The Causes Of Teen Pregnancy

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.

Teen pregnancy is very risky to the baby. Pregnant teen can struggle with many medical issues during their pregnancy. Premature births are common is young parents. A full term pregnancy is forty weeks, any birth before thirty seven weeks is considered a premature birth. The earlier the child is born the more medical problems the baby can have, such as developmental issues. Along with premature birth usually comes low birth weight. Teen parents can have poor eating habits, they could

Teenagers have little awareness about how to prevent becoming pregnant. In a news article by Daniel Armbuster, he said, “It’s all about healthy relationships. That’s where we fail our kids is teaching them how to have a healthy relationship. In other words, teenagers have not heard anything about how to prevent teen pregnancy. Their

Seven hundred fifty thousand teenagers, ages fifteen to nineteen, become pregnant each year (“Facts”). Teenage birth specialists have often debated whether or not teenagers should have access to birth control and other contraceptives. Although some people think teenagers having birth control will promote promiscuity, birth control should be accessible to teens because they will put themselves at a higher risk for disease and pregnancy without it, and more teenage girls would get a high school diploma with it.

Over 560 young women are at the risk of becoming a teen mother a year. Nearly 750,000 American teenagers become pregnant each year. These can be trying times for a young lady who is just starting to come into her own as a woman and as a citizen in society. Teen pregnancies can cause many complications

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.

Teenagers today are very sexually active and with the benefit of using condoms it can reduce the risk of the teen becoming pregnant. According to an article by Stanley K. Henshaw, “Teenagers in the United States usually start their sexual activity at the age of seventeen and two thirds have had sex before graduating high school” (Henshaw). The percentage of high school girls becoming pregnant is increasing as the years go on. As soon as one person comes out and says that they have been having sexual intercourse with someone, then others will try and be “cool” and go have sex with whoever they see. With the teenager having sex in high school and other teenagers finding out that their friends are, it will be impossible to tell them to stop having sex.

Pregnancies in adolescents are caused by the practice of sexual intercourse without contraceptive methods and by lack of sexual information. According to the organization Save the Children each year are born 13 million children of women under the age of 20 throughout the world, more than 90% in the so-called developing countries and in the developed countries the remaining 10%.

Some teenagers get pregnant due to not knowing about the consequences of unprotected sex. Most don’t know about any of the consequences because they don’t have anyone to talk to them about it and others just doesn’t want to listen. Parents don’t think their kids will ever think about having sex so they don’t feel the need to talk to them about it but that only leads to teenagers getting pregnant without being prepared with a stable job.

Most teenagers will have sex no matter the risks. Pregnancies and transmitted diseases are all connected directly to unprotected sex. Teenagers have the highest risk of pregnancy and HIV among all other age groups, statistics being 900,000 teenage girls get pregnant each year. That means 4 out of 10 girls will end up pregnant before the age of 20. Over half of all HIV infections are in people under 20 years old. (“Preventing Teenagers from Getting Contraceptives Unless They Tell a Parent Puts Teens at Risk.” American Civil Liberties Union,

That’s 26 babies per 1000 teens including all ethnic backgrounds. Hispanic and Black teen pregnancy rates are the highest with 40 per every 1000, and Asian are the lowest with 8 for every 1000 (CDC). In more recent years teen pregnancy rates have dropped even further, and “although reasons behind the declines are not clear, more teens may delaying or reducing sexual activity, and more of the teens who are sexually active may be using birth control than in previous years (CDC)”. More and more teens are no longer fully realizing the negatives of engaging in sexual activity. On the other hand, a teen that becomes pregnant may become an outcast and lose their friends, Becoming a social outcast can lead to depression and other mental illnesses. Our generation is more exposed to teen pregnancy as there are TV shows and magazines all about teen pregnancy. Becoming pregnant as a teen is no longer as demonizing as it was for the generation before us, and more and more teens are becoming pregnant at a young age. "Family planning is at an all-time low and teens are engaging in casual sexual activity (Bright)". Parents call for more sexual education, and increased options for teens, to stop teen

Adolescents who have parents that are uninvolved in their lives have a greater chance of becoming pregnant than those with parents who are very concerned with their children’s lives (Singh, et al.). Adolescents who feel they do not get enough attention at home from their parents or siblings will sometimes intentionally get pregnant to draw attention to themselves and to feel important (Miller 16). For example, when kids have parents that are constantly working, they sometimes feel lonely and will try to get pregnant so they can feel less alone (Miller 16). Teens that have divorced or separated parents may think that becoming pregnant will give their parents a reason to be together, so they intentionally get pregnant to try and bring their family closer (Miller 16). Teens that live with both of their parents are a lot less likely to become pregnant (“Trends in Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing”). Another time that adolescents will intentionally get pregnant is when they have a lot of brothers and sisters. These teens may feel that they are unimportant because their parents have to divide their time and money between however many children they have (Miller 16). Getting pregnant makes them think that they will get more attention from their parents, so they think it’s a great idea, when they really have no clue what they are

According to the International Journal for Equity in Health, teens that are not enrolled in school are more likely to get pregnant than teens that don’t have a school clinic to educate them on sex-ed. Most students say they get pregnant because of a relationship, they want to feel loved, or just because everyone else is doing it. Most friendships form a pregnancy pact where they all get pregnant so their kids can be raised together and they’ll help each other

Although the teenage pregnancy rates in the United States (US) are currently at its lowest in a period of 40 years, it still tops the list amongst developed countries. According to Kost and Henshaw (2012), approximately 6.78% of young women aged between15–19(nearly 750,000 teenagers) become pregnant every year. Finer and Zolna (2011) stated that 82% of these pregnancies are unintended. Moreover, because the average menarche age has reached about 12 or 13 years old (Potts, 1990), which is an all-time low. BThis is ecause for every ten young women, six engage in sex as teenagers (Martinez et al., 2011), most of these girls are at high risk of conceiving.

Every young girl who is sexually active is at risk for teen pregnancy. Children of teen parents are very likely to become teen parents themselves, this shows higher correlation in places of poverty and low income families. Unplanned teen pregnancy is more than just an unexpected expense than to just the parents, it is an expense to society. In America according to the National campaign, each year 9.4 billion dollars in taxpayer money is spent on teenage childbearing assistance. (2016). These costs include many things for both the child and the parents needs as well. The norms, values and beliefs of families also play a large role in the current social issue. Some families who were teen mothers themselves might be more or less educating to their child based on their experience. Also a large factor is that some religions do not believe in birth control or sex before marriage, therefor the parents of the children do not allow them to take contraceptives and then they accidentally get pregnant.