Teenage Pregnanacy

TEENAGE PREGNANCY
Introduction
This document presents an analysis of teenage pregnancy as social issue. How society looks at teenage pregnancy and impact on other categories. This document also represents facts about teenage pregnancy, impact to society and suggestion on how to improve the situation. This document discusses different methods for research and uses some example of methods to provide analysis of teenage pregnancy and effect to society. Important for Sociological Consideration As a social issue, teen pregnancies can be a direct result of contributing social problems: poverty, poor education, a history of physical and sexual abuse, poor self-esteem, and unemployment. Teens that perform at poor academic levels, or are born to mothers who were teen mothers themselves, are also at a higher risk for teen pregnancy. Young people 's sexual behavior is largely determined by social influences and around the globe; these influences are strikingly similar (DeNoon, Daniel J, 2011). Social impact of their behavior makes teenage pregnancy an important social issue. There are multiple reasons which this issue is important and why it required attention. One change is biological as 100 years ago; the average age for women to become pregnant was 18 years old, mostly because of poor nutrition. Now that we 're more educated and our diets have been altered so that we receive better nutrition, the average age that a woman can become pregnant is 12 - 13 years old (Zuckerman, Diana, 2009). As science provide statistic that woman can be pregnant at early age and there would be less complication for mother but mothers are not economically and mentally ready for this. Increase in teenage pregnancy and growing concern for parents and single mothers, dropout rates of students because of pregnancy raise flag for society and ask question to think about teenage pregnancy. Other concern came across when study found that Women exposed to abuse, violence and family strife in childhood are more likely than those without such experiences to have a teenage pregnancy (Tamkins, T, 2004)
Teenage Pregnancy Social Issue Teenage sexual activity and pregnancy is an issue of widespread national concern. Although teen sexual activity has declined in recent years, the overall rate is still high. About 16 million teenage girls become mothers every year. Teenage pregnancy is result of young people sexual behavior which is largely determined by social influence and culture they live in. Open culture like US and other western countries have more problem then controlled cultures. Society looks at this as an issue because there are severe effects physically and biologically on young mothers. There is also risk of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) infection because of unsafe sex. Young people aged 15 to 24 get about half of the world 's new HIV infections. We often blame them for being ignorant, for their notoriously bad judgment, for their impulsivity or we let them off the hook for lack of access to condoms and lack of sex education. (DeNoon, 2011) These effects remain for the teen mother and her child even after adjusting for those factors that increased the teenager’s risk for pregnancy; such as, growing up in poverty, having parents with low levels of education, growing up in a single-parent family, and having low attachment to and performance in school. Below are few facts about teenage pregnancy: 1. In 2009, a total of 409,840 infants were born to 15−19 year olds, for a live birth rate of 39.1 per 1,000 women in this age group (Singh S, Darroch JE , 2010). 2. Nearly two-thirds of births to women younger than age 18 and more than half of those among 18−19 year olds are unintended (Singh S, Darroch JE , 2010). 3. Teen pregnancy accounts for more than $9 billion per year in costs to U.S. taxpayers for increased health care and foster care, increased incarceration rates among children of teen parents, and lost tax revenue because of lower educational attainment and income among teen mothers (Singh S, Darroch JE , 2010). 4. Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma, versus nearly 90% of women who had not given birth during adolescence (Singh S, Darroch JE , 2010)? 5. The children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement, drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face unemployment as young adults (Singh S, Darroch JE , 2010). Social Categories Affected by Teenage Pregnancy As mentioned above and data gathered from various sources teenage pregnancy affects both the child and mother with problems like growing up in poverty, having parents with low levels of education, growing up in a single-parent family, and having low attachment to and performance in school. There impacts are creating concern for world as they are growing in rapid speed. Cost increase for country is another element. Teenage mothers and fathers also suffer with depression and some time end their lives increasing the suicide rates. Young fathers leave their counter parts alone in most cases when they are pregnant, as they are not ready for taking up the responsibility and thus the mother decides to raise the kid without the fathers support. These children suffer as there are no family members to support and guide. The mothers are normally busy to get food on the table. On other end teenage children who are pregnant want to go for abortion which raises concerns for abortion. This also raises the world population and poverty concern as unwanted children are not welcomed by society. As Individual are affected by teenage pregnancy but society as whole also gets effect of this. Young mother and child with not substantial income increase risk of crime activities like drug dealing, prostitution or other illegal business. Increase of child labor in crime world is example and alarm for society. Society Change and Acceptance Society has accepted that early age pregnancy is harmful for both the mother and kid. Society has changed over a period of time and looks at these as global issues and finding ways to improve. As HIV are more of a concern parent talks and education to young kids about sex and its pros and cons of not having safe sex. The pregnancy itself may be the result of sexual abuse, a one-night stand, a romantic relationship or a first time sexual encounter unusually, the central character becomes pregnant through non-penetrative sex. The drama often focuses around the discovery of the pregnancy and the decision to opt for abortion. Reduce Teenage Pregnancy There are multiple ways to improve this and control pregnancy at early age. 1. Education: Talk to children about safe sex and provide information about sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and Human immunodeficiency virus - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) infections. Explain them about pros and cons of early pregnancy such as health problem for young mother, financial problem in raising kids and responsibilities they have to carry as parent. Make them aware of disease and the situations it can lead to. Make children understand that prevention is always better than cure. 2. Awareness: Create awareness through television, News paper advertisement, religious methods, using the church and have an hour long session to discuss teenage pregnancy and its issues. Provide stories or latest articles which will create awareness. Discuss with your children about sex and other effects of it at early stage. 3. Use of Technologies: Use technologies to guide and remind children with different information. Provide messages and emails with some information and some real stories/examples. Keep reminding them as they might forget and fall for emotions. Methodologies for Sociological Research Social research methods may be divided into two broad categories quantitative designs approach and qualitative designs. Social scientists are divided into camps of support for particular research techniques. These disputes relate to the historical core of social theory (positivism and antipositivism; structure and agency). While very different in many aspects, both qualitative and quantitative approaches involve a systematic interaction between theory and data (Haralambos & Holborn, 2004). Survey research is a method involving the use of questions and answer to collect data. Once you collect the data about people and their thoughts and behavior for example; Education can help or no to teenage pregnancy and that approach is correct. Research can also collect data and analyze trend of teenage pregnancy in educate family versus uneducated family, how parents reacts and supports a child during pregnancy, how mother or father talks and educate their children about safe sex and other social issue and cause of early pregnancy. Correlation and association method can be used to find relation between early age pregnancy or teenage pregnancy and other social issue related to teen age pregnancy. There are issue of poverty, child labor in criminal world and diseases like HIV–ADIS and others. Providing statistic and correlation of child age pregnancy will reduce risk of other social issue and allowing people to have education and creating awareness of this type of issues would help to reduce teenage pregnancy rate in the US.

