The following paper will address the research process of teen pregnancy. During the years of the adolescent years it is all about knowing yourself, getting used to the changes of your body, and most of all engaging in some sort of sexual activity or activities. Adolescent sexual activity and its consequences continue to be important policy concerns in the United States. Nationwide, nearly half of all high school students report having or had sex and one-fifth of the report having or had four or more partners by the time they graduate (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). The Evaluation of Adolescent Pregnancy and Prevention Approaches is a response to persistent concerns about the consequences of teen sexual activity. The Pregnancy Prevention Approaches evaluation is being undertaken to expand available evidence on effective ways to prevent and reduce pregnancy and related sexual risk behaviors among teens in the United States.…
According to studies there has been an increase of unprotected intercourse in adolescents that leads to sexually transmitted diseases, psychological disorders, and the use of substance abuse (Jemmott, Fong, G. T. (2005)). Adolescents typically go to the use of drugs to throw away the feelings they encounter in everyday situations. Studies also show that most adolescents that involve their selves in intercourse at an early age will have a larger number of sexual partners, and use condoms less often when engaged in intercourse.…
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the average teenager engages in sexual intercourse by the age of seventeen, but do not marry until the mid-twenties (citation). This means that young adults are at an increased risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections for nearly ten years or longer. The numbers of students engaging in sexual activity of ages thirteen to twenty-four continues to grow each year, as does the number of unplanned pregnancies and HIV infections due to not being fully educated about the risks. Today, the duty of educating students and teenagers about sexual intercourse and the risks involved is left to the government and public school system. Abstinence education programs in public…
When it comes to sexual decisions, an individual must think about all the consequences. If they do to wish to get pregnant, they need to think about some form of birth control. If they do not wish to catch a sexually transmitted disease, they must think about using protection. As with anything that we do in life, we should think long and hard about having sex when we are not married. As fun as it is and as pleasurable as it may be, unwanted things can happen. In today’s times, teens seem to be less active when it comes to sex than they were back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.…
Teenage parenthood is by no means a new social phenomenon. Historically, women have tended to childbearing during their teens and early twenties. During the past two decades the United States teenage birthrate has actually declined (Polit,et al., 1982). Of the 29 million young people between the ages 12 and 18, approximately 12 million have had sexual intercourse (Guttmacher Institute,…
Although the idea of using scaretactics and moral questioning to force teenagers into celibacy is an appealing one, it is hardly rational. Abstinence-only programs do not delay the initiation of sexual activity, a choice that many teenagers make regardless of what they’ve been taught (National Sexuality Research Webpage). In fact, regardless of the barrage of abstinence-only programs in the United States since the Clinton Administration, forty-seven percent of teenagers have sexual intercourse by the time the reach the age of seventeen. For this forty-seven percent, abstinence-only programs are violating their basic human right to make their own informed decision about sex, sexuality, and how to practice “it” safely, leaving the fifty percent of teenagers ages 12-17 who want more information about their sexual health (The Kaiser Family Foundation) in the dark.…
Sex is a common venture for everyone to experience at some point in their lives, and it comes to no surprise that teenagers are the first ones to engage in it. Sex is not a bad thing and teenagers should not be punished for it, but unfortunately most parents do not know how react when their teens come to them with sexual questions. Since teens do not talk to their parents beforehand, and vice versa, they usually decide to have sex blindly. Subsequently teenagers have neither prior experience nor knowledge about sex and…
In 2005, nearly half of all high school students have had sexual intercourse. Plainly stating that abstinence programs do not work (USA Today). Abstinence programs were beneficial many years ago, but since they are ineffective in delaying teen pregnancy, then teen pregnancy rate has increased. Abstinence programs teach the “no sex until marriage” clause, but they don’t teach teens about birth control and the consequences of having sex at before they’ve matured. Although many studies argue that abstinence programs are educational and beneficial, other studies will show that they don’t delay teen sex, they don’t prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and are a waste of taxpayers’ money. The birth rate has increased by over 50% and increasing every day. Television and the Internet are filled with sex and teens are exposed to it on a daily basis.…
