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Consequences of teenage pregnancy on the family
Teen Pregnancy rates in the United States
Teen pregnancy effects on the family
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Teenage Motherhood Imagine this: It is one o’clock in the morning and a sixteen year old girl has just finished her homework. She drops on her bed, exhausted and ready to sleep, when she hears her baby cry. She goes to the crib, picks up the baby, and then rocks the crying baby while getting a bottle of warm formula. It is three o’clock when the baby has finished the last drop and fallen asleep. The sixteen year old girl lays down in her bed and drops into a dead sleep... BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The alarm clock goes off and it is now six o’clock in the morning. She rushes to get the baby dressed and fed before she gets ready. She must take the baby to daycare before she goes to school. Right after school, she has to pick up the baby from daycare. She has no time for anything or anyone else, including friends and alone time. Becoming a teenage mother is burdensome, strenuous, and it can ruin all future plans, including college, a social life, and possibly even your family. Teenagers are naive to the experience of teen parenthood because they do not realize the …show more content…
When I told my mom, she cried and her boyfriend called me a “dumbass”. When I told the father, he was hoping I’d get an abortion so he didn’t have to grow up and become a dad. The rest of my family was accepting at first, but now they treat me like I’m a terrible mom. My family was also pushing me towards an abortion, but I didn’t want it. My mom also gave me the option of her adopting, but I wasn’t really sure I wanted that either. I don’t regret becoming a mom, but I wish it could have waited because I miss being a teenager. I don’t have a social life anymore because only two friends out of the many I had during sophomore year stuck around. The only things I do now are sit at home and watch my baby. I have given up friends, a job, a social life, respect from others, and I may have to give up my career because I might not be able to go to college
Teenagers who become mothers have harsh prospects for the future. Teenagers obtaining abortions are 20% and girls under 15 accounts for 1.2%. They are much more likely to leave of school; receive insufficient prenatal care; rely on public assistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or en...
Everyday, people are faced with choices. Some of life’s choices are simple, such as deciding what to wear to school or choosing a television station to watch. Other choices, however, are much more serious and have life-altering consequences. Being pregnant has many choices, whether or not to keep the baby. There are many choices such as adoption, or abortion. I decided that I would keep my baby because I knew in my heart that I would regret it in the long run if I didn’t. Throughout my pregnancy I suffered from depression, which is the condition of feeling sad or despondent mentally. My depression was mainly due to the fact that I was sixteen, alone, and scared, I was a waitress at a local restaurant, but that job couldn’t pay for all the financial needs it takes to raise a child. I left my baby’s father when all the arguing and physical abuse began. I couldn’t deal with that and I definitely wasn’t going to raise my child through it. Although I knew deep down that this big decision was for the best, it was still difficult and very painful. Just the thought of raising a child alone was scary. My parents were so disappointed in me they really didn’t have much to say, especially my mother. That made my pregnancy worse because I felt as though I had no one to talk to. I had friends to talk to but most of them didn’t understand what I was going through.
Levine states “a child cannot possibly develop resilience when his parents are constantly at his side, interfering with the development of autonomy, self-management and coping skills” (Levine, 2008 p.77). She says, affluent children don’t have the practical tools needed to survive on their own, they haven’t learned how to deal with problems, and they value others opinions over their own (Levine, 2008 p5). When parents feel like they have to step in to protect the health and welfare of their adolescent child they leave the child feeling disrespected or untrustworthy by their protective parents. (Levine, 2008 P223).
The amount of babies born from unplanned teenage pregnancies or out of wedlock is astounding. “If you are a boy,” you are “twice as likely to end up in prison as the sons of mothers aged 20 and 21. If you are a girl, you are three times as likely to become a teen mother yourself compared to mothers who had a child at age 20 or 21.” (Marcus, Ruth). “Statistics for teenage mothers themselves are similarly daunting. Only half obtain a high school diploma by age 22 compared to 89 percent of women who did not give birth as teenagers. Less than 2 percent of mothers who give birth before age 18 obtain college degrees by age 30. Half live below the poverty line -- and as their children grow older, the family 's chances of living in poverty increase” (Marcus,
With this issue the teens tend to earn less money than those who have graduated and have went to college. This causes the children of the teen parent’s to struggle to keep up with their school peers. Teen mothers face the struggle of earning less money than those who waited to have their babies at a later time. It is found that teen mom’s, who have had babies at the age of seventeen or younger, make twenty-eight thousand dollars less after fifteen years of giving birth. In the next generation, the daughters of the teen mothers are three times more likely to become teen mothers themselves. Also in this generation, only forty percent of teen mothers who give birth at the age of seventeen or earlier actually finish high school; and twenty three percent of the younger moms go on to retain a GED ( A Baby Changes Everything: The True Cost of Teen Pregnancy’s
This qualitative phenomenological study (Creswell & Creswell, 2007) will demonstrate the simultaneous experience of teenage mothers through both college and motherhood. Qualitative phenomenological studies demonstrate the lived experiences of the participants through their perspective (Creswell & Creswell, 2007). The paradigm utilized in this study is constructivism. Constructivism is a way to understand different meanings on a certain situation or phenomenon (Mertens, 2005). This study will be conducted through in-depth interviews, a focus group, observations, and reflections. Once I get all the data, I will organize the data into themes and patterns relevant to the research (Lester, 1999). Finally, I will establish trustworthiness
