Teen pregnancy has always been an issue, but as time go by the reaction towards it has a different outcome for each time period. Now in today’s era teen pregnancy is more common to the point where it’s normalize. In the late 1960s teen pregnancy was really acknowledge publicly. Schools started to discriminate against pregnant teens, they didn’t want other girls to copy them by getting pregnant. By 1970s congress passed Title IX but it only did little from school to stop the discriminations. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, it was common for pregnant teens to be missed treated (Fershee 2009). Now days there are many teens who have the rights to go to school. Some teens may still have a hard time in school because of they are pregnant in school but other peers, but they are not discriminated by the school because of this reason.
Using symbolic interactionism and teen pregnancy because of the girls being pregnant society thought they were a bad symbol and they didn’t want to other girls to follow in their footsteps. In 2008 the teen Pregnancy rate reached the historical low rate. The U.S. teen pregnancy rate has plummeted 40% between 1990 and 2008 (the most recent data available) and is now at a historic low, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
The teen pregnancy rate in 2008 now stands at 70 per 1,000 women age 15-19, down from its 1990 peak of 117 per 1,000. Other highlights from the report include: Between 1990 and 2008, rates of teen pregnancy have declined by almost one-half among non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks, and by about one-third among Hispanic teens (Newswire 2012).
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Across the United States, federal and state policy-makers are trying to control what they see as an epidemic in adolescent pregnancy. But is there really an epidemic? And, more importantly, when did the American society start to perceive teenage pregnancy as such? Teenage pregnancy is a major concern in today’s society; there are many ways to prevent teen pregnancy, many people to get advice from, and many decisions that a teen parent must make.…
- 356 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
At-risk students are in jeopardy of failing to finish their education with the skills essential to survive in the real world (Kauchak & Eggen, 2005). Considerable economic implications are a problem for students that drop out or leave school (Kauchak & Eggen, 2005). Being at-risk is a problem that both males and females face. Many females drop out of school because they are pregnant, which leaves them with the burden of raising a child on a less than poverty income (Kauchak & Eggen, 2005). The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the Western industrialized world, even though the teenage birthrate is declining (Kauchak & Eggen, 2005). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), the teen pregnancy rate is 34.3 pregnancies per 1000 young women ages 15-19, which is a record low for this age group. The state of Iowa has numerous programs to help educate teens in the prevention of pregnancy and programs to help pregnant teens and young mothers. Two of these programs are the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and Community Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Grant Program (CAPP).…
- 613 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
So many teens today are becoming parents. When I was in school their were a few girls that were pregnant, but most of the teenagers cared more about shopping, and going to parties. I look at high school kids today so many are pregnant or already had babies. I believe teenage pregnancy is one of the top reasons teens drop out of school. In the article “Teenage Pregnancy Is a Serious Problem” written by Kristin Moore and Barbara Sugland, they state that “the children of teenage parents often do poorly in school.” With a lack of education limits teens employment possibility, which effects how well they will be able to take care of their self and child. Teen pregnancy is just one of the consequences for having sex at an early…
- 869 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The fourth source by the Office Of Adolescent Health has a strong and detailed overview of teen pregnancy and childbearing. I found this source through University of Alabama Scout search engine and the audience is the general public. The source includes statistics from 2013 that 273,000 babies were born in the US from females ages 15-19. The text also mentions the sad reality that comes along with teenage pregnancy such as, mother and teen less likely to finish school, more likely to rely on public assistance, more likely to live in poverty as adults, and more likely to have children who has poorer education, behavioral, and health outcomes throughout their lives rather than a child born into older parents that are prepared for a child. Along with addressing the issues of teen pregnancy, the source also touches on strategies and approaches to prevent unwanted teen pregnancies such as the contraceptive method I talk about in my paper. This information adds to my paper because it demonstrates the problems with teen pregnancy and the steps the US can take to lower the teenage pregnancy rates.…
- 888 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Teen pregnancy has been around for more than a decade and the number of teenage pregnancy more and more in the U.S. especially for people for an African American decent or Hispanic decent (as seen on the graph below)…
- 459 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Teen pregnancy is closely linked to a host of other critical social issues — poverty and income, overall child well-being, out-of-wedlock births, responsible fatherhood, health issues, education, child welfare, and other risky behavior. There are also substantial public costs associated with adolescent childbearing. Consequently, teen pregnancy should be viewed not only as a reproductive health issue, but as one that works to improve all of these measures. Simply put, if more children in this country were born to parents who are ready and able to care for them, we would see a significant reduction in a host of social problems afflicting children in the United States, from school failure and crime to child abuse and neglect. (www.thenationalcampaign.org)…
- 793 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
- Personally I can share the view of the author in this essay: Teen pregnancy is in reality one of the most difficult experiences a teen girl might ever face when that can interrupt her education or other plans such as getting a better career or maintain fathers with them, but most of the time it doesn’t work and that’s when the situation gets worse. Children usually grow without a father figure when their parents have them at a very young age or sometimes they don’t even live with both parents because they can’t take care of them or support them economically. So when this children start to live without a parental guide , they grow adopting a bad behavior and getting the wrong advices from other bad people and turned into criminals , stealers, or other people of bad reputation because they live in a poor ambient without having a parent who can guide and help them to raise their levels of education.…
- 635 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
According to Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale (1989), in an article titled Teenaged Pregnancy and Childbearing, teen pregnancy did not become prevalent until the 1960s. Two changes occurred contributing to the increase in teenage pregnancies: 1.) an increase in sexual activity of young girls and 2.) a decrease in the number of teenage marriages. By the 1980s over half of white females and three-fourths of black females were sexually active by the age of 18 (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale, 1989). Contraception was not regularly used when having sexual relations, and many of these females became pregnant during their teen years. Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale (1989), also continue to say that compared to the number of unmarried teenage females in 1950 the females of 1980s were two-thirds white and almost 97% black single females. Also, 40% of these teenage pregnancies would end with abortion, and that the younger teenagers would have more abortions. A pregnant teenager has many decisions to make regarding her future: 1.) future schooling 2.) relationship…
- 1718 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Teen pregnancy is a very serious social problem that has a large impact on society. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (NCPTP) has established connections between early pregnancy and childbearing to a number of other serious social issues, for instance health, education and poverty ("Unplanned pregnancy, sexual," 2012). The NCPTP reports that between the years 1990 and 2008 “The teen pregnancy rate has declined an impressive 42%” ("Unplanned pregnancy, sexual," 2012). The Guttmacher Institute offers some explanation of this decline citing “changes in sexual behavior, fear of HIV, changing attitudes about sexuality, increased availability of new…
- 1078 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Becoming a teen parent is always a scary thing to go through, but over the years, the United States has been trying new and different ways to lower the occurrence of unplanned pregnancies among teens. There has always been a high rate of teen pregnancies in the United States, and according to The Los Angeles Times, “Teen pregnancy rates in the United States have fallen in recent years, but the country still has a higher rate than any other developed country” (Roan). Even though the rates of teen pregnancy in the United States have fallen, they are still the highest in the world. Throughout the years, the United States has been experimenting and brainstorming new ideas to prevent teens from falling into peer pressure of having sex. They added child development classes to the high schools to teach teens what happens when they decide to get pregnant or accidentally get pregnant. Becoming a teen mom has many effects on teens that are forced to grow up faster, change their priorities, and push back their future plans.…
- 1574 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
In the United States, an estimated forty five percent of all female teenagers have premarital sex. As a result, about forty percent of all female adolescents become pregnant at least once before age twenty; and about four-fifths of these pregnancies are unintended. Twenty percent of these female adolescents bear a child, and about half of them are unmarried (Lawson and Rhode, 2). In a society that associates age appropriate sexual behavior and marital status with the welfare of the family and community, this is a very alarming statistic to many. Throughout the past several decades American society has developed very strong, and many times mythical opinions…
- 3357 Words
- 14 Pages
Better Essays -
Sun, Feifei. “Baby Mamas”. Time. 18 July 2011. Vol. 178, Issue 3, Pages 58-60. 23 November…
- 1343 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Since girls were married at a young age, teen pregnancy was accepted, also. In this generation teen pregnancy is still just as common as it was then, but without the girls being married or even in a relationship. “1. 3 in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before ago 20. That 's nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year. 3. Less than 2 percent of teen moms earn a college degree by age 30. 5. The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the western industrialized world. 10. Almost fifty percent of teens have never considered how pregnancy would affect their lives.” (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy) Due to teen pregnancy rates being so high, Americans have to learn to accept and adapt to this being a new custom. “Based on a teen survey his organization conducted in 2009, a vast majority (eighty-seven percent) of teens who watched the MTV show 16 and Pregnant reported that they felt the show helped demonstrate to them the true hardships that teenage pregnancy can bring to both girls and boys. In contrast, very few (seventeen percent) felt the show actually glorified teen pregnancy.” (Silvers) These shows help to show the struggles that all the young girls starring in them face. By putting their stories out there they are helping to reduce teen pregnancy rates. Even though there are shows to…
- 860 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Bibliography: Bedyniak, Anna B. “The Representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom.” Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies. 2010-2011. Print. 19 December 2011.…
- 5075 Words
- 21 Pages
Best Essays -
Finishing high school is one the top things a teen mom has to deal with. Once a teen becomes pregnant she starts to thing about everything but the baby growing inside of her. It goes from will the dad stay in the babies life to will I finish high school. A lot of teens drop out once they find out that they are pregnant. All because they look at the fact that their friends will talk bad about them or they will be the outcast of the school.…
- 2059 Words
- 9 Pages
Good Essays