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In 2012, 305,420 babies were born to females ages 15-19, resulting in 29.4 births for every 1,000 adolescent females (Hamilton). While teenage pregnancies were once considered normal and expected for young women to ensure lifelong stability, it is now considered a taboo subject. MTV's reality television show, 16 and Pregnant, which began in 2009, has popularized pregnancy among adolescent females. Glamorization of the subject has shown to be the top reason for the increased risk of becoming pregnant during adolescent years. Although statistical trends have declined over time within teen pregnancy, roughly 40% of females in the U.S. will become pregnant before their 20th birthdays, with 50% giving birth each year and around 45% receiving abortions (OAH). Approximately 85% of these pregnancies are unplanned, and 7.2% do not receive medical care (OAH). Teen pregnancy has become a trend in the United States, with MTV's 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom showcasing the lives of pregnant teenagers during the end of their pregnancies and their days of motherhood. While the show advocates for the use of contraception and abstinence, there is still much speculation as to whether or not this is helping or harming society. The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health reports that 16 and Pregnant led to more searches and tweets regarding birth control and abortion, ultimately leading to a 5.7% reduction in teen births in the 18 months following its introduction, accounting for around one-third of the overall decline in teen births in the United States (Kearney and Levine).
The MTV series 16 And Pregnant and its follow up series titled Teen Mom is a documentary like series that first aired in 2009 on June 11 and since then has had many seasons and sequels to follow it. Each episode in the series focuses on several young girls for 5-7 moths while they have to deal with the struggle of teenage pregnancy and “life after labor”. The initial idea or the show was to promote teen pregnancy prevention but, with many of the girls behaving scandalously and recklessly during the series, the show has become one of the most controversial on MTV.
#2 Dinh, James. “MTV's '16 And Pregnant' Credited For Decline In Teen Pregnancy Rates.” MTV.com. 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Langham, Ph.D., R. Y. "What Are the Causes of Teenage Pregnancy?" livestrong.com. N.p., 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Dec. 2013.
Imagine juggling the stress of graduating high school and the stress of embracing parenthood at the same time. “In 2009, six pregnant teens allowed MTV to film their pregnancies in the hopes that youngsters watching the resultant show--16 and Pregnant-- would learn from their mistakes and wait to start families” (Dockterman 1). This is the reality for many teens today. According to the March of Dimes, about three in ten teenage girls become pregnant before the age of twenty. (Slocum 1). MTV hosts many different tv shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. In broadcasting the lifestyles of young teenage mothers, these shows also allow others to see the struggles that the young teen mothers face preparing for and caring for a baby. While many
The birth rate among teens in the United States has declined 9% from 2009 to 2010, a historic low among all racial and ethnic groups, with the least being born in 2010; and in 2011 the number of babies born to adolescents aged 15-19 years of age was 329,797 (“Birth Rates for U.S.”, 2012). Although the decline in unwanted and unplanned teen births is on the rise the United States continues to be among the highest of industrialized countries facing this problem. This is a prevailing social concern because of the health risks to these young mothers as well as their babies. Teens at higher risk of becoming pregnant are raised at or below the poverty level by single parents; live in environments that cause high levels of stress (i.e., divorce, sexual psychological and physical abuse); are influenced by peers or family members that are sexually active; and lack parental guidance that would direct them to be responsible and self-controlled.
According to the March of Dimes, "nearly thirteen percent of all births in the United States were teens ages fifteen to nineteen. Almost one million teenagers become pregnant each year and about 485,000 give birth (Teenage 1).
Studies show that within the last seven years there has been a dramatic drop in the number of teen pregnancies. Teen pregnancy is best known as, the act of getting pregnant between the ages of fifteen and nineteen. Teen pregnancy does not come with much of a history. In the past, (mostly in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s) it was common for girls to be married between the ages of fourteen and sixteen and give birth not long after. Some girls were having babies as young as thirteen and fourteen years old! During the times that young girls would bear children and be married so young, college and education was not an important factor. As a young girl you learned how to take care of your house, farm, laundry, crops, animals, husband, and children. The father was your main source of income. Obviously things in our time are very different. Over the years a growing importance for education and making a living on your own has become crucial to many women. It was no longer important to have children so soon, but to learn to be a strong, educated, and independent woman. Even now as time has gone by, the image of being a pregnant teenage girl has been glorified solely by media. It becomes less important to get an education so you can get a good job and be able to raise a child and give them a good life, and more important to get pregnant and get a chance to be worshiped nationally on t.v. for being pregnant and making all of your money through fame.
America has one of the largest pregnancy rates in teens in the whole world (“Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media”). Pregnant teens have to make many hard choices. They must decided to keep the baby or not., and to continue on with school. or not. Teens moms can lose everything they’ve worked for after one bad decision. Sex is in teens lives because of media influence.
16 & Pregnant is a TV show aired on MTV that as the name suggests, focuses on the lives of various teens who are pregnant whilst still in high school; each tells a different story. In these episodes, viewers are able to observe the struggles these teens face as a result of pregnancy during pubescent development. Controversy has been made as a result of the release of this show; this left viewers torn between whether 16 & Pregnant discourages teen pregnancy or shrouds it within curiosity. There is more than sufficient evidence to say that 16 & Pregnant, does in fact discourage teen pregnancy for various reasons. According to the New York Times report, the National Bureau of Economic Research compared Nielsen television ratings to birth records, and concluded that in areas where teens viewed MTV more after the debut of 16 & Pregnant, there was a rapid decline of teen pregnancy rates when compared to other areas that viewed it less frequently although some believe the show glamorizes the subject matter. Some also believe that it encourages the teens to disrespect their parents in every way possible; quite to the contrary, watching 16 & Pregnant is very beneficial to discouraging teen pregnancy and family problems by displaying the hardships these teens face, teaching the importance of completing high school and encouraging viewers to use various contraceptives methods or practice abstinence.
Alan Guttmacher Institute. (1999). Teenage pregnancy: Overall trends and state-by-state information. NY: The Alan Guttmacher Institute.
---Trends in teen pregnancy rates from 1996-2006: A comparison of Canada, Sweden, U.S.A., and England/Wales.
"Teen Pregnancy Rates In The Usa | LIVESTRONG.COM." LIVESTRONG.COM - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle. 05 Mar. 2009 .
Babies are born more likely to be born premature and/or suffer low birth weight. There are a lot of problems involved with children having children. There is a higher risk of low birth rate, premature labor, and stillbirth. The problem is teenage girls are not done growing and fully maturing, there for, when they become pregnant it induces problems not only on the baby but the mother as well. *A general rule: The younger the mother, the greater risk of complications for both the mother and child. Often pregnant teenage mothers deny the fact that they are indeed pregnant, therefor ignoring the proper care that she needs for the growing baby inside of her. There are no easy answers; that’s one thing that everyone agrees on when it comes to the problem of teen pregnancy. The Center of Disease Control and prevention affirmed on June 26 what other agencies, such as the National Center for Health Statistics, have been saying over the course of this year: “The teen pregnancy rate is dropping. The number of teenage girls across the country who became pregnant fell 12 percent between 1991 and 1996. This drops affects girls, of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds, in all states. But the problem remains; The U.S. teen pregnancy rate is the highest of any industrialized countries. Babies born in the U.S. to teenager mothers are at risk for long-term problems in many major areas of life, including school failure, poverty, and physical or mental illness. The teenage mothers themselves are also at risk for these problems.
Attention Getter: Nowadays, no one is astonished by the presence of pregnant or parenting teenagers. In fact we have a fascination with pregnant adolescents which is evident in the creation of “16 and Pregnant,” a MTV series that follows the real-life stories of American youth who have engaged in sexual activity and who have realized that reproduction system works because they are or will be parents to a cute baby boy or girl. We watch this series in anticipation of the child’s birth and to witness how the teen parents cope.
Sexual activity in the mass media is another negative influence on teenagers. The first example is early sexual intercourse. According to Stockwell, a research shows that teenagers who are exposed to a lot of sexual content on television are more to likely to have sex by 16 years of age than those with limited exposure.