Teen Pregnancy Problems

The problem of teenage pregnancy is usually seen as a controversial issue, which affects not just the mother and her child but society as a whole. Teenage pregnancy happens among women under age 20. This problem is not limited to culture, religion, education or moral values and beliefs. Here are some facts: Every year almost a million teenage girls become pregnant. The U.S.A has double the adolescent pregnancy and birth rates than any industrialised country. One- third of the girls who became pregnant as teenagers keep their babies (Chapin, 53). What are the causes of teenage pregnancy? What do parents do wrong? In this essay, I would like to present some of the causes and effects of teenage pregnancy.

Today's female teenagers are in desperate need of attention from their communities, with one of the highest pregnancy rates in the United States, South Texas should implement programs for young woman to avoid becoming a statistic. Family values are declining more and more every year, and divorce rates are rising. This behavior is only conditioning children to believe this is normal, (that being, find a man, get pregnant and lose that man). Young woman need to learn that an education is the most important thing in their lives, and then worry about creating a family. It is basically the same idea that is taught to athletes hoping to become professionals; an education gives them something to fall back on in case of injury or lack of ability. The problem with these young women, lies in the fact that they have learned the state will support their baby's, if they cannot. If these teenagers were taught how to take advantage of the state funding for college educations, at the early high school stages, maybe they would get excited about their futures. Without some sort of strategy, teen pregnancies in South Texas will continue to be high because of low self-esteem, lack of family involvement and a need for closeness from their male counterparts.

There are three main factors that have an influence on teenage pregnancy: media, family and wanted pregnancy. The Media is one of the factors that could diminish the sexual risk that adolescents take. However, a lot of advertisement and entertainment are obsessed with sex but they usually do not show the negative consequences of sex. People on TV or movies are depicted as having sex without consequences, which leads to ...