Teenage Parenting and it's consequences

Introduction3

Recent trends3

Ecological perspective4

Micro4

Sexually Transmitted Diseases4

Mezzo5

Macro5

Impact of discrimination6

Economic deprivations7

Oppression towards the group8

Level of interventions8

References10



Teenage Parenting and it's consequences

Introduction

Teenage parenting is often depicted as one of the most significant challenge facing the society. It is primarily referred to as women and men with the age of nineteen or less giving birth to and elects to parent a child (Futris, T.G and et al, 2003). It's repercussions can not be expressed as it does not only involve the people at the middle of it, but it affects the whole society.

Recent trends

In 2011, teenage mothers gave 31.3 births of every 1,000 teenage females within the 15-19 age bracket or 329,772 babies born in this age group. However, it must be taken into account that the birth rate related to teenage pregnancy had dramatically declined of 8% from 2010 when the birth rate was 34.2 per 1,000. If the comparison is to be made on the basis of years further down the line, it would show phenomenal decrease. For instance, in 1991 the birth rate was 61.8 births per 1,000, which is almost twice of the rate prevailing in 2011(Office of Adolescent Health, 2013).

Teen birth rates differ due to a number of factors such as age, racial and ethical groups. Most teenagers who give birth are 18 or older. In 2011, 71 percent of all teen births were in the age bracket of 18 to 19 year olds. Moreover, birth rates related to Hispanic and black teenagers were higher when compared to their white counterparts. Hispanics have the highest teen birth rates; however they have shown the most improvement in terms of decreasing their birth rates (Office of Adolescent Health, 2013).

Hence during the last few years, this trend has been on the fall, given that a number of social and awareness campaigns have been taking place.

Ecological perspective

An ecological perspective proposes that an object's meaning is derived through the relations between different elements of the environment and human beings. It is due to these relations that meanings are derived and created (Coolen, H. (2005). There are a number of considerations that must be made in relation to teenage parenting and pregnancy, such as family models, adverse socioeconomic status, and another element which is both a cause and result of teenage parenting is high levels of school drop outs (Pedrosa, A. et al. (2011).

Ecological approach has regularly been applied while examining the interrelationships between multiples levels of health outcomes (DiClemente R.J. et al (2005). Four systems have been identified to be having influence upon the individual, namely micro, mezzo, and macro.

Micro

A micro system refers to the one-on-one interaction of individuals which includes interactions with family members, informal social networks and connections on the basis of religion, for instance by going to Church. At this level, a number of elements are active, such as a sexual partner characteristics, sexual networks, social network, and STD prevalence.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and teen pregnancy are two main reasons why ...