The Importance Of Teen Pregnancy

“The national Hispanic teenage pregnancy rate is twice that of non-Hispanic whites, and in California, Hispanic adolescents are four times more likely than whites to become parents”. (guttmacher.org, 2004) . This rapid growth in Hispanic population and high rate of teen pregnancies is putting pressure on the educational and health care systems to address the needs of Hispanics. Many young Latina/Hispanic girls face discrimination, poverty, and limited access to healthcare and most importantly cultural challenges, which can place them at a high risk for unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Thus there is a clear need for teenage pregnancy

Since the 1920’s, teen pregnancy among the Latino community has been one of the biggest social problems. Factors like poor or no sex education, negative media portrayal, poor or lower than average educational levels, social inequality and family pressure, such as encouraging womanhood in teen years, contribute to the high percentage of teen pregnancy among Latinas. However, teen pregnancy among Latinas has been decreasing in recent years. Recent programs such as public service announcement and sex education continue to help educate young Latinas and lower the risk of teen pregnancy. Nevertheless, Latinas still represent the group of people with the highest teen pregnancy. One in six Latinas between the ages of 14-20 will have a child at some point, and 30% of all Latino teenage parents have children out of wedlock.

Despite teenage pregnancy rates dropping more than fifty percent in recent years, it is within the Hispanic community that teen pregnancy continues to remain a serious public and social issue. When compared to other ethnic sectors in the United States, Hispanic females continue to hold a higher birth rate than others, being twice more than that of non-Hispanics. In general, there are the many apparent obstacles and consequences when dealing with this situation. Young adult parents must overcome educational, financial, and emotional problems months before their child is born.

New Mexico has made significant progress in reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy but the rate remains high among other states in the country. The National Bureau of Economic Research report suggests that the reason for high level of pregnancy rate among American teenagers is an economic context of income inequality. Teenage pregnancy has many social, health and economic consequences that inhibit women from realizing their full potentials. This challenge imposes economic burden on the state in the form of assistance program for single mothers and lost income due to low level skills. For example, in 2010 teenage mothers’ public and health care assistance programs cost the United States government nearly $10 billion including lost income from lower educational attainment and reduce wage among children born to teenage mothers. Studies show that teenage mothers tend to have less education and are poorer than their peers who are not teenage parents. This implies that teenage pregnancy has intergenerational effects that can be seen in the overall development index in the larger

For many years teen pregnancy has been a national social problem. Views have changed over the years as society has started to adapt to the thought of teen pregnancy. “Growing evidence suggests that pre-existing academic and economic hardships play a role in the continuing struggles of teen mothers. While 85% of young women who delay having their first child until at least twenty or twenty – one obtain a high school diploma or GED, only 63% of mothers who give birth by age seventeen do so” (Crosson- Tower p255)

Over the years, the rate of adolescent pregnancy in the United States has been declining by nearly 40% since the 1990’s. (Brown, 2016) Adolescent pregnancy rates have decreased across the nation for adolescents belonging to any racial and ethnic group. (Brown, 2016) It seems that adolescents are making smarter decisions considering that there is 77% decline in pregnancy risk. Adolescent pregnancy risk is positively correlated with greater use of condoms by 58% and birth control methods by 39%.

Teen pregnancy in the United States is a continuing outbreak. We all may not realize that we are all affected by teenage pregnancy it is not just the girl giving birth. Teen pregnancy is not something that is just shunned upon in the US but something that affects our taxes too. We all sit back and let early pregnancy continue and do nothing to put a stop to it because we are all unsure of why it is happening. Some may argue that Title X is something that should be demolished. Is it because we as society are unsure of what Title X does? It is now that we learn what our government tries to provide us to keep the rate of teen pregnancy down. The United States is one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy worldwide. Today is where our opinions

The reality TV series 16 and pregnant and Teen Mom are two great examples showing the

Although the pregnancy rate in adolescents has declined steadily in the past 10 years, it remains a major public health problem with lasting repercussions for the teenage mothers, their infants and families, and society as a whole. Successful strategies to prevent adolescent pregnancy include community programs to improve social development, responsible sexual behavior education, and improved contraceptive counseling and delivery. Many of these strategies are implemented at the family and community level. The family physician plays a key role by engaging adolescent patients in confidential, open, and nonthreatening discussions of reproductive health, responsible sexual behavior (including condom use to prevent sexually transmitted

