Teenage Pregnancy in America - Assignment Example

Topic - Teenage Pregnancy Teenage pregnancy is a common social evil existing in America, where girls of 14 or 15 years of age get pregnant in an unplanned manner. Teenage pregnancy is a matter of interest because it can pose risk to the health of the baby and mother simultaneously. Teenage pregnancy also has the capability to steal the future from the young girls. It is mostly the teenage girls who are school going, indulge in early sex and become pregnant at a young age. It is the lack of education and less control from parents mostly lead to teenage pregnancy among young girls. In America it is African American girls who are often taking the burden of teenage pregnancy. The idea of teenage pregnancy among young girls should be studied among poor population in America. Generally the parents in poor population are less educated and this lead to poor communication among children and parents. A mother in every family has the responsibility and accountability for the life of a teenage daughter. If a young girl in her prime years indulges in sex, the blame can be directly put on mothers of a family. According to (Dean)” From the conscious perspective of women who had become mothers as adolescents, adolescent pregnancies were unwanted”. This practice of teenage pregnancy leads to the destruction of the young population of girls in the America. So in order to eradicate this social evil effort should be made from educational institution and home at the right time .Generally, young girls and boys are given more freedom is U.S which leads to more chaos in their life. Reason for selecting the subject The teenage pregnancy is a social evil which is eating into our society since decades. When we look at the subject of teenage pregnancy, we cannot find one good aspect about it. This is mainly due to the complication surrounded by it psychologically and physiologically. One of the primary negative aspects of teenage pregnancy is that, it poses risk to the health of the baby and the mother. When a teenage girl becomes pregnant, she does not know the pros and cons of early sex life and teenage pregnancy. Moreover she does not understand the process of pregnancy well. When she gives birth to a baby she would not have attained her maturity, which is a matter of grave concern from all dimensions to the health of baby and mother. A teenage girl at her age is practically supposed to attend schools and get education for her bright future. Here, instead of brightening her future, she indulge in early sex and become a mother which becomes a social issue. According to (Stacey, 2012) “Sadly, our culture tends to glamorize teen pregnancy; very often, teens do not realize the full implications of what it is like to be a child raising a child”.Above all this a teenage pregnant girl becomes a difficulty for the parents and society as well. The parents have certain hopes and dreams on their children, but when a teenage girl becomes pregnant it pose as a challenge for family, community and society. Literature Review Here, the literature review is being done to understand the depth of teenage pregnancy as a social problem. As teenage pregnancy is an issue causing concern to the welfare of the society and teenage population a brief literature review is done on this subject. Stanger-Hall KF, Hall DW (2011) Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S. PLoS ONE 6(10): e24658. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024658 Stanger hall and David hall have attempted to study the issue of teen pregnancy by extracting information from the Education Commissions of the states. This revealed that only 38 educations states have programs regarding abstinence from sex.They also studied the abstinence provisions and levels of abstinence in the state laws and policies. Both the authors published the statistics of sex educational programs in various states of America in order to give a good insight to the concern of government in teenage pregnancy issue. According to (Hall&Hall)“States without sex education laws may nevertheless have policies regarding sex and/or HIV/STD education”. The authors in the journal have depicted the data on teen pregnancy early birth and abortion rates for the 48 states. As per (Brooks) “There is some good news about teenage pregnancy. The number of teenage pregnancies has dropped to the lowest rate since 1991. The most recent statistics were compiled from 2009”.This is a good attempt by authors to give a descriptive idea into the minds of the readers. Moreover, other factors like socio-economics, educational attainment, ethnic composition, medicaid waivers for family planning are considered by the authors to picturize the subject matter more vividly. But sometimes it can be felt that there is an overcrowding of information which can confuse the readers. However, the statistical graphs and dates make the journal extremely professional. Koutelekos, I. Teenage Pregnancy. Health Science Journal, 1(2). Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://ww w.hsj.gr/v olume1/issue2/issue02_rev02.pdf Here in the journal called “Teenage Pregnancy” by Koutelekos , the emphasis is on the critical social issue teenage pregnancy, which is causing problems for the advancement of the society in the right direction. The author here while referring to the statistics, mentions about the seriousness of social issue of teenage pregnancy as a social and medical problem. Accoring to the (Spencer) “Health concerns have focused on the medical risks to the young mother and her infant. Teenage women have been reported at increased risk of pregnancy complications”. Here the author has introduced the article by mentioning the statistic of teenage pregnancy in various countries. The author here mentions that various factors like contraception, multiple sexual partners, substance abuse are the issues relevant to early sex life of teenagers around the age of 15-16.The author has been successful in presenting the strategy of educational programs with related to early sex and teen pregnancy. (Koutelekos) “The aim of a strategy is to develop a wide range of prevention programs and support services over a period of ten years”. The author also points out that providing information about contraceptives to young people can assure decrease in teenage pregnancy in coming days. Conclusion Teenage pregnancy is a matter of grave concern to the population of United States and other developed countries. This matter is of serious issue as it has the potentiality of deteriorating the very basic foundation of the society. Young people are the foundation of a society and if they are misled, there is a high chance for the nation to fall under darkness and ignorance. According to (CDC) “In 2010, a total of 367,752 infants were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a live birth rate of 34.3 per 1,000 women in this age group”. This statistics shows that the future of American teenage girls is in danger zone. It also warns us that, necessary action needs to be taken by the government, in order to avoid degradation among teenage girls. The best thing government can do is to introduce educational and health programs which explain to the young girls about the negative side of early sex. As per (Domenico,2007)“While slightly decreasing in rates in recent years, adolescent pregnancy continues to be prevalent in the United States, with nearly one million teenage females becoming pregnant each year”. The young girls should be taught through parents and educational institute about the pros and cons of teenage sex and early pregnancy. One of the major risks of teenage pregnancy is that it poses health risk to the health of the baby as well as the young mother. Hence, the government has the responsibility of implementing teen pregnancy prevention programs in order to safeguard the future and health of teenage girls. Bibliography Brook, O. (2011, April 6). Teen Pregnancy Lowest in 20 Years. Digital Journal. Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/article/305398 CDC, . (2012, August 7). Teen Pregnancy. In cdc.gov. Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy Dean, A. L. (1997). Teenage Pregnancy: The Interaction of Psyche and Culture (p. 1). Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press,Inc Domenico, D. M. (2007). Adolescent Pregnancy in America: Causes and Responses. The Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education, 30(1). Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://specialpopulations.org/Vol%2030-1%20Chapters/JVSNEVol30-1_Fall07_Domenico.pdf Hall, K. F., & Hall, D. W. Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S. PLOS One. Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3A doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0024658 Koutelekos, I. Teenage Pregnancy. Health Science Journal, 1(2). Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://ww w.hsj.gr/v olume1/issue2/issue02_rev02.pdf Stacey, D. (2012). Parents - Talk About Sex AND Teen Pregnancy. In contraception.about.com. Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://contraception.about.com/od/talking aboutbirthcontrol /qt/Pa rents-Talk-About-Sex-And-Teen-Pregnancy.htm Spencer, N. (2001). The social patterning of teenage pregnancy. Journal od Epidemiol Community Health, 55(1). Retrieved August 15, 2012, from http://jech.bmj.com/ content/ 55/1/5.full Read More