Teenage Mothers

When considering the financial aspect of teen pregnancy, education regarding the issue should be provided with an increased attention because taxpayers end up billions of dollars on a yearly basis with the purpose of assisting teenage parents. In addition to this, society suffers because most teenagers who become pregnant are unlikely to finish high school. Children of teen parents are probable to suffer more health problems and to perform poorly during school, given that they are typically provided with underprivileged environments.

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

Out of the 750,000 teenagers that get pregnant annually, about 30 percent drop out of high school to take on the parenting role which majorly affects the United States economy because each drop out totals to 260,000 dollars (Culp-Ressler 2012). Unfortunately for many cases, the parenting role is completed singlehandedly, meaning that the father figure is missing (CFT 2004). Thus, teen pregnancy is depicted by society as interference for women to achieve their goal of entering the work force and ruins the independent character that women attempt to build during World War II. Because the role of a woman in society today no longer focuses on family formation but instead concentrates on building to attain a stable career, many seek for alternatives such as abortion or adoption. According to Live Strong, a health organization, 27 percent of teenagers who become pregnant will resort to termination of the pregnancy, and about one to two percent decides to put their child up for adoption (Marchick 2011). As a leading consequence for young women who decide to keep their child, about 80 percent these young mothers do not meet the financial needs end up living in poverty where many depend on welfare as their economic support (Marchick

Obviously, the minority issue is a problem with one in every four black teenage girls becoming pregnant by the time they are 18 years of age. Nearly a third of these ladies will have a second child by the time they turn 20 years of age. African-Americans and Hispanics have switched roles within the past few years, in which case Hispanics now have the highest teenage birth rate in America. Teenage mothers often decide to keep their children simply because their mothers, who were probably also teenage mothers, decided to keep them. These teenage mothers are often missing the guidance, love, and discipline that most children grow up with. Teenage mothers often have a sense of responsibility since they were often left at home to fend for themselves while their mother was at work, in which case, single mothers often have more than one job to try to support their family financially.

In the article “Teenage Births: Outcomes for Young Parents and their Children “the Schuyler Center touches on many important topics concerning teenage pregnancy and parenting. The foundation speaks on how teenage pregnancy is a global issue and explains why teens often get pregnant along with the hardships that come with it. Although, according to them “teen pregnancy rates are at the lowest level in 20 years. . . ” (page 3) it is very apparent that being a young mother will defiantly effect your education and your child future.

In 2016 teenagers have become the newest trend in Hollywood. The problem here is not the fact that teens are having babies, but the real problem is that teenagers are no longer taking their time to get to know each other before they end up in a bed or in most occasions in the back of a car. Boys tent to lie to get a girl naked and girls tend to manipulate boys by getting naked. Females no longer care who they have sex with, therefore they do not see the consequences that come with their actions. Ladies have indulge in sexual activity with multiple partners and often ending up with a child from every guy. Thinking that it is their true love they go off and just have sex ending up with a size 16 maternity pair of pants. Even after having the kid they choose to blame each and every tiny thing they possibly can.

Research has outlined that “teen mothers have lower levels of socioeconomic attainment than their childless peers: they are less likely to complete high school, attend college, or earn a bachelor’s degree, and they tend to earn less and are more likely to experience poverty” (INFORMATION). Another social work perspective focuses on the stress associated with a rapid role transition. “Specifically, an accelerated transition to motherhood may result in adverse psychological effects for the teen”(INFORMATION) Research suggests that some young teens view the role of motherhood as a positive turning point in their lives. That is can be motivating and help to avoid delinquency, return to school, and search for employment. Further Research also has found that some young teen mothers expierence a heightened sense of responsibility and stability. It is suggested these positive expiernece occur most commonly to those teens expiernece issues with schooling, and in a home setting. Research has conistantly explained that maltreatment is a significant risk factor for teen pregnancy among low income youth even after controlling for neighborhood disadvantage, other caregiver risks and indicators of individual emotional and behavioral problems. The most well known health risks that are consistent but not always associated with teen pregnancy and childbearing are low birth weight, preterm birth. However, pregnant teens generally face other challenges that are also known to affect maternal and infant outcomes. These include maternal income, educational attainment, employment prospects, and mental and physical health. Going forward, children of teen mothers may have deficits in cognitive, academic, mental health, and psychosocial domains when compared to children of older mothers. Teens that give birth are likely to face exacerbation of preexisting cumulative psychosocial adversity after the