Within the last decades, the etiquette and class of society’s teenagers has evolved dramatically. In the past, children and teens focused on education as their main priority. Obeying their parents was never a problem and their friends were always great influences. Today, teenagers freely give into the negative influences of their peers by using narcotic and illegal drugs, skipping school, and participating in sex before marriage. Without the proper precautions, sex can most often result in teenage pregnancies. Although the child themselves will be held accountable for the birth that lies before them, society should not assume the responsibility of caring for teenage mothers and their child.…
The increase of teenage pregnancy has placed a burden upon the argument for non-abstinent-only education. As indicated by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, every year an estimated 850,000 teenagers become pregnant. These statistics also conclude that more than one-third of girls will become pregnant before the age of twenty, and that 78 percent of these pregnancies are unintended. Comprehensive sex education helps delay sexual intercourse between teens by offering them the tools they need to avoid unintended pregnancy.(Berne 91) “Research done by Douglas Kirby for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy shows that programs that provide teenagers with comprehensive sex education that includes a discussion of…
The United States has the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy of any developed country. Each year, unprotected sex results in almost four million teenagers contracting an STD. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is also a serious health concern for young people. Of the 40,000 new HIV infections in the US every year, about 20,000 occur in people under the age of 25, unprotected sex being to blame. (1) The National Abortion Rights Advocacy League says, “By denying teens the full range of information regarding human sexuality, abstinence-only education fails to provide young people with the information they need to protect their health and well-being.” (2) Surveys done by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that “students who have sex education know more and feel better prepared to handle different situations and decisions than those who have not.” (3) If the abstinence-only approach continues, it is expected have serious consequences by denying young people access to the information they need to protect themselves. These…
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…
In this generation, teenagers are constantly exposed to sexual content by modern media which can influence adolescence. Things like music, films, social media, religion, family background and social life/friends can leave an impact on teenagers and their choices. At the age of sixteen (the legal age for consent), the brain has not yet been developed to understand the consequences of their actions. The Advocates for Youth community put together statistics coming from different sources explaining the topic. They found that “Six percent of all U.S. high school students had sexual intercourse before age 13”. “Thirty-nine percent of all sexually active U.S. high school students did not use a condom at last intercourse”. These statistics all link up to the legal age of sexual activity in Australia which is…
School routinely made us listen to teachers and speakers tell us why sex was a bad thing. Now, if you're a Christian proponent of the "no premarital sex" stance, I've probably just triggered you to say, "We don't think that sex is bad! We think that it's beautiful; that's why we want to save it until marriage."Sadly, this argument is purely subjective. There is no more objective beauty in sex. Furthermore, if something is beautiful, why restrain it? If sex is so beautiful, why not encourage people to practice it for enjoyment, as long as they do so safely and with someone they trust? Why such enormous restrictions on it (the Catholic doesn't even let married couples have sex for purposes other than procreation!)? Sex isn't inherently special. I’m sure that I've offended probably quite a few of you out there with that statement. I'm sorry, but there's something that you must realize: Sex is entirely relative. It's special when you make it special, and only then. If you think sex is special and that it should be saved for marriage, you're rig. It is simply an action that has no inherent moral implications. Since the humanist moral code is completely unencumbered with issues like one's "closeness to God," it includes no such prohibitions against physical pleasure. If two adults willfully consent to have sex, whose rights are being violated? Who are they hurting? Themselves, by risking STD transmission? This is a risk they've acknowledged, accepted and, hopefully, minimized, by using protection. My point is that sex is not a moral choice.…
When somebody hears the title I Am Legend they normally think of the movie starring Will Smith. What some people don't know is there is actually a book associated with the movie. Both the movie and book are about a virus that spread through the city and killed off the only people that didn't turn into what they called “the infected”. The protagonist of the story, Robert Neville, lives his life as one of the only survivors left. Although there are many imilarities the book and the movie also have many differences.…