The Factors Of Teenage Pregnancy

In recent years, teenage pregnancy has been labeled a major issue amongst teens that it can be known as an “Epidemic.” Is teenage pregnancy directly responsible for a host of society’s ills? Increasing teenage pregnancy rate translates directly into increasing rates of “school failure,” early behavioral problems, drug abuse, child abuse, depression, and crimes. Many social problems can be directly attributed to the poor choices of teenage girls.

Researchers have found a wide range of outcomes in terms of schooling as a result of giving birth as a teenagers. While some scholars argue that adolescent pregnancies have a significant negative impact on education, at times even reporting that teen mothers receive up to three years of less schooling than their childless counterparts, an overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that early childbearing has no substantial impact on educational attainment, negative effects being minimal and often

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.

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

The scourge of teen pregnancy in the United States is an ongoing social disorder that is inflicting painful costs on the polity. According to (Card, J.J., 1999), unbridled teen pregnancy results in a vicious cycle of frustrations, abuse, neglect and dependency. Compared to the average in the population, teen mothers are more probable to drop out of high school, be caught in a web of repeat pregnancies, and more probable to end up at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Danawi, H. et al, (2016) identified teen pregnancy in the United States as alarmingly greater than rates seen in other developed economies such as Europe and in Canada. According to Kearney & Levine (2012), U.S. female teens are twice as likely as Canadian teens to end up with unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, and about ten times as probable as Swiss teenagers. Their work also identified that disparity in teenage pregnancy rate exist across states in the United States, based on location, economic, racial and ethnic group. It noted that female teens in Mississippi are in greater danger of teen pregnancy than those living in New Hampshire, and according to Lewis T. (2014); District of Columbia has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the United States.

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

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

“Teenage childbearing is a symptom, not a cause, of poverty and economic immobility,” said Phillip B. Levine, an economist at Wellesley College, in an interview (Rich). Adolescents are becoming pregnant more often because they have a low economic status and disadvantages to those who are wealthy. In the United States, 34 percent of women aged 20-24 who have not received a high school diploma gave birth this year (Singh, et al.). Teenagers who have a low economic status are more susceptible to becoming pregnant at a young age because of less fortunate families, socioeconomic conditions, and cyclical behavior.

Adolescent parenthood has been an issue of public concern for many years. Adolescent parenthood has been the subject of numerous articles, public health reports, and public debate. So what makes adolescent parenthood such a popular topic of discussion and a reoccurring social problem? How does an adolescent parent relate to such public issues as education, poverty, and family? Researchers conduct literature reviews and original research in an effort to find a resolution to decrease adolescent pregnancy/parenthood and methods to improve the quality of life for adolescent parents. Although these articles share many themes and patterns, often their reason for conducting the research, methods, conclusion, and belief regarding adolescent pregnancy and parenthood differ.

Teenage pregnancy falls under a vulnerable population because it differs from the majority of the population that is generally worked with in the medical-surgery unit. Pregnant teens are cared for in the obstetrics unit but even in that unit they are still considered the vulnerable population because there are many health issues that occur more often in mothers of young age. People who get pregnant at a young age are at risk for health conditions such as placenta previa, pregnancy-induced hypertension, premature delivery, anemia, and toxemia (Adolescent pregnancy, n.d.). Babies born to teenage mothers are at risk for intrauterine growth restriction, prematurity, and intrauterine growth restriction. This population was chosen to gather knowledge about the situations that exist surrounding this vulnerable population. May is national teen pregnancy prevention month.

Previous research has suggested that an early transition to parenthood is associated with wide-ranging negative outcomes for the new mother and her baby. Some of the fallouts discussed are related to fewer life opportunities for teenage mothers, compared to later adulthood mothers, higher rates of psychosocial disadvantage, including leaving school early and decreased connectedness with peers, educational underachievement, prolonged welfare dependence, decreased marital opportunities, punitive parenting, maternal depression, and greater exposure to partner violence (Bardone, Moffitt, Dickson, & Silva, 1996; Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale, 1995; Coletta, 1983; Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987; Klepinger, Lundberg, & Plotnick, 1995; Woodward & Fergusson, in press). On the other side of the dyad, children born to teenage mothers have been shown to be at an increased risk for a range of unfavorable

Teenage pregnancies bring many problems to young mothers. When a young person between the ages of fifteen or seventeen has a baby, this person is most likely not mature enough to handle a child. As I have seen, young mothers feel the need to go out and be with friends instead of sitting at home with a crying child. Young mothers will also most likely be less educated than someone who has a baby at 25 years old. Unintended pregnancy may cause girls to drop out of high schools. Some girls may have a chance of going to college after the baby is grown up, but a lot of women may never get another chance of getting valuable education. Not attending a college or a university can mean not attaining a degree which may be necessary for a job. Teenagers are also more likely to use drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. These substances are very dangerous to a child’s life and can lead to several emotional and physical disabilities later in life when the baby is born. “In addition to disruptive psychosocial consequences, adverse biological effects of early childbearing on obstetric course and infant outcome have been reported” (Scott 195).

The socioeconomic factor has been affecting the education of the people directly and hence facilitating the cases of teenage pregnancy. It is this aspect that the pregnant teenagers who are the parents have been more

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.