Girls who gave birth while still in high school only 38% of them graduate. The reason the rest of them drop out is since they are forced to work in order to support their child. Nearly all cannot manage parenthood, school, work without family or friends help. With teenage mothers “Their children showed reduced educational attainment, had more emotional and behavioral problems, were at increased risk of maltreatment or harm, and showed higher rates of illness, accidents and injuries.” (Dennison P. 6) Just in the state of Texas, in 2012, there were 44 births per 1,000 girls’ state wide. Nationwide 50% of pregnancies are accidental in 2006. Teen parents also are a financial load to society, According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, in 2004, all together taxpayers paid more than eight billion dollars to help support health cares designed to help the 420,000 teenage mothers who gave birth in that year. “results from economic analyses suggest that implementing evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs, expanding access to Medicaid family planning services, and utilizing mass media campaigns to promote safe sex may reduce teen pregnancy and save taxpayer dollars.” (Without the help of drugs like Plan B or any type of birth control, a large amount of teenage girls will become unplanned mothers, making more of a financial burden to society.

Young girls at that age are considered vulnerable and many seek psychological help to overcome the traumatic event. Children born to teen mothers can develop blindness, deafness, mental, respiratory and cerebral problems. Also the low birth weight puts the child at greater risk of dying as infants. Other social problem that pregnant teenagers face is economy. Most teenage girls struggle to finish school and earn a degree. Pregnant teenage girls live in poverty due to the lack of financial and educational stability. For instance, a study found that “low-income teens received such instruction 44% of the time, compared with 62% of higher-income teens. That disparity is particularly troubling, supporters say, because low-income and black and Hispanic teens are more prone to teen pregnancy than teens in general”. In most cases low income families are always struggling to provide to the family and adding teenage girls just makes the situation even worst. The lack of experience, financial and educational stability can limit the options of the child to succeed in life. The author of Teen Pregnancy: Does learning about birth control in school help prevent teen pregnancy? suggest that “teen pregnancy is often cited as a factor that perpetuates the cycle of poverty, since teen mothers are likely to be poor in the first place, and their children are likely to grow up to be poor. As a

Children do not have enough knowledge on the subject such as an undesired pregnancy and danger of abortion. if children do not have the right education on sex, this will result in boys becoming responsible for girls getting pregnant and girls becoming responsible for taking care of themselves during pregnancy or choosing an abortion. According to Teen Pregnancy Statistics, about 50,000 teens who are 18 and 19 year olds get pregnant each year. Teenage abortion statistics is strongly connected to teen pregnancy rates, because teens are facing an unwanted pregnancy, which is from a lack of sexual education (“Teens Abortion Statistics”). Linda Lowen, Women’s Issues reporter, mentions that most teen mothers are negatively impacted by the birth of a baby unlike teens who choose abortion; teen mothers’ educational plans are interrupted, which subsequently limits their future earning potential and put them at risk of raising their child in poverty(“Why Teens Choose Abortion”). Birth of a baby at a young age will change their life. Many teens obtain an abortion because of their successful

According to Henshaw (2004, as cited in Medoof, 2009), almost nine hundred thousand teens gets pregnant every year in America; which is over twenty-seven percent of teens. While ninety percent of pregnancies are undesirable; the cost of a teen mother and a child affects the society. Hoffmann (2006, as cited in Medoof, 2009) states that children that were born from teens had birth weight issues, severe illnesses, and lived in poor circumstances. As for the teen mother, he states that teen mothers would mostly not continue their education, and mostly live in

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.

Young teens have a lot of support, though they live in poverty they have welfare, family, They also still can make it to get a career things aren’t as hard as it seems. They can say that they are more likely to be poor as adults and more likely to have children who have poorer educational, behavioral, and health outcomes over the course of their lives than do kids born to older parents, but that isn’t true at all. Teen pregnancy does not mean that they felt that this part of their life was over in fact most of them were positively realizing they have responsibilities, so they had to get their future career ready.

Although national teen birth rates have declined, the disparities in teen pregnancy rates still remain high, especially for Hispanic teens. With 53% of Latinas in the United States become pregnant at least once before age 20—nearly twice the national average, these girls have the highest risk of being teen moms compared to other races and ethnicities (Rocca et al., 2010). Not only that teenage childbirth can cause many harms in health and social relationships for both mom and baby, teen moms have a higher risk of discontinuing their education, being single mothers, and becoming welfare dependents. Nearly $11 billion per year was spent on teen pregnancy and childbirth due to the increased expenses in health care for teen moms and babies, the loss of incomes and tax revenues from teen moms since they are unable to work or work at low paying jobs. (National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2011).