Rates Of Teen Fathers With Children example essay topic

Teen parenting these days is a startling epidemic. In fact, the U.S. leads all other developed nations in incidences of pregnancy among adolescents' age 15-19 (Robinson). With all of the problems that we are currently facing as a nation one would not think that this would be one of the worst, but it is. The rates that contribute to the high averages of teen pregnancies are appalling. For every five girls you see, three of them are having babies (Moorer). These rates have done nothing but escalate alarmingly over the past few years.

The rates of teen fathers with children are some of the most appalling. According to Maureen Pirog-good, writer and researcher, "roughly 7 percent of young men become fathers in their teens". With the growing lack of responsibility in today's youth these rates are only to be expected. By researching the lives and facts of teen fathers, one finds risk factors that contribute to this spreading epidemic. There are many factors that contribute to the growing number of teen fathers. Some these rates are often affected by demographic factors such as race and age.

Fathers between the age of 14 and 21 are of the following racial backgrounds: 2% white, 5% black, and 2% Hispanic (Thornberry). Some of the higher rates of teen fathers are those for teen males of the younger age group. Fourteen year olds are getting 17-18 year old girls pregnant (Moorer). There are many other factors that contribute to higher rates of teen fathers these days.

One of the most obvious factors is the delinquency rate among today's male youth. The numbers of males that are getting in trouble with the law directly affect the number of teen fathers in today's society. Along with delinquency, disruptive behavior, and high arrest rates prove to be "helpful" to teenage fatherhood (Thornberry). Our younger generation is getting in criminal situations more and more often.

Over the past four years alone delinquency rates have nearly tripled in proportion. Directly affecting this rate, is the rates of males under twenty-five that are, or have been involved in some kind of gang activity. Young males that are involved in gangs are also more likely to produce offspring and not take responsibility for their children. Society has been working for many years now to lower these rates. Although one would not expect it to be, teens that use drugs are also shown to have a high pregnancy and fatherhood rate.

This kind of behavior has also been found to bring about children with severe life long medical disorders and complications. The rates of fathers that use drugs have driven up on the scales more recently. Substance abuse contributes and complicates teen fatherhood. Most of the teen fathers that are not using drugs are still involved in the drug world in some kind of shape or form. These rates are some of the most frightening since they not only show an increase in the teen fatherhood rate, but also when you consider the safety of these young families.

With all of the violence over drugs in today's world it is not really safe any more to bring a child into this kind of situation. The chances are good that if these parents are using drugs that these drugs will affect their offspring. Of the one million teenage girls that become pregnant each year, 14% of them miscarry (DiConsiglio). Some of the few complications that can arise from this accelerated drug use include but are not limited to epilepsy, babies that are born addicted, low birth weight, and premature birth. Children of teen parents are more likely than average to be physically abused by many of these health problems (Kis elica).

The neighborhood that these young teen fathers grow up in has also been known to affect who has children at a younger age and who doesn't. It is a known fact that the environment that males are in when they are younger directly affects the lifestyle that they choose to live by. As stated by Thornberry, "young males are more likely to become fathers if they live in neighborhoods characterized by poverty, high arrests, and social disorganization. If one grows up in a poorly groomed neighborhood then's / he are, of course, more likely to live a less than desirable lifestyle.

The friends that one will inevitably make while living in this type of rough environment can also help this rate to increase. If you grow up surrounded by people who behave a certain way than of course the chances are higher that you will follow the example that they will lead for you. Even more, teenage fathers are two times likely to commit a delinquent act than their friends who do not have children (Breslin). The poverty rates in these neighborhoods are also alarmingly higher than they are in other atmospheres. With the numbers of poor people living in government housing on the rise so is the number of teen males producing children. As a result of these poverty levels most of these fathers are also completely unable to even support these children in any way at all.

Another contributing factor is the family backgrounds of young people these days, which have shown a decline as far as morals and values are concerned. Many teen fathers come from home, which consist of one parent. Furthermore, parents are no longer making teaching their children about real life one of their top priorities. These days the parents are so busy trying to barely hold their lives together that they don't have a much time to dedicate to their children as they used to. Also the parents of today's youth have usually been just as irresponsible with their lifestyles as their children are being. More and more often one is seeing the parents of today's youth also having to many children to even keep their hands on.

Research proves that "teen fathers of all races come from households with more siblings" and poverty stricken (Pirog-good). In this form the number of siblings that an individual has can directly affect whether they become parents at an early age or not. It is a well known fact that children who live in a home with many siblings just want to get out of their house as soon as they see possible. Many of them figure that one of the easiest ways to get out of the house sooner is to produce a family of their own.

Although this is definitely the wrong way to go about spreading ones wings and flying this is how most of today's youth choose to go about doing it. Another factor that affects this statistic is the number of individuals that live in this home. Often when you are involved in a lifestyle such as this one cannot expect just the mother, father, and sibling's to live in the home. In some cases friends relatives and sometimes just people that you or your family members will also stay in the home. When the already influenced child sees all of these people that they do not really know coming in and out of the house all of the time how can they possibly be expected to also continue to stay in the home and try to follow a proper lifestyle that consist of good moral values. Another factor that ends up tying in to the family background is the financial status of the people in the home.

Fathers of teen fathers were less likely to hold professional jobs and were more apt to work as laborers (Prior-good). This factor ends up tying into, in some way, with almost every factor that we have discussed. With these children having to find any way that they can to make money it is not a big surprise that they end up opting for the lifestyles that they so often choose to go for. These young people often will feel obligated to take care of the family including the children that are not even really their responsibility. They often get so used to taking care of the children in the family that they, for the most part, assume that they could take care of children of their own if they wanted to. These young people live a harsh lifestyle and end up spending everyday worrying about where their brother's next meal will come from.

These youth are all to often the ones that end up taking to the street and dealing drugs in order to put food on their families table. The rates of poverty in this world are horrendous. When you yell at the children for the type of lifestyle that they are leading you must remember that they have learned this way of life from their parents. Also in looking at a teen father it is necessary to look at the way that he was raised as a child himself.

Look at how old his parents were when they had him. The average teen father is half the age of his parents (Hollander). Look at the financial situation that the generation before him was facing. It must be considered that the environment that a child is in directly affects the environment that they themselves will most likely end up involved in when it comes to the future.

Also, when looking at the poverty rates, please remember that poverty breed's poverty. If you are born into a poor world than the chances are better than good that you will die in a poor world. It is also necessary that you consider the support that today's youth is getting from those that are around them. How do the people at their home treat them when they have conflicts in their lives