Essay about Teenage Pregnancy
The social problem that interests me is teen pregnancy.
Teenage girls between the ages of 13-19 that become pregnant, usually unintended is the definition of teenage pregnancy. (Unicef, 2008)
Out of 1.8 billion girls worldwide, 10%-40% of young unmarried girls have had an unintended pregnancy according to community studies. (Unicef, 2008) Some 14 million children worldwide are born every day by teens. Teen birth rates increased 5% from 2005-2007 by the age of 20.
This number is important because teenage girls are having more unprotected sex, resulting in unintended pregnancy. The percentage is increasing by the years. Declining to contraceptive use among sexually active teenage girls is increasing teen birth rates. It is also important because by having a baby at a young age mentally a teen cannot reach her full potential in life at the appropriate time. The children born maybe would not live in a 2 parent, household.
Factors that may contribute to teen pregnancy may be low self-esteem, incorrect use of contraception, drugs and/or alcohol may influence teens decision making, peer pressure to engage in sexual activity, or sexual abuse that leads to rape.
Also, traditions that lead to early marriage. (Unicef, 2008)
The cost of teen pregnancy involves unprotected sexual intercourse, multiple sexual partners which can increase the chances of getting STDs and HIV. It is more likely for teenage mothers may have difficulty focusing in school, leading them to drop out. Teenage pregnancies are more likely to encounter financial hardships due to unemployment and may have to become dependent on welfare and poor living environments. (Unicef, 2008)
The intervention program I researched about was a clinic-based, youth development named Prime Time.
Prime Time’s purpose was to prevent unintended pregnancies from participants, 13-17 yrs. old girls that were referred by their primary care clinics, who were at high risk for early pregnancy. Their intention was to reduce sexual risk behaviors, violence involvement, and school disconnection. (Sieving, 2011)
The services provided from Prime Time were one-on-one interactions with case managers, that focused on building young women’s emotional and social skills. They provided counseling related to sexual health. They helped teens navigate in everyday social contexts. $10 monthly incentives for participating in monthly visits for a period of 18 months. Informal older teen mentors were provided for the younger teens. It was a strategy the program used so that the younger teens would listen and relate. Aside from case management, the intervention included peer educators and service-learning group programming that focused on environmental attributes (ex. building norms that support safe sexual behavior), personal attributes such as promote expectations for consistent condom & contraceptive use, and behavioral attributes such as enhancing condom and contraceptive use. Self-reported data was collected from all participants following enrollment. (Sieving, 2011)
There were 250 13-17 yrs. old female participants in the study. The teenagers were at high risk in becoming pregnant according to their primary care physicians.
Primary care physicians referred the 13-17 yrs. old girls who had clinic visits involving a negative pregnancy test, treatment for the sexually transmitted disease, inconsistent contraceptive use and multiple sex partners. (Sieving, 2011)
While researching about teen pregnancy, I’ve learned some new information that I wasn’t aware of. In making a graph, I see as the years pass more and more teenage birth rates are increasing. It gave me a visual perspective on what’s going on in everyday life. I’ve learned a different method in which awareness to unintended teenage pregnancy can have a positive outcome. I think that teenagers will listen to people that they can relate to, such as older teens and their behavior outcomes will differ. Seeking and analyzing data about teen pregnancy can help human service workers improve the trajectory of teenager’s lives. Human service workers can use the researched data to implement new strategies and make assessments to make the service delivery productive.
Conducting research and analyzing the percentage in teen pregnancy or any other social issue increase will give human service workers incentives to help and find resources so that there will be a transformational outcome.