Being a parent at an early age makes lives of those teens and also their parents a struggle. Dreams of a great future goes down the drain and saving money for clothes and those one shoes you wanted, does also. Most parents already realize what all comes with taking care of a baby by experience however, when their child becomes pregnant as a teen, life is filled with so much disappointment. Expenses of a baby are extremely high and many of the parents of the pregnant teens have to help financially. The average cost of caring for a child in its first year of life is $10,158 (Rivera). When taking care of a baby you have to deal with the cost of formula, baby wipes, diapers, clothing and housing plus the things you need to take care of yourself comfortably adds up, which pregnant teens than rely on their parents for their assistance to take care of the baby. Than the parents who can’t afford another responsibility began to stress witch than stresses out the teens. Two out of three teen mothers never graduate from high school. Education is extremely important and without one, many teens will not get far. Without and education, it’s harder to get a job that will pay what is needed to support a family. According to many a baby born now will cost a middle-class family $170,460 to raise through age 17. Many teens are not in the right place in their career, if they
Children coming from adolescent parents are more likely to have poorer health, behavioral, and educational outcomes throughout their lives (comparing to children with older parents). Infants born from teenage mothers are at an increased risk for health issues. (This explains why our ancestors had lost so many of their infants.) Pregnant juveniles are less likely to gain sufficient weight during pregnancy, this can lead to a low birth weight of the child. Low birth weight is associated with several infant and childhood disorders and a higher rate of infant mortality. Low-birthweight babies are more likely to have organs that are not fully developed, which can result in complications, such as bleeding in the brain, respiratory distress syndrome, and intestinal problems (Health Communities). Also, teenager’s brains have not fully developed yet. Scans have revealed changes of the volume, of gray matter in parts of the cortex that are “responsible for more ‘top-down’ control, controlling impulses, and planning ahead—the hallmarks of adult behavior…”(The Teen Brain). This means, minors do not understand the concept of ‘what they are doing now can affect them later life’. Plus, these young mothers may have not had the education to even know what is wrong from right in pregnancy! Adolescent mothers are more likely known to smoke cigarettes, use
Growing up I was always told to enjoy being young; now I see why. A plethora of young teens today become pregnant in high school. I just so happen to be one of those girls. I would have to say it was a life changing experience for me. As a result, the parallelism between the aspects of my life as a teenager and as a teen mom are stress, responsibility and my emotions.
In today’s society many grow up in a single parent household and it may effect some different than other’s. For instance you can look at the percentage of race and how it affects each. For one can look at a black family and see the effects it has on them. Black families are in the high percentage range of growing up in a single parent home. The outcome has little effect on than that of a white family. Not all black families are single parent homes, but the ones that are may be due to parent killed, in prison, or just do not know who their father’s. To compare to a white family growing up in a single parent house can have a higher effect. White families may experience being in a single parent household due to parents getting divorced or death.
When I found out I was pregnant I could never have imagined how hard my life was going to be as a teen mom. I remember my dad sitting me down and telling me he respected my decision to keep my daughter, but that I had no idea how hard I just made my life, I don’t think that in that moment I really realized what he meant, but I would soon find out. I was just starting my 11th grade year when my daughter was born so I still had two years of school left. I also had to work so I could take care of my daughter, so trying to do both seemed impossible, at one point my school wanted me to go to school during the day and at night so I could graduate. There was no way I could work and go to school during the day and at night. I had to think long and hard about what I needed to do, my daughter and I needed to be able to survive so I definitely needed my job, so I did
In America, the society runs on what teenagers want. From Nicki Minaj to the junior section at Sears, most of what the people see, hear, or touch is aimed at the teenagers. Being an adolescent is probably the most exciting and most popular time period in a person’s life. The teens seem to have it all, but what about the parents who raise them? The parents of the teenagers never get any credit during this time period, although they have every right to. Parents and teenagers should strive for a strong, lasting relationship for these years, though most times there isn’t one. The relationship between teenagers and parents is the most vital bond in the family because this relationship should and will prepare them for the next step in life.
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.
As time goes on, teen pregnancy is becoming more and more common throughout the world. So many people frown upon this whole idea. Such people act as if the teenage parents’ world is going to come to an end. Although these kids’ life is going to be making a big turn, there are many of them who are mature enough to take on the responsibilities of a baby.
As a child begins to enter adolescence, there appears to be a rise in conflict between the adolescent and parents. The amount of conflict differs from family to family and is dependent on many factors. It is mainly due to the changing characteristics and growing of the adolescent and the way in which the rest of the family adjusts to these changes.