Teenage Pregnancy : The Causes Of Teenage Birth Rates

Over the last few decades the rates in teen pregnancy have been a debate; did they rise over the past few years or did they actually decline? Contrary to some doctors and politicians the numbers associated with teen pregnancy have decline over the last couple of years. Although there are still people out there who believe this to be an issue it’s made more of an issue than it actually is. The ads and commercials are set out to scare teen-agers into believing that were at an all time high for this issue, but realistically its actually the exact opposite. Teen pregnancy rates haven’t dropped on there over the course of the years. There are a few major factors that have contributed a great deal to this change. Those changes include but are not limited to: more resources being available to these teenagers to prevent themselves from becoming pregnant, society is more open to talking about this issue as well as the religion and culture change aspect of families today. Despite the beliefs of others, teen pregnancy rates are at an all time low for the first time in decades.

In 2002, the United States noted 53 teen births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years, the highest among developed countries. If all pregnancies, including those that ended in abortion or miscarriage, taken into account that in 2000 the total value of the frequency of pregnancies accounted would be 75.4 per 1,000 adolescent women. State of Nevada and the District of Columbia have the highest rate of teenage

Teen pregnancies is a major problem in the United States. Three in ten teens will get pregnant at least once before the age of 20. That’s nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year.Also about 32.8 percent of freshman, 43.8 percent of sophomores, 55.5 percent of juniors and 64.45 percent of seniors in high school are sexually active. Teen pregnancy is a result of many causes.

Imagine waking up every hour, feeding and changing a baby of your own. Getting about four hours of sleep each night. In 2015 a total of 229,715 teenage girls had to go through this, because they took the risk of being sexually active at a very young age. The birth rate is 22.3 births per 1,000 women between the ages 15-19 years old (17Ce). Birth rates in teens have dropped increasingly from the year 1991 to now, but that still hasn’t stop these young girls from becoming teen moms. Many teen births differ by age, racial and ethnic groups, and region of the country. In 2014 73 percent of all teen births occurred to 18-19 year olds. Birth rates are higher among Latina and African American adolescents. In 2014, Latina adolescent female’s ages 15-19 years old had the highest birth rates. There was 38 births per 1,000 adolescent females. African American adolescent females had the second highest birth rates in 2014, with 34.9 births per 1,000 adolescent females. White adolescent had 17.3 births per 1,000 adolescent females (HHS).

Adolescent motherhood should be a major concern for our country. Teens in the United States are more likely to give birth than any other industrialized country in the world. (Kearney & Levine, 2012) The article, Update on Adolescent Motherhood and Postpartum Depression states, “adolescent motherhood is a common and costly phenomenon with almost half a million American girls becoming mothers every year in the U.S.” (McGuinness, Medrano & Hodges, 2013) This is one reason why the topic of adolescent motherhood should be paid attention too. Why does the U.S. have the highest teen birth rate? Is it because of our sex education, by both parents and schools? Does economic opportunity contribute to the high teen birth rate? These are questions that come to mind when contemplating the U.S. teen birth rate; also teen birth rate varies in our own country. A teen in Mississippi is 4 times more likely to give birth than a teen living in New Hampshire. (Kearney & Levine, 2012)

In 2014, there were 24.2 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19, that is 249, 078 babies born to females in this age range and nearly 89% of these birth occurred outside of marriage (Office of Adolescent Health, 2016). According to the CDC, in 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. What’s even more disturbing, not all teen pregnancies are the their first pregnancy. In 2014, one in six births (that’s 17%) to these 15-19 year olds were females that who have already been pregnant and have had one or two babies already (Office of Adolescent Health, 2016).

Pregnancy and parenthood is a significantly life- altering event that anyone could experience. These two life events inquire not only physical but mental obstacles. What happens when these events occur when your body is not physically developed and your mental maturity is not fully ripened? This happens too often amongst the teen age population. In the United States, teen pregnancies are the highest when compared to other developed countries. Teen births account for 10% of all births in the United States. (NCHS) While the only way to solve this issue is to educate teens on prevention, Hispanics continue to have the highest teen pregnancy rates because lack of financial resources, lack of formal sexual education, and cultural beliefs.

