Teen Pregnancy in the United States Essays

When we look at influences, it is hard to say what precisely is the main pressure of teen pregnancies in the United States is. Each year, almost 750,000 teenage women, in the United States of America, ages 15 to 19 become pregnant (U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics, 2006). Worldwide, rates of

One community member, Jay Coffelt, is a long-term resident of Kansas City in Jackson County, Missouri. Jay is passionate about researching and awareness of issues like teen pregnancy at the county, state, and national levels. Although not directly involved as a parent of a pregnant teen and not being a teen himself, Mr. Coffelt’s community passion is beneficial in providing insight to the level of community empowerment present in Jackson County, Missouri with regards to a major health issue like teen pregnancy. From a community members’ perspective, it was noted that there seems to be a lack of resources available to pregnant teens and their families as well as a lack of ways community members can be involved in the issue. When asked about his ability to participate in decision making regarding teen pregnancy or to attend forums discussing teen pregnancy, Mr. Coffelt was unsure if those resources were available to him. Another important finding from Mr. Coffelt’s interview was the frequent comparisons he made to an adjacent county in Kansas. Having lived in both counties, Mr. Coffelt was able to recall more available resources, awareness, and guidance for teen health and community members in the adjacent Kansas county compared to Jackson County in Missouri. Through the interview, it was determined that Mr. Coffelt felt an increased level of empowerment. According to Clark, “...empowered individuals gain new skills and power to influence others and to affect the outcomes of

It has been shown that there is a positive correlation between family planning and a woman’s level of schooling and lower fertility rates (Joshi & Schultz, 2013, p.161). Hypotheses for the decline in fertility rates are both that higher educated women may have more skills to assess and seek out contraception, as well as the ability to choose employment over having children (Joshi & Schultz, 2013, p.161). They also may simply be unable to attend school pregnant or must drop out to care for their children (HIV Prevalence, 2010,

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%.

Teenage birth rates, defined as live births per one thousand 15-19-year-old US females, declined by 10% from 2012 to 2013 from 29.4 to 26.5. In fact, the birth rate has been on a steady decline over the past 20 years, from 61.8 in 1991 to 26.5 in 2013. Teenage pregnancy represents both a health and social inequality in our society. Specifically, teenage childbearing is a public health issue because teenage mothers are more likely to experience negative social outcomes such as dropping out of school. This is a self-reinforcing cycle, as children of teenage mothers face higher chances of poor academic achievement as well as getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant in their teenage years (CDC). Although the overall rates of teenage pregnancy have dropped, ultimately, the variations in the rates reflect the intersecting disparities regarding race and ethnicity, income inequality, geography, and environmental factors, which in turn affect access to medical care, education, and resources.

Poor adolescents are 3 times as likely to have a newborn out of wedlock than adolescents who and not poor and the birth are associated with low birth weights and peri/postnatal complications

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.”).

Teenage pregnancy is a growing problem in the United States today. As of 2010, 57.84% of 15-19 year old girls will become pregnant, which is especially high as compared to the rates of other developed countries. (Kost, 3) Why are unplanned pregnancy rates in teenagers so high? There are various factors that contribute to these high teen pregnancy rates, but one major factor is the type of sexual education that teenagers receives. While attention to abstinence in sexual education can be beneficial, it is when sexual education focuses solely on abstinence that teen pregnancy rates increase. Comprehensive sex education in schools has been shown to lower the rates of teen pregnancy more than abstinence only sex education has, and therefore should

The issue being addressed is teen pregnancy rates in the United States. We can measure this problem by giving statistics on teen pregnancy related information and by describing the magnitude of the problem. Teen pregnancy exists everywhere in the world but the main focus of this policy memo is going to be that of the United States.

Adolescent pregnancy occurs in all societies but the level of teenage pregnancy and childbearing varies from country to country. The level of adolescent pregnancy varies by a factor of

Throughout the United States, rates of teen pregnancy are significantly high. In 2013, there were 26.5 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19, or 273,105 babies born to females in this age group.1 Young, minority women between the ages of 15 and 24 appear to be at greater risk for becoming pregnant. Minority populations are also linked with low socioeconomic status, whether in terms of education or income, or both. Having low income and lower levels of education (the most commonly used measures of SES) were also associated with increased risk for unintended pregnancies, with 62% of pregnancies being unintended among those earning 200% of the FPL.2 In addition, with minority populations growing rapidly, many of these young women and their families live in smaller, more rural areas. According to one study, in rural and small town areas the Hispanic population increased by 1.9 million or 46 percent between 2000 and 2010.3 In rural areas there is often limited access to nearby health care facilities.

Here, the manifest causes of the adolescent pregnancy menace will be identified and described in details in term of how these actions or conditions are directly or indirectly linked to the increase in the adolescent pregnancy. The magnitude of the adolescent pregnancy within the USA and the past trends will also be identified through government records and medical journals online. These will also show the extent of the problem in the contemporary society and the demographical changes in the occurrences and patterns of the adolescent pregnancy over the past decade. There will also be identification of the predisposing factors to this menace. At this stage, there will also be analysis of the preventive measures that could have been used, the level of the use of these preventive measures among the adolescents, the effectiveness or otherwise of these

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 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.

The teen pregnancy rate had decreased by the maximum of about 55 percent. Most teen birth rates had also gone down about 64 percent, but yet teen pregnancies and birth rate for teenagers ages 15-19 in the U.S still remains one of the highest comparable countries. Due to parenthood, most of teen moms drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate to get their diploma. Sexually active teens that don’t use any type of protection has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year, 84 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned.