Pregnancies By Teenage Mothers example essay topic

Introduction This paper discusses the problems of African American teenagers who are sexually active and how these teenagers from disadvantaged circumstances can and do avoid early teenage childbearing. This topic was chosen to alert those who are unaware about teenage pregnancies. Teenage pregnancy does not affect my life directly but it has affected the live of others around me. Because of this, I feel obligated to inform others of teenage pregnant. Now I am at a point in my life where myself and other females of my age group are being classified as being high risk for early teen pregnancy. My purpose of writing this paper is to inform others that pregnancy is not an epidemic and it can be prevented.

More teenagers are becoming pregnant at younger ages. This was my motive for choosing this particular topic. One of the main concerns in the U.S. is the exploding population, which will more than double, overwhelming all natural and human resources. Teenage pregnancies in the U.S. and around the world are one aspect of this dilemma and add their own specific problems of inadequately cared for children.

Making others aware of this situation in America is the best thing to do. Young women who do not fit the mold of what society perceives them to be are the best role models for other young women who have not fallen into the trap of being young statistics. Definition of Terms Amelioration: To make or become better; improve. Contraceptive: Prevention of conception, as by use of a device, drug, or chemical agent. Criticism: The practice of analyzing, interpreting, or evaluating Disproportionate: Absence of proper proportion or harmony Distress: Severe psychological strain Illusory: Produced by or based on an erroneous perception of reality Paralleling: Having comparable parts or analogous aspects Socioeconomic factors: Factors related to both society and economics Statistics: The mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data Titillating: To excite pleasurably; to arouse Methodology In order to collect data and information for this paper, I collected information from the personal experiences in the lives of others, studied statistics related mostly to America, and analyzed the criticism and perspectives of others.

First, I personally interviewed friends who have experienced teenage pregnancies. I asked them exactly how teenage pregnancy directly affected their lives as well as how they felt their actions affected their children and family. Second, I gathered statistics strictly related to African American teenagers as well as teenagers of other ethnicities. I then compared and contrasted the results.

Third, I read books and articles that discussed the criticisms of others and how they felt about teenage pregnancy. I chose this research method in order to specifically explain the problems and situations of teenage pregnancy among African American Females. Data Collection When interviewing those who were directly related to teenage pregnancy, I specifically interviewed three African American females and three Caucasian females who I knew were teenage mothers. I also interviewed a Mexican young woman who had experienced teen pregnancy and I contrasted her experience to the two other groups. All seven of the young women were 18 or 19 years of age but lived and grew up in different communities. I chose young women of the same age groups who lived in different surroundings to compare and contrast the effects of teenage pregnancy in their lives.

I conducted these interviews over a period of two weeks because I gave each of the women time to reflect on their lives and to answer the questions that I had asked them to answer and explain. There were five specific questions that provided me with a lot of information that I, in turn, based my research and discussion on. Discussion Teen pregnancy is one of the most critical issues facing America today. Each year one million American teenagers become pregnant. 175,000 give birth to their first child. As a result the United States now has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Western World.

The costs of teen pregnancy are staggering. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school, less likely to get married and more likely to go on welfare than their peers. The odds are stacked against the children of teen parents from the minute that they are born. Their health is poorer, their cognitive development is slower, and their behavior problems are far more complex than their peers.

There are a lot of teen mothers growing up in this world wondering, what if I would have stayed in school? What could I have become? Would it have made my life easier if I had thought first? Some teens don't think of the consequences of their actions.

They don't think that the aftermath of their irresponsibility can lead to pregnancy. Having a child comes with a lot of responsibility. The teen doesn't fully understand that all free time is lost, that she will have to find some may to support herself and the child, and that any of her aspirations for future plans are now drastically changed. Children take up a lot of time, which also means, no more school. If we can some how get through to them that this is what happens when you get irresponsible, it will eliminate a big portion of the problem. One of the best ways of getting the point across is to have a guest speaker that has been through a teen pregnancy before.