The government has worked many ways to drop the rate of teenage pregnancy. In the 1996 the government “the U.S. congress enacted welfare reform legislation” funded a program line no regrets to promote “abstinence-only –until-marriage education” (Teenage) this is to help students in schools see that they should wait to be married to have sex. This program did reduce the rates of teenage pregnancies and until today many of these programs are in use today. There are government programs that have been helpful toward reducing teenage pregnancy, but some of the programs are actual schools that are based on helping the teen parents. As mentioned before “abstinence-only-until-marriage” (Teenage) is referred to today’s program “No Regrets.” This programs have been going on in Melba High School and it’s a program that has been around for a while. This programs teach students to wait until they are married to have sex, but the program also says that if you have sex before you get married you should protect yourself. You can protect yourself by using condoms and many more products out there that can help any teenager become a teenage parent. There aren’t just programs that can help

Teen pregnancy and resulting births present/cause many (related to social pressure, how people act toward each other, etc.) challenges, and as a result require the total (of everything or everyone) efforts of many to provide solutions. Teen pregnancy has been thought about/believed a "social ill" for centuries in the United States and has always challenged moral and (honest and right) thoughts and feelings. The money-based costs of teens giving birth are significant, and there are many forcing/forceful/interesting reasons to reduce the teen pregnancy. Research shows that reducing the number of births to teens and increasing the age at which a women gives birth yields significant cost savings for the (government-run services and their employees). Efforts to reduce teen pregnancy are mainly focused on prevention and sex education is a large part of the effort. Twenty-first century sex education programs focus on two main (success plans/ways of reaching goals), they are: (not doing something) only education and (not doing something) plus education. (not doing something) only teaches that stopping from sexual activity is the only truly effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy. (not doing something) plus education focuses on delaying the beginning of sexual activity and recommends the use of contraception if a teen is sexually active. The success of (not doing something) only education has been (stated that something is much bigger, worse, etc., than it really is) according

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.

"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.

Teen pregnancy is a worldwide controversy that has become a major predicament in the society that we live in today. Each year, almost half of all pregnancies among American women are not intended. The lack of sex education in schools may be the cause of why teen pregnancy is at an uprise. Young women try to find solutions to stop pregnancy, birth control is one form of preventing pregnancy. Other people choose to get an abortion. Sex education classes in high school can also help and inform teens about STD’s and HIV/AIDS. The history of sex education and its controversy began in the U.S. It began as early as 1912. The National Education Association put teachers in training programs for sex education. Some people saw this as unnecessary and thought that this did not have to be taught in school’s. In 1960 to about 1980, sex education programs were described as the Christian Crusade. “Sex education programs in public schools proliferated, in large part due to newly emerging evidence that such programs didn’t promote sex but in fact helped delay sexual activity and reduce teen pregnancy rates” (Pardini,Priscilla). Many teen’s in America get the education they need about sex, but they are not aware of the consequences of having a child at an early age. Teen pregnancy can be prevented by using a condom or birth control. When these products fail, teens are not sure on what to do with the baby. Some solutions

Teen pregnancy is a very controversial social issue and the vast majority of Americans consider the outrageous rate of teen pregnancies a severe issue, certainly a problematic occurrence that is believed to be a moral decline in our country. Teenagers are physiologically capable of reproducing but not emotionally or financially prepared to be parents at such a tender age. Through various research studies a plethora of determinants has pin pointed teens unprecedented pregnancies. One cause of this problem is the apparent indication of social separation or disadvantage. Within this issue you would find poverty, single parent households, educational disadvantages on the parents behalf, a lack family/parental support, and unemployment. A child’s educational performance, inappropriate sexual acts, and inferior apprehensions about their futures play a vital role in teen pregnancies as well. Amongst the listed disadvantages the three that take precedent are lacks of family communication, sexual abuse, and poverty. Furthermore, teen mothers do not fit the ideal ideology of the normative scheduling of motherhood, therefore, ultimately resulting in negative consequences for them and society. What needs to be understood is, as to why the numbers of teens are becoming parents at such a vernal age.