"Over one million teenage girls become pregnant each year. In the next 24 hours, about 3,312 girls will become pregnant. In addition, 43% of all adolescents become pregnant before the age of 20. These are incredible statistics when you consider that there are only 31 million females. The United States has the highest adolescent pregnancy rate in the developed world. As statistics show one in nine women between the ages of 15 through 19 become pregnant each year. Also, every 26 seconds a teenage girl becomes pregnant and every 56 seconds a child of a teenage mother is born."

The rates of unwanted teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are drastically increasing. Sexual Education has become an effective way of enforcing safety precautions and informing teens about healthy sexual activity. Sexual Education is the act of educating others about intercourse, the anatomy of the human body, sexual reproduction, abstinence, and contraceptives. Elizabeth Boskey, a STD expert, believes that schools should teach sex education because of the positive effects it has on the students. However, Sol Gordon believes that the parents should be responsible for teaching their children about sex. Even though Elizabeth Boskey and Sol Gordon take different stances on how sex education should be taught, they both agree that children should be educated about sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, and safe sex.

Now, about 15 million girls under the age of 20 in the world have a child each year. Guesses (of a number) are that 20-60% of these pregnancies in developing countries are mistimed or unwanted. In the United States, the percent of teenage pregnancies that are unintended is guessed (number) at 78%. The rates of teen pregnancy are not equal across (communities of people). Rates of teen pregnancy change/differ by a factor of almost 10 from as low as 12 pregnancies per year per 1,000 teens in the Netherlands to rates of more than 100 teens per year per 1,000 in the Russian Federation. The rates of women having a child before age 20 are higher in the United States compared to almost the same countries. For example, 22% of women report having a child before age 20 in the United States, compared to 15% in Great Britain and 11% in Canada. These differences are even greater when comparing (numbers of babies born per 1000 people per year) among younger teenagers. When one controls for poorness and (family and cultural characteristics), some, but not all, of this difference disappears.

In reviewing the literature of multiple studies and reports, I found that there is significantly more data and research in regards to the problem of teen pregnancy and the associated problems that are attributed to adolescent childbearing than there are specific to the effectiveness and efficacy of second chance homes. Second chance homes help teen mothers and their children comply with welfare reform requirements under the 1996 law (Housing and Urban Development, 2016). Second chance homes can also support teen families who are homeless or currently residing in foster care (Housing and Urban Development, 2016). In addition, research has shown that over 60% of teen parents have experienced sexual and physical abuse by household member requiring the need for alternative housing options (Housing and Urban Development, 2016).

The problem to be addressed by this proposal is the issue of teenagers pregnancy rates are increasing. Since 2007 we have steadily be rising by 1% every year (Center for Disease Control). In addition we are ranked as the number one nation in the world for having the most teenagers becoming parents. Are teenagers being prepared and educated adequately in the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and the risks of pregnancies? In my experience no, just last year I had a freshman student who gave birth in October. This incident was shocking and alarming. Also to be determined if teens are in fact adhering the abstinence only lessons. If not, determining if the curriculum needs to change.

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.

Teenage pregnancy is normally identified as a deprived life choice, for example, tasks of teenage parenting have long-term impact on the mental health of the mother and children (Statistics New Zealand, 2003). It is important to identify the socioeconomic factors of teenage pregnancy to lower the chances of mental health problems in young mothers. In this paper the aim is to analyse the main socioeconomic factors of teenage pregnancy and discuss how it affects the mental health of an adolescent mother in New Zealand. This essay will commence by identifying how a lack of education is considered as a socioeconomic factor associated with teenage pregnancy, followed by the second theme which will consist of economic circumstances such as, parental unemployment and welfare dependency. Lastly, this essay will discuss how deficiency of support from family and friends leads to unstable relationships, which has a huge impact on a teenage mother’s mental health.

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.