Whether it be, the person that it actually happened to or that teens mother, which is some times even better. It all comes down to the education of the teen being the best form of prevention. The more they know about sex and it's consequences at a young age the less likely they are to are to go out and be irresponsible about it. Teaching teens about different types of protection and how they work is some times one of the best ways of keeping the number of teen pregnancies down. Not to mention a fall in the number of teen sexually transmitted diseases. Children from homes run by teenage mothers have to face almost insurmountable obstacles in life.

The incidents of depression and mental health problems, the lack of father figures, and the high rate of poverty often connected to children in homes run by teenage mothers put them at serious disadvantages when compared to children raised in nuclear families. Many people believe that the implementation of sex education in schools and the addition of more federal aid for single parents are major causes for the country's high rate of teen pregnancies. When the true purpose of sex education and federal aid is to help strengthen the mother and her child so that they can eventually lead productive lives. The absence of a father figure in the home brings about a chain reaction of dilemmas. The emotional problems that children suffer because there is no father in their life can be potentially hazardous to their future. Many children tend to be effected mentally because these powerful emotions have the potential to do permanent damage in a child's life.

Children may experience sadness and depression, aggressive behavior, frequent illness, difficulty in school, eating problems, and sleeping disorders. Many children also suffer from various social difficulties and self-esteem problems that come along with living in a one-parent household. The pressure that children raised by teenage parents go through is tremendous. Children who don't have fathers present in the home often feel unloved. There is no trauma as excruciatingly painful as parental rejection and there is probably no worse of a way to wreck a person's life. Males are affected differently by the absence of a father than females are.

A boy needs a male role model in his life so that he can learn how to become a man. Children who don't have good role models often choose negative, unsavory characters to mold themselves after. These children become susceptible to many of the dangerous risks associated with children who are raised by teenage parents. "Males that grow up in one-parent homes may gain negative personality traits like immaturity, laziness, and disrespect for women (Meurer, Meurer, & Holloway, 1996)".

Females who grow up without fathers in the home usually end up having pre-marital sex (Hinckely, 1998)". They subconsciously want to make up for the affection that they didn't receive from their fathers. They become too dependent on men because they want someone who can replace their father. These women usually don't know how to relate to other males and they have the wrong idea about what a relationship should be like.

Girls may even grow up to hate men because of an unconscious resentment toward absent fathers. The shift from the traditional nuclear family to one-parent homes has been dramatic in the United States. "In many Western industrialized societies, the one-parent family is becoming more common and tolerated (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999)". However they often have not proven to be successful. "Since 1970, the percentage of children living with single parents has doubled, from 12 to 27 percent, because of the increases in the divorce rate and the number of unmarried parents. Single parent families now include more than 18 million children and comprise the most common non-nuclear family (Meurer, Meurer, & Holloway, 1996)".

This is a startling statistic considering the fact that crime and poverty is directly related to children who are raised by teenage parents. People who are faced with the harsh reality of raising children are usually not prepared to handle the responsibility. A lot of men try to run away from the problem. They then reject their children and neglect to provide any kind of financial assistance for them. The mother is ultimately left alone to juggle the task of raising the children and earning all or most of the family income needed to support them. "Forty-one percent of these mothers have never been married (Hinckely, 1998)".

Most teen mothers have to rely on government aid like Welfare, W.I. C, Focus Hope, project housing, and Medicaid as relief. These mothers are only able to give their children the bare minimum for survival. I see this first hand because a lot of people I know currently have Medicaid insurance or at least receive a generous amount of financial aid from the government to attend college here at Aquinas. There are a lot of people who attend colleges all over the country thanks to financial aid and grants.

Government aid is good and people who are in need deserve to receive it. After all it is the governments' duty to ensure its people the right to pursue happiness. People should not be denied the chance to get health insurance, financial aid for tuition, decent housing and suitable food to eat because they are poor. It seems unfair that these children have to suffer for the mistakes of their parents.

Children raised by teenage parents are brought into a highly competitive world where they start life at a handicap. These children are automatically placed in the lower class. This is a powerful term because it encompasses every aspect of these children's lives. From the rat-infested housing where they live to the poorly equipped schools that they attend.

