship, but proceeded anyway because they feared ridicule or rejection. Studies show that teen girls are more likely to get pregnant with limited or no guidance from parents. Many parents
Teenage pregnancy is a new form of epidemic that is sweeping across the nation worldwide. No one can actually point fingers on who is to blame or why this situation has increased in numbers over the past years. As years progress and society changes, people have been adjusting to the fact that teenagers are getting pregnant, and that there is nothing we can do to change it. Although many think that teenagers make mistakes and that pregnancy is an automatic consequence, there is a way to prevent this outcome from happening. By introducing different kinds of sex education programs at an earlier age, the teenage pregnancy rate will decrease. Even though we cannot eliminate the problem, we can educate our teenagers so that this issue can be
Each year, approximately 750,000 teen girls get pregnant with approximately 400,000 births from teens. Pregnancy is caused by unprotected sex. When getting pregnant at a young age, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with it. The mother must take care of herself and her body to keep the baby healthy as well. She has to follow up with doctor appointments, take daily vitamins, lose
reason girls become pregnant is because of teenage drinking. The girl is always having to
One area to be concerned about in teen pregnancy is the risk factors involved. Many factors are considered when investigating the population of teen girls that become pregnant. These factors include physical, emotional, social, and environmental. Teen pregnancy is more likely to occur in younger girls, especially those with an older male partner, those who perform poorly in school, those who live in disadvantaged homes, and those who have single parent or are the child of a teen mom themselves. These concerns are individualized to this population because these risk factors are modifiable far as environmental
Teens need youth-friendly services and complete, accurate information about abstinence, condoms, and contraception in order to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy. But they also need to be able to envision a positive future for themselves: one in which education, employment, and healthy relationships are possible. Further, empowering youth, and supporting women’s reproductive decisions, means pregnant or parenting teens should be supported, not stigmatized, by both government and culture. But i believe that the cause of teen pregnancy is all
Within the United States approximately one million adolescents become pregnant each year and teens who become pregnant are considered to be an immensely susceptible population (March & Cabrera,2015).
Teen pregnancy is not a subject to take lightly. Being in high school, students are held to high standards. They are in fact young adults who are trying to build their success to go onto the next step in life, but just one mistake can ruin everything. Having unprotected sex is the leading cause to teenagers getting pregnant. Oral contraceptives are recommended if girls are sexually active, but being on birth control does not give them one-hundred percent accuracy of not becoming pregnant.
First, to reduce these high rates and find solutions to prevent teenage pregnancy, society must understand the causes of teen pregnancy. Lack of knowledge has to be one of the main reasons why unintended pregnancies occur amongst teens. According to DailyRecord.co.uk, when it comes to the biological and emotional side that comes with having sex, most teenagers do not quite fully understand it and what can happen if you don’t take the right precautions (Langham,
In just one year approximately 750,000 teens get pregnant in the United States. Of those pregnancies, 85% are unplanned (Inez 2016). The question is why do these young women end up pregnant. The leading causes to teen pregnancy is due to the pressure that is put on girls, the lack of sex education, and the use of alcohol.
One of the main ways of preventing teenage pregnancy is for males and females to use contraceptives. Although there are many types of birth control methods, there are some that are suitable for teenagers that are sexually active. First, a male can use a condom as a protective measure. Secondly, females can use several different methods that include oral contraception, contraceptive injection, contraceptive patch, and an intrauterine-device (IUD) are all ways to prevent pregnancy for those who are simply not ready to be parents. Since 2011, there has been a huge decline in teenage pregnancy between 15-17-year old’s from 44% of pregnancies to 26% because of the use of contraception (CDC YRBSS). In 2015, there were 58% of teenage girls who visited a birth control clinic in
Some causes of Teen pregnancy are absent parenting, lack of knowledge, substance abuse, living in poverty and peer pressure. The number of teens within the ages of 14-19 has substantially decreased over the last several years. While examining the causes of teen pregnancy, new methods of prevention can be defined. If there are different methods identified for preventing teen pregnancy than the number of teens can go down more.
Adolescent pregnancy is defined as pregnancy in girls age nineteen or younger. There are different risk factors for adolescent pregnancy. Besides being young, some of them include: poor school performance and not graduating college, or in most cases high school, lower socio economic status and not being able to take care of themselves let alone another person, and older male partners who do not usually want to be involved in their child’s life, which ends up leaving parents to raise their children on their own. “The reason why teenage pregnancy is an important public health issue is because integrated action across several sectors is needed to help young women avoid unwanted pregnancy and to deal with the consequences of the pregnancy…” (Too Much Too Young? Teenage Pregnancy is a Public Health, Not a Clinical, Problem). Teen pregnancy is also a public health problem because there is only so much that can be done to prevent it from occurring. There is only the complexity of teaching sexual health to teenagers, along with the organization of maternity services to those mothers who decide to carry out their pregnancies the full term, or services for those who decide they want to terminate their pregnancies. Also, public health problem solving includes using surveillance of interventions. Without accurate and appropriate data, public health problems become problematic. Another public health prevention is giving out free or cheap condoms around schools or communities, although
Each year approximately 750,000 adolescents (ages 15-19) in the United States will become pregnant and about 400,000 of those adolescents will give birth. Out of all the developed nations in the world, the United States has the highest incidence of teen pregnancy. Although there has been a decline in the number of pregnancies among adolescents, teen pregnancy is still a serious health concern that needs continued intervention. It is widely agreed upon that becoming pregnant at a young age has negative effects on both mother and baby in many different aspects. What are the reasons for the increased rate of teen pregnancies in the United States despite the health risks, and how can we lower it?
"Teen pregnancy in the United States: In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years old, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is another record for U.S. teens and a drop of 8% from 2014. Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years. Still, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist (cdc.gov)." As teenagers (in the United States), we are peer pressured or tempted to try new things. Some teens tend to try out drugs, and alcohol. However, some are having unprotected sex in which, is leads to having babies. This is called, teenage pregnancy. This has caused the United States to create records based off of the statistics and facts given from, researchers across the United States. In order to help prevent teenage pregnancy in the United States, teenagers must understand why, having a baby now isn’t such a smart move on their part.
The teen pregnancy rate had decreased by the maximum of about 55 percent. Most teen birth rates had also gone down about 64 percent, but yet teen pregnancies and birth rate for teenagers ages 15-19 in the U.S still remains one of the highest comparable countries. Due to parenthood, most of teen moms drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate to get their diploma. Sexually active teens that don’t use any type of protection has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year, 84 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned.