Essay on Teenage Pregnancy

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Violence And Children
If you turn on the television at around seven-o clock at night, you will see plenty of violent shows. This violence on television affects the behavior of children, causing their play to become more aggressive. American parents do not exercise enough control over their child's television viewing h

Violence In America
In the ideal America, our celebrated, ethnically diverse populous would overlook and not even recognize such socially developed stigmas such as race, sex, color, and religion. The ideal American would not even look at another and classify that person as black, white, Asian, Indian, Mexican, Irish

Although the rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States has declined greatly

within the past few years, it is still an enormous problem that needs to be

addressed. These rates are still higher in the 1990's than they were only a

decade ago. The United State's teenage birthrate exceeds that of most other

industrialized nations, even though American teenagers are no more sexually

active than teenagers are in Canada or Europe. (Gormly 348) Recent statistics

concerning the teen birthrates are alarming. About 560,000 teenage girls give

birth each year. Almost one-sixth of all births in the United States are to

teenage women are to teenage women. Eight in ten of these births resulted from

unintended pregnancies. (Gormly 347) By the age of eighteen, one out of four

teenage girls will have become pregnant. (Newman 679) Although the onset of

pregnancy may occur in any teenager, some teens are at higher risk for unplanned

pregnancy than others. Teenagers who become sexually active at an earlier age

are at a greater risk primarily because young teenagers are less likely to use

birthcontrol. African-American and Hispanic teenagers are twice as likely to

give birth as are white teenagers. Whites are more likely to have abortions.

Teenagers who come from poor neighborhoods and attend segregated schools are at

a high risk for pregnancy. Also, teenagers who are doing poorly in school and

have few plans for the future are more likely to become parents than those who

are doing well and have high educationsl and occupational expectations. Although

the rate of teenage pregnancy is higher among low- income African-Americans and

Hispanics, especially those in inner city ghettoes, the number of births to

teenagers is highest among white, nonpoor young women who live in small cities

and towns. (Calhoun 309) In addition to the question of which teenagers become

pregnant, interest is shown in the social consequences of early parenthood.

Adolescent parents (mostly mothers) may find that they have a "lost or

limited opportunity for education." (Johnson 4) The higher a woman's level

of education, the more likely she is to postpone marriage and childbearing.

Adolescents with little schooling are often twice as likely as those with more

education to have a baby bafore their twentieth birthday. Some 58% of young

women in the United States who receive less than a high school education give

birth by the time they are twenty years old, compared with 13% of young women

who complete at least twelve years of schooling. (Tunick 11) Teens who become

pregnant during high school are more likely to drop out. (Calhoun 310) A teen

mother leaves school because she cannot manage the task of caring for a baby and

studying, and a teen father usually chooses a job over school so that he can pay

bills and provide for his child. (Johnson 4) Teen mothers usually have fewer

resources than older mothers because they have had less time to gather savings

or build up their "productivity" through work experience, education,

or training. (Planned Parenthood 1) Because of this, teen mothers are generally

poor and are dependent on government support. (Newman 679) The welfare system is

usually the only support a teen parent will receive. Welfare benefits are higher

for families with absent fathers or dependent children. (Calhoun 309) In some

cases, teen mothers may also receive help like Medicaid, Food Stamps, and

"Aid to Families with Dependent Children" (AFDC). (Newman 679) Besides

educational and financial problems, teenage mothers may face a great deal of

emotional strain and may become very stressed. Teen mothers may have limited

social contacts and friendships because they do not have time for anything other

than their baby. Lack of a social life and time for herself may cause the

teenage mother to become depressed or have severe mental anxiety. (Johnson 5)

Depression may become worse for a teenage mother because she usually does not

know much about child development or about how to care for their children.

Children who are born to teenage mothers usually suffer from poor parenting. (Berk

188) Also, children of teenage parents start being sexually active before their

peers and they are more likely to become teenage parents themselves. These

children may also suffer from financial difficulties similar to that of their

parents. "Children whose mothers are age seventeen or younger are three

times as likely as their peers to be poor, and are likely to stay poor for a

longer period of time." (Calhoun 311) The children born to teenage mothers

sometimes score lower on development tests than the children of older mothers.

It seems that "rather than declining over time, educational deficits

increase in severity and the children show lower academic achievement, higher

drop out rates, and are more likely to be held back in school." (Calhoun

310) Teenage pregnancy comes with not only a child, but also many consequences.

Teen mothers face greater health risks than older mothers, such as anemia,

pregnancy induced hypertension, toxemia, premature delivery, cervical trauma,

and even death. Many of these health risks are due to inadequate prenatal care

and support, rather than physical immaturity. The teenage mother is more likely

to be undernourished and suffer premature and prolonged labor. (Calhoun 311) The

death rate from pregnancy complications are much higher among girls who give

birth under age fifteen. (Gormly 347) Poor eating habits, smoking, alcohol and

drugs increase the risk of having...

Berk, Laura E. Child Development. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997.

Calhoun, C. et al. Sociology. New York: Glencoe-McGraw-Hill, 1995. Donovan,

Patricia. "Falling Teen Pregnancy, Birthrates: What's Behind the

Declines?" The Guttmacher Report. 1.5 (Oct. 1998); 31-34. Gormly, Anne V.

Lifespan Human Development. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1997. Johnson,

Sherry. Teen Pregnancy: Too Much, Too Soon. Waco, TX: Health Edco., 1995.

Newman, Philip R. and Barbara M. Newman. Childhood and Adolescence. Pacific

Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 1997. Planned Parenthood Federation of

America. "Pregnancy and Childbearing Among U.S. Teens." Online.

Internet. 29 Mar. 1999. Available http://plannedparenthood.org/Library/teen-pregnancy/childbearing.htm

Tunick, Barbara. "Issues in Brief: Risks and Realities of Early

Childbearing Worldwide." The Guttmacher Report. (Feb. 1997); 10-14.