Conclusions The information presented above supports the following conclusions: 1. Teenage pregnancy is major concern and it requires spreading awareness and support. 2. Teenage pregnancy is affecting other categories and the whole society. 3. Ones sexuality an activity depends on the surrounding they are in. 4. There are ways to control and create awareness for this issue. 5. There are various methods can be used and evaluate to conduct research and effect of teenage pregnancy.

References

Macionis, J. J. (2010). SOC100: Sociology: 2011 custom edition (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom Publishing http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/podcasts/2009/teenage-pregnancy-20090213/en/index.html http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20061102/risky-teen-sex-and-social-pressure http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/AboutTeenPreg.htm http://www.medinstitute.org/public/118.cfm http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-ATSRH.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/opinion/american-attitudes-toward-teenage-sex.html http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NNR/is_2_36/ai_n6069104/ http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html

References: Macionis, J. J. (2010). SOC100: Sociology: 2011 custom edition (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom Publishing http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/podcasts/2009/teenage-pregnancy-20090213/en/index.html http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20061102/risky-teen-sex-and-social-pressure http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/AboutTeenPreg.htm http://www.medinstitute.org/public/118.cfm http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-ATSRH.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/opinion/american-attitudes-toward-teenage-sex.html http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NNR/is_2_36/ai_n6069104/ http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html