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Peer pressure amongst teens
Peer pressure amongst teens
Peer pressure among teens
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When you think of teen pregnancy, you probably think that there isn’t a positive thing you could say about it. Actually, there is one big thing people can get out of teen pregnancy, better education about sex and pregnancy. There are many things that contribute to this issue, shows like sixteen and Pregnant and Teen Mom are glamorizing teen pregnancy, which is actually a big issue and the blame should be placed on the parents and media.
Peer pressure by friends can play a factor into the issue, if a child hangs out with a group of people that are sexually active, 9 out of 10 times that child is too. About 2/3 of all shows, excluding sports and news, and 83 percent of music and movies watched by teens include sexual content (Brown11-4)
Poverty and lack of academic success contribute, there is mounting evidence that poor academic success and bad parenting lead to teen pregnancy. Babies from teen mothers usually have poor health, lower grades, and have lower cognitive tests scores (Witte 137-54). The majority of children from an unplanned pregnancy are born to unmarried women. Children raised in single parent families face more challenges; they are more likely to be poor, dropout, lower grade point average, and poor school attendance records (Brown 11-4).
Other causes of teen pregnancy can be due to the “teen rebellious stage”, and girls that feel like they aren’t getting enough attention and think getting pregnant is the only way to feel important (Kirby 89-94). Most teen girls are asked to drop out in the later stages of pregnancy because they do not to “encourage” other girls. High schools are starting to try to educate girls in their care they not only want to teach them about sex, they want to teach them what to do if they ...
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...ions on Two Decades of Research on Teen Sexual Behavior and Pregnancy."The Journal of school health 69.3 (1999): 89-94. ProQuest.Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
Sisson, Gretchen. "Finding a Way to Offer Something More: Reframing Teen Pregnancy Prevention." Sexuality Research & Social Policy 9.1 (2012): 57-69. ProQuest.Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics: Overall Trends, Trends by Race and Ethnicity and State-by-State Information. New York, NY: The Alan Guttmacher Institute; January 2010.
. Walsh-Childers, Kim. "Sexual Health Coverage: Women's, Men's, Teen and Other Specialty..." Columbia Journalism Review. May/June 1997: Supp. 1-12. SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 07 Nov 2013.
Witte, Kim. "Preventing Teen Pregnancy through Persuasive Communications: Realities, Myths, and the Hard-Fact Truths."Journal of community health 22.2 (1997): 137-54. ProQuest.Web. 30 Oct. 2013
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. “The Facts of Teen Pregnancy: An Overview.” Teens and Sex.
"Teen Pregnancy Prevention Focusing on Evidence: Ineffective Abstinence-Only Lessons Being Replaced with Science." The Nation's Health Apr. 2010: 1+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.
In May 2006 the silence cries of Kaylib Neal began to fill the delivery room as young Kizzy Neal slightly tilts her head with the energy she has left to take a glace at her new son. Although this moment is one of the happiest times of Kizzys life, she still wishes she could have waited to experience this moment at a later time in her life. At the age of only thirteen, Kizzy is one among the thousands of teenage girls who become pregnant each year in the United States. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 34% percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20. Eight in ten of these teen pregnancies are unintended and 79% are to unmarried teens. There are many preliminary causes for such a high In Kizzy’s case, the blame is put on the lack of sexual education within her school. She claims that because she did not received adequate information on this subject, she was unaware of what she was getting herself into. The question is: will the opportunity to experience sex education classes make a difference in preventing teen pregnancy? Sexual education, in a broad sense, is a series of courses taken by adolescents throughout their school years in order gain a better understanding of aspects that pertain to sexual activity. Beginning as early as third grade, the students learn what sex is, what its consequences are and how to prevent those consequences. Being of the main consequences of engaging in sexual activity, Teen Pregnancy is commonly spoken about within these classes. Given that teens are being informed of this consequences within accurate sex ed. Classes, providing comprehensive classes in a school environment does not cause an increase in teen pregnancy.
