The Problem Of Teen Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy has become a problem over the past decade. This issue can be looked at using sociological imagination. C. Write Mills explaing the idea of sociological imagination as the ability to see the connection between personal experiences and larger society. On a personal level, teens with children experience many difficulties juggling the responsibilities of parenting, school, work, and everything else. The teenage years can be very complicated, but adding a child to the mix can really impact young men and women’s relationships, emotions, and future. Looking at this problem on a public level, society has a huge role in preventing teen pregnancies. Also, the media plays a large role in influencing teenagers to engage in sexual activities.Many

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)

An ongoing epidemic in the United Sates is teen pregnancy. In America, our society is run down by many problems. Most are caused by the older generation, but this problem has risen with the younger generation around the age of 15-19. The peak of the teen pregnancy trend started in 1990 when 60 teen girls out of 1,000 had a teen birth ("About Teen Pregnancy.”). For every 1,000 females in 2013, on average only 27 out of the 1,000 had gone through teen birth ("About Teen Pregnancy.”). Over the years, it seems that the trend is winding down and that less and less teens appear to becoming pregnant. In 2013, the teen pregnancy rate decreased by 10% since 2012 and 57% 1990 ("Teen Birth Rate | The National Campaign.”).

I know there are a lot of oppositions on choosing adoption as opposed to abortion, like it’s a women’s body, she should be able to do whatever she wants with it, but she is carrying another human being, who has its own heartbeat, DNA, fingerprints, and other things. Adoption is a wonderful option, it gives people who are longing to be parents that ability and people who are not ready to be parents can give the babies a better life with people who will truly love them and take care of them. If a woman gets pregnant while in school and she puts the baby up for adoption, she is more likely to finish school and get a degree so that when she reunites with her birthchild she will be able to show them that she chose adoption to better the child’s life and her

For the women who have already made the decision between adoption and abortion have taken a survey, and some believe that they made the best decision they could for the child because they weren’t ready mentally or financially to take care of a child. Statistically most unplanned pregnancies are in teens and college students and they feel that they won’t be able to pursue the same goals they had before they got pregnant. Women who feel this way also feel that if they were to pursue the pregnancy they would be miss out being a young adult like going to college parties and having to drop out of college because they cannot balance

Teen pregnancy has decreased a total of 8 percent. “ in 2015 a total of 229,715 babies were born to women 15-19”(Reproductive Health:Teen Pregnancy). According to Reproductive Health:Teen Pregnancy the birth of babies dropped from 41 babies to 21 babies, births dropped per 1,000 females aged 15-19 years. Hispanic teens have more than twice the percent of teen pregnancy than white teens, black teens have a twice the percent than all the other races besides hispanic teens

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

According to the CDC (2017), the teen pregnancy rate in the United States is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations. In addition, childbearing adolescents are less likely to finish high school, more likely to rely on public assistance, more likely to be poor as adults, and more likely to have children similarly affected, which consequentially affects the parents themselves, their children, and society (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health [USHHS/OAH], 2014). Alarming statistics and factual information like this clearly indicate that there is a serious issue for the nation to address. Therefore, an excellent point that was mentioned, and one that I would like to expand upon is

Most people say that your teenage years are supposed to be the best years of your life; Finding your place in this world, mostly carefree (with the exceptions of homework and parents), and most of all, having the least amount of responsibilities you will have before you reach adulthood. Sadly, some teens do not get to live this luxury. Many girls in this generation become mothers while they are still considered children. There are approximately 1.3 million homeless teens living in the United States right now. Out of the 1.3 million, 6-22% are pregnant girls (Finzel, 2016). If you do the math, that is nearly 78,000-286,000 pregnant girls who are homeless right now. I chose to write about this topic because I have witnessed many friends, and community members become pregnant at a young age. With government funded programs that help teen mothers learn safe sex methods, and family counseling for distressed mothers and teens, the rate of teen pregnancy would be reduced.

The social problem I have chosen to write about is teen pregnancy. My family has experienced teen pregnancy with my cousins as well as myself. With all my cousins who became teenage mothers they all failed to either graduate from high school or once they did graduate or earn their GED’s they failed to go to college. Every single one them was also on welfare. In my particular situation I was not on welfare and did complete high school on time, although I did attend college for only one semester, I did not complete obtaining a degree. I am currently trying to complete my degree however it has taken me to the age of 33 to successfully go back.

Today woman has made great strides toward establishing her equality and worth in the eyes of her male counterpart. But although she may have broken many barriers and achieved great accomplishments, there are still some deep rooted issues which continue to affect her in a most insidious manner. One of the issues that women face in the United States is teen pregnancy which is still an enormous problem that needs to be addressed. The rates are still higher than they were only a decade ago. Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager 's life. Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, and become mothers at very early age. College is almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most teenage moms don 't achieve. Young girls having babies isn 't new, as a matter of fact, teenage parenthood was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their babies. Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as young as twelve. Fathers contribute little or nothing to the care of the baby; therefore it 's even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the baby 's needs come before her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the full time task of raising a baby. Her world

Red and blue lights are flashing and the noise of the ambulance impels everyone to a point where they have to look outside and observe the situation, as if a mystical force was compelling them. From what they can see, the paramedic is holding a tiny hand telling her to hold on. As the stretcher rolls by, the onlookers notice a huge lump, or ball as a few may say, under the pallid cotton covers. What they also take note of is that the pregnant woman is not a woman at all, but in fact a teenager. As some are astounded that a child is being born from a child, others possibly will look at it as a “blessing in disguise.” The issue of teenage pregnancy is affecting our society in innumerable ways and has become one of our top social issues of all time. “The latest estimates show that approximately 1 million teens become pregnant every year” (East, Felice, and Associates 1). With this high number of teenage pregnancy, it is no wonder that many authors try to exemplify this common subject matter. Katrina L. Burchett, author of Choices, accurately and effectively depicts teenage pregnancy among female adolescents living with domestic issues.

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 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.