Low class is the word that describes their lives and their potential to become productive citizens. Most working mothers who have had children too early are not qualified to get high paying jobs; therefore they must support their families with minimum wages and the little bit of money that they receive from the government. "Children who live in single parent homes, especially Hispanics and blacks, live below the poverty level (Hinckely, 1998)". People don't choose to be poor. Circumstantial issues like poor education and lack of career opportunities cause poverty.

The limited resources and the continuation of cutbacks in government programs keep people poor. It is practically impossible for a single parent to raise kids, work a job, and pay all of the bills and utilities. The build up of all of these pressures causes enormous physical and mental stress on both the mother and child. It is the duty of American citizens to help out the people in need by supporting government aid and private charity institutions like the Salvation Army. People should not complain about helping teen mothers and their children because by helping these people in need they are helping to lover crime, illiteracy, and poverty rates all over the country. Now that the country is realizing how the problem of teen pregnancy effects not only children, but also society at large, numerous options have become available for people who need help.

Sex education is being taught in schools and clinics everyday. There are also many classes open to mothers on how to raise a child and how to teach values and ethics in the home. Ignorance about vital subjects like birth control methods, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, male / female relationships, love, dating, and marriage is a primary reason why there are so many pregnancies by teenage mothers. The more people are educated about pre-marital sex and it's consequences, the more likely it is that teen pregnancy rates will decrease.

Teen pregnancy is a controversial issue because it effects society as a whole. Teenage mothers often raise children who never learn how to live productive lifestyles. Negative elements like drug addiction and crime seem to be the only outlets that are available to lonely, confused children who live in poverty-stricken cities. For many of these children there are only the options of dead-end jobs, jail or early death. Many of these children end up having their own children at an early age; therefore perpetuating the vicious cycle of poverty, poor education, joblessness, and lack of hope for the future. Teenage girls that get pregnant in our community become overwhelmed with the pressures of supporting their children financially while trying to instill morals and ethics in their lives.

We as a community need to come together with the government and help these mothers out. The problems of a teenage mother and her children eventually become the problem of all of society. Children come first because they are our future. Every child in the country should be afforded an equal opportunity to succeed no matter its family, racial, or financial background.

Supporting teen mothers and their families and educating people about the responsibilities and the risks of having sex can do this. Findings / Outcome In writing this paper I found that teenage pregnancy affects the lives of different people in more ways than one. In middle and upper class families I found that regardless of race or ethnicity the families viewed teenage pregnancy as a disappointment and a bad reflection upon the family. Higher classes of family tend to expect more from their children, and do not allow certain situations like teenage pregnancy to be accepted. In lower classes teenage pregnancy is not looked down on as much. Teen mothers are usually influenced by their surroundings, economic status, ability to attend and complete school and, sometimes, they are even influenced by the similar decisions that their parents made.

It is more likely for young women living in poverty to become pregnant at an early age than young women of upper class because poverty stricken communities fail to educate young people about the fundamentals of sex, health, as well as contraceptives. Summary In writing this paper I learned that teenage pregnancy not only affects the African American community, it affects surrounding communities as well. What most people fail to realize is that teenage pregnancy affects everyone. As children are born to younger parents, the likelier those parents are to pursue government assistance, which directly affects our economy and tax dollars. No matter how America views teenage pregnancy, it is evident that it affects all races and ethnicities. The unbelievable circumstance is that teen pregnancy is occurring to young women of ages 16-19 and even younger.

Also there are many teenagers that are sexually active and from disadvantaged circumstances that can and do avoid early teenage childbearing. When we see that this is so and contrast these young people to other teenagers from the same circumstances that begin childbearing early, we can recognize the complexity of the pregnancy problem that does not go away. Up until now in America, teen pregnancy was seen as a taboo. I feel as though it should still be thought of in that way because teen pregnancy is unacceptable. There is nothing productive about a teenager with a child. I am also a strong believer that women should not have children until they become financially stable, or married.

Everyone has their own perception of when one should have children and my perceptions and ideas have been influenced by the way I was raised as well as how I saw the other women in my family.

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