As everyone knows, teen pregnancy rate is increasing more and more each day and someone needs to do something to try and either stop it or decrease it dramatically. Teen pregnancy is causing dramatic population increase and that’s just common sense. Teens getting pregnant at such a young age is also causing poverty levels to go up more and more. Mississippi Spent over $100 million on teen pregnancy alone in the year 2010 (“Teen Pregnancy”). Just think of what it is now. More teens are dropping out of school and not finishing their education. According to the authors of this article, “approximately 30 percent of teen mothers have mothers who dropped out of high school, 40 percent have mothers who are mothers who dropped out of high school, 40 percent have mothers who are high school graduates, and 30 percent have mothers who attended college”(Kearny et al 143). Many people don’t realize that there are many effects of teen pregnancy including higher risk of birth defect, more likely to drop out, and also abortion rates increase.
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.
Teen pregnancy is increasing yearly. According to the March of Dimes, teenage birth rates have decreased steadily in the country since 1991. Teenage birth rates in the United States remain relatively high compared to the more developed countries.
The overall teen birth rate has declined by 16 percent from 1991 to 1997. “All states are recording a decline and it is the sixth year in a row that the teen birth rate has declined,” stated Donna Shalala, HHS secretary of U. S. Newswire. Although the birthrate among teens is decreasing and the percentage of teenagers who have had sexual intercourse is declining, it is a multi-fauceted problem affecting today’s youth. The government is taking in to consideration all possibilities and conditions with teen births to make an affective way to prevent it.
“Facts on American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health.” Guttmacher Institute. Guttmacher Institute, June 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Arielle Massiah SW 7300 Sunday, March 29, 2015 Article Critique Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Factoring in the Influences of Family, Friends, and School Jeanne Rogge Steele Literature Review and Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework The social problem that the research addresses is the outrageously high rate of unprotected teenage sexual engagement and encounters. The problem was made apparent due to a survey that disclosed that not only had “three quarters of the 2,439 participants engage in sexual intercourse by their senior year, half of the participants reported that they did not use condoms and one third of the population failed to allocate the use of birth control at all; drastically increasing their exposure to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy”. Steele, 1999, p. 339.
Kohler et al. (2008)“Abstinence-only and Comprehensive Sex Education and the Initiation of Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy.” Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(4): 344-351.
When we think of teenage women getting pregnant we often times think of young women that are engaging in unprotect sexually actives, but that’s not always the case. There are several risk factors that contribute to teen pregnancy some are unthinkable. While we know that socioeconomic play a huge roll in teen pregnancy here are some other to consider; sexual abuse and adult men fathering children with teenage women (Davis, 1996). An effective program would consist of clear goals, teen involvement, and community collaboration (Davis, 1996). Not only should the program included training from obstaining from sex, there should be classes on contraception, and classes on maintaining healthy relationships should be offered as well (Davis, 1996).
Several causes for teen pregnancy are: the need for affection, acceptance, and unprotected sex. One may have a poor home life and look for affection from a peer. The simple desire to feel loved by another person may be a cause for an unexpected pregnancy. A teen may have a low self-esteem and simply be looking for acceptance in the bedroom. However, many teens that have a wonderful, affectionate family and are very confidante are merely looking for the few minutes of pleasure and avoid using protection. As several teens use the excuse that sex feels better with out a condom, an unwanted pregnancy is likely to occur.
Stats & Info. (n.d.). Montgomery Area Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from http://stopteenpregnancy.org/stats.html
In conclusion teen pregnancy has hard an effect on society, in many ways. Most teen pregnancies were not planned. CFOS says that about 65% of teen pregnancy's were not even discussed with their sexual partners. All of the other percentage of teen pregnancy's were not planned either, but it had been discussed with the teen's sexual partner at some point in time. Most teens began having sex without knowing the consequences. Teenagers need to take responsibility and remember to keep safe, because there are various ways to prevent teen pregnancy, for example abstinence, sex education, and various types of birth control; because these methods are available children should not be brought into this world mistakenly.
Thesis Statement: Within America, there is a teen pregnancy epidemic across all socioeconomic backgrounds, presenting commonalities as to the causes and ramifications of adolescents emerging as a growing parental population.