Teen pregnancy has become a high profile concern in this generation. Teenage pregnancy leads to teenage parenthood. Teenagers are minors and not proficient for bearing child mentally, physically and financially. Teen pregnancy is a grave penalty for males and females and causes unfinished schooling, future financial problems and health risks for both mother and child. Children of teen parents are at risk of low birth weight, slow cognitive development and behavioral problems on the offspring and the teen parents themselves. Teen pregnancy can have drastic effects on adolescents and the babies.
Causes of Teen Pregnancy There are numerous causes as to why teenagers in this generation tend to get pregnant earlier than expected.
Lack of Good Education
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Adolescent moms are at risk due to depression that highly affects their health. The cold stares and scathing comments of people make adolescent moms anxious, leading to depression. Unwanted pregnancy causes emotional crisis to a pregnant teen and may result to abortion and suicide attempt. In consequence, adolescents are prone to have mental issues and may need a counselling and guidance concerning abortion or suicide attempt. Teen pregnancy is unpleasant for the baby’s psychological health. A baby is prone to having difficulties in acquiring cognitive and language skills for the reason that the baby is born to an adolescent mother. In addition, the baby is less likely to develop his/her emotional and social skills like self-control and self-confidence (The Urban Child Institute, 2017). Teen mothers tend not to give their baby their complete attention it needs. The babies are also prone to be neglected and abused by their adolescent mothers. Due to mothers’ less attention to their child, the child’s disobedience might be intolerable, and pessimistic parenting method towards the child is prone to hurt the child’s
Summary: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy wrote the article called, “Teen Pregnancy Is a Serious Problem,” stating that teen pregnancy is an issue in todays’ world. There are many negative effects of being a teen mom. In the United States, teen pregnancy is seen as being “ok” because it is normal in today’s world. Adolescents don't know how quickly a pregnancy can happen. When they asked the girls why they became pregnant they said, “It just kinda happened.” Also, many teen moms have more than one child before the age 24. A recent study
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
Teen pregnancies can change their lives for the worse because teen parents are “less likely to complete high school, less likely to attend college, more likely to have large families, and more likely to be a single parent” (Kirby 144). When a teen becomes pregnant, it not only changes their life, but also the life of their unborn baby. Babies who are born with adolescents as parents have a higher probability to “have less supportive and stimulating home environments, lower cognitive development, worse educational outcomes, higher rates of behavior problems, higher rates of incarceration, and higher rate of adolescent childbearing themselves” (Kirby 144). Majority of adolescent are still growing and developing themselves, therefore it is more of a challenge to provide a baby with the not only an environment that sets them up for success, but also having the finical resource to support a child. This leaves tax payer to pick up the billion, costing them 9 billion dollars annually (Kirby). Having a baby as a teenage leaves themselves and their child susceptible to many harmful effects that can be prevented if they chose to abstain from sex and wait to have a child when there are finical and physically
Unintentional or unplanned pregnancies are a major health concern associated with increased risks of detrimental behaviors, abortions and negative social and birth outcomes (Feldman, 2012). While the rates of pregnancy and childbirth among adolescents under the age of 20 in the United States have been falling since 1990 it is not expected to disappear entirely and remains a national problem (Moeller, 2007). Pregnancy in adolescence have been associated with a variety of poor maternal and infant outcomes. Health risks to teens and their infants include low birth weight, risk of prematurity, developmental delays, and poor prenatal weight gain. The antenatal and postpartum social risks include depression, substance abuse, homelessness, child maltreatment, reliance on public assistance, lack of education, and domestic abuse (Bensussen-Walls & Saewyc, 2001).
Teen pregnancy and how it has become so common in our society is a difficult topic to dissect. It is a concerning issue which is faced with plenty of controversy and criticism from various groups that make up our society. To understand the ever evolving complexity in this matter, one must educate themselves on how the roles of women and men have changed in our society over many decades, if not centuries. There are many areas to investigate about adolescent pregnancy and how it has developed into a global issue. Adolescent pregnancy has challenged this nation for many years. This study will examine how this issue creates complications that severely impacts various aspects of our society and to also understand that our society has
Teen pregnancy has been an ongoing social issue in the United States for many of years. Although the rate of teen pregnancy has decreased since the 90s, the United States is still the highest among industrialized nations. The US ranks at one and a half times higher than Great Britain, three times higher than Canada, seven times higher than Denmark and Sweden, and eight times higher than Japan (Azar 1). Society considers teenage pregnancies a problem because they believe teenagers are not emotionally and financially ready to raise their children even though they are physiologically capable of producing offspring. Bearing a child at a young age has a negative effect on both the mother and child mental state, their physical being and overall in life.
Teen Pregnancy has become a constant form of societal acceptance. Amongst the ages of 15-19 three quarters out of a million of them ended up pregnant, while only a few of them had planned it. Because of hit television shows like 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, Teen Mom 2, and Teen Mom 3, media has made it acceptable for teens to attempt motherhood. In this case, teens are not taking in account the associated health risk and related issues like abortion, lack of care, and mental trauma. The children of teen mothers consequently suffer from the possibility of infant death, being born premature and with low birth weight, the possibility of blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental retardation, mental illness, and cerebral palsy. These consequences are due to the fact that these girls have not fully developed themselves and will begin a cycle of teenage pregnancy. Therefore, teenage pregnancy is becoming a steady trend that many young girls seem to reluctantly fall into due to the negative influence of society.
Teen pregnancy……what comes in mind when you hear the words “Teen Pregnancy”? Well, teen pregnancy are young female girls that become pregnant under the age of 20. A female can become pregnant from having sexual intercourse and after she have started to ovulate. Young female girls will become pregnant without even thinking about the consequences and the type of environment the baby will be in. Not because the young mother is poor or rich, but because they’re not ready to take care of another human being. Not to mention, pregnant teens are young themselves, so their also growing. There are plenty of problems that are the cause of teen pregnancy, and many of those problems can be solved.
It has been said that teens across the world have not been receiving enough sex education. This has led to many issues with teens becoming pregnant, which most of the time is unanticipated. Teenage pregnancy has been a social problem throughout the world for a number of decades now. Many studies have been completed in several countries that pertain to the amount of teens and the types of teens who are becoming pregnant. Rates among teens had been declining for some time, but are starting to take a turn and increase. This is still a significant social problem, though some people do not perceive it like it is.
Teen pregnancy in the United States is still an epidemic. The number of babies delivered by teen pregnancies in 2014 was 249,078. That is 24% per 1,000 women ages 15-19. This number has declined 57% since 1991 but is still an issue in United States today. Not only are these teenagers uneducated they are also not financially prepared to take on the task of raising a child. Teen pregnancy is usually unplanned and unexpected and cost approximately $28 billion a year in tax dollars, per The Office of Adolescent Health. Let us take a deeper look at some of the contributors to teen pregnancy and how it affects communities.
Each year, more than a half-million U.S. girls in their teens or younger become pregnant. Teenage pregnancy is an important issue for several reasons. For example, there are health risks for the baby and the children born to teenage mothers are more likely to suffer health, social, and emotional problems than children born to older mothers. Teenage mothers are less likely to gain adequate weight during their pregnancy, leading to low birth weight. Low birth weight is associated with several infant and childhood disorders and a higher rate of infant mortality. Babies with low birth weight are more likely to to have organs that are not fully developed, which can result in complications such as, bleeding in the brain, respiratory distress syndrome, and intestinal problems. Many people in society do not realize the complications a teenage mother and her baby can endure. Preventing teenage pregnancy can be a challenge, but there are solutions to help reduce the causes of teenage pregnancy around the United States. Some causes of teenage pregnancy in society are, lack of safe sex education, teenage drinking, and peer pressure. If many more people were aware of the causes of teenage pregnancy, they would be able to help provide solutions to help reduce the problem. The solutions to teenage pregnancy could also help impact and reduce other societal ills, such as, poverty, crime rates, and high school dropout rates.
When you think about teen pregnancy, how would you feel if it were you? In today’s generation, teen pregnancy has slowly began to decrease. Teen pregnancy is defined as an adolescent (age 13-19) becoming pregnant. Teen pregnancy not only affects the life of the mother and child, but moreover, affects the lives of the people around them. These people may even be strangers, like taxpayers. Teen pregnancy may be caused by peer pressure, sexual abuse, low socioeconomic status, and even social media. The effects are much more obvious. Typically, “Parenting teens tend to drop out of school and often cannot take advantage of opportunities for schooling or jobs (when they do come along) because very often they are carrying the responsibilities of child rearing without the necessary support and skills to even do that fully” (Fonda, 19). There are several other causes, effects, and possible solutions to this problem. These serious consequences are in need of a more effective solution.
"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.
Teenage pregnancy is a growing problem today even though statistically over the history it has improved the U.S. still has the highest teen pregnancy rate. These issues have a spiraling effect with the teenage parents or the mother. Financial, academic, and childcare for a teenage parent can be stressful and demanding more so with a teenager. Not only will the child of the teenager be affected but the parent and the community will have adverse effect.
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.