Teen Pregnancy Essay

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A Look at Teen Pregnancy

Introduction

Teen pregnancy is a global issue that affects girls (ages 13-19) in every culture and nation around the world. 33% of American teenage girls will become pregnant before they reach their 20s, which equates to approximately 745,000 teen pregnancies each year. Because these teens are not considered to be adults, they bring a certain amount of stress and burden to society whenever they become pregnant. Pregnancy centers, help centers, and government subsidies go into addressing the issue, which means the socio-economic cost of teen pregnancy is quite high (Do?an-Ate? & Carrión-Basham, 2007). Why does the problem continue to exist? There are numerous theories for why teen pregnancy has reached epidemic proportions. Some suggest it is cultural and point to Latino culture as a reason Latinas are at such high risk for teen pregnancy (Do?an-Ate? & Carrión-Basham, 2007). Others point to father absence (Ellis et al., 2003), sexual abuse in childhood (Boyer & Fine, 1992), and promiscuity and race as factors (Vundule, Maforah, Jewkes & Jordan, 2001). This paper will provide an overview of the topic, provide a brief literature review on the risk and possible protective factors for preventing teen pregnancy, and describe a proposal for a creative intervention that will help prevent teen pregnancy in the future.

Overview

Teen pregnancy is a major issue because it is so widespread, and because teen girls who become pregnant are more likely than adult women to suffer from a lack of prenatal care and pregnancy complications (Do?an-Ate? & Carrión-Basham, 2007). Many teens who become young mothers never complete their education and it is much harder for them to obtain a college degree, which means it is also harder for them to obtain a high-paying job in the labor market (Vundule et al., 2001). For the children of teen mothers, it is just as bad: they are more likely to suffer from childhood neglect or abuse because their parents are basically still adolescents and do not know how to act like mature adults and care for a baby when they are still essentially children themselves (Boyer & Fine, 1992). Teen mothers are also to suffer from emotional and mental stress, just as their children are more likely to face cognitive and developmental risks because of the unstable nature of their situation when they are born into the world: their family is likely to suffer from intense socio-economic pressures as the single mother attempts to make ends meet while simultaneously raising a child on her own (Do?an-Ate? & Carrión-Basham, 2007).

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Risk Factors

There are several risk factors for teen mothers. Both large households and single parent families have been found to be risk factors by researchers (Do?an-Ate? & Carrión-Basham, 2007; Vundule et al., 2001). The absence of the father in the girl’s life growing up is another major risk factor, as the father is believed to provide a stabilizing influence in a girl’s life and to give her an idea of what sort of qualities to look for in a potential mate (Vundule et al., 2001). Of course it is not a guarantee that just because the father is part of the family life of a girl as she grows that the girl will not be another teen pregnancy statistic, but not having a father in the picture is certainly a risk factor and a variable that is consistently found among cases of teen pregnancy in the U.S. (Ellis et al., 2003).

Another risk factor is being a foster child or adopted child. A girl who is removed from her biological parents are placed in foster care runs a higher risk of teen pregnancy than a girl who is raise by her biological parents (Vundule et al., 2001). Part of the reason for this is that when biological parents are absent or removed from care it is an indication of an unstable environment and children need stability growing up in order to navigate all the developmental conflicts and issues that naturally arise over the years. Without a family there to help guide them and support them, girls can feel adrift and thus turn to the first young man who shows them any kind of affection, even if it is sexual in nature and of a manner that the girl is not yet mature enough to handle.

Girls who are the daughters of teen mothers themselves are more at risk….....

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