Insocio

Masesar, Adelaine N.
Mr. Dalisay (Professor)
Insocio
20 February 2013

How Teenage Pregnancy Became Redefined as a Social Problem?

All teenage pregnancies, not just the youngest ones, were categorized as a problem. The inclusion of older teenagers, who are far more likely to proceed with a pregnancy than their younger counterparts, redefined the issue from one of uncontrolled sex to one of uncontrolled motherhood. The term social issue relates to matters which affect many or all members of a society either directly or indirectly. It includes violence, pollution, injustice, poverty, abortion, crime and discrimination. There are many different social issues which today’s society has to contend with, such as high unemployment, homelessness and teenage pregnancy, all of which government policy is required to target and find solutions for. This assignment will look at some of the social issues which teenage parents face in today’s society; poverty, social exclusion, low educational aspirations; as well as some of the approaches the present Labor Government have found to combat them. “The appropriate age when women should become mothers has been the subject of numerous debates for many years. However over recent decades teenage pregnancy has become labeled as a major public health problem, alongside cancer, mental health issues and heart disease.” -(Lawlor & Shaw, 2002). The politicization of teenage pregnancy involves a return to explanations of poverty and inequality that begin from considering behavior at an individual level. On the one hand, teenage pregnancy is strongly associated with social disadvantage.
Unsurprisingly, girls with a realistic expectation of positive opportunities in life are less likely to let themselves conceive and, if they do, more likely to opt for abortion. On the other hand, in a reversal of causation, policy has treated teenage pregnancy as a cause rather than a symptom of restricted opportunities. Solutions to the problems of poor communities have become increasingly targeted at the intimate choices of private life. In the 2008, according to the report for the Center for Social Justice, “Early Intervention:
Good parents, great kids, better citizens”, there is no mention of preventing teenage pregnancy.
Rather, 0-18 year olds ‘at risk’ of social disadvantage should be ‘intervened on’, so when they do become parents before the age of 20, they’ll be ‘child-ready’. This demonstrates a staggering short-circuiting of any sense of human potential. People are effectively given up on by the age of
18. The focus swiftly shifts from the quality of their adult lives, to the threat posed by their offspring. In this way, concern over teenage pregnancy plays an important role in legitimating increasingly intrusive and degrading responses to genuine social needs. Once, young mothers were considered a problem because they were less likely to be married.
Now, they’re problematic because they’re too young to parent. Underpinning recent family policy is a belief the years 0-3 are the most important in a person’s life. This strongly deterministic, one-chance-only dogma provides a rationale for ‘early intervention’ prior to any evidence of actual neglect or harm, based on ‘risk-factors’ such as maternal age. Whilst an out of wedlock pregnancy in the past could be resolved by a shotgun wedding, a teenage pregnancy today, whether intended or not, is an ongoing problem rectified only through expert guidance.
Even if the mother is married to the father, both can be targeted for intervention, as teenage fathers are increasingly brought into the frame of policy attention. Teenagers occupy the awkward position of being neither child nor adult. At a time when we’re uneasy about the boundaries between the two, it’s hardly surprising ‘children having children’ become the poster girls for our confusion. Ironically, the more we erode the meaning of parenthood as an intrinsically adult occupation, the more likely less mature teenagers will see having a baby as a way of receiving recognition and support for their vulnerability. This undermines parenthood as a route for achieving true adult status, experiencing the benefits of taking responsibility and exercising autonomy. Preventing teenage pregnancy has become the lynchpin of the argument for moving sex, relationships and parenting education to a more central position in the national curriculum and organizing youth-oriented community projects around sexual health. Teenagers are encouraged to ‘open up’ about sex in semi-public settings such as the classroom or the youth club. They’re exposed to images of advanced genital infections in a crude attempt at deterrence. The argument is increasingly made that they need instruction in ‘good parenting’, since they’re presumed to have been denied exposure to it within their own families. The sociological perspective/theory define this problem/phenomena is the Functionalism.
It pertains to relationship between the parts of society; How aspects of society are functional.
Each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society 's functioning as a whole.
Functionalism has received criticism for neglecting the negative functions of an event such as this teen pregnancy. Critics also claim that the perspective justifies the status quo and complacency on the part of society 's members. Functionalism does not encourage people to take an active role in changing their social environment, even when such change may benefit them.
Instead, functionalism sees active social change as undesirable because the various parts of society will compensate naturally for any problems that may arise.

References: http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2012/battles/5380 http://www.studymode.com/essays/Choose-A-Social-Issue-Addressed-In-220357.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Three-Major-Perspectives-in-Sociology.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26837.html

References: http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2012/battles/5380 http://www.studymode.com/essays/Choose-A-Social-Issue-Addressed-In-220357.html http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Three-Major-Perspectives-in-Sociology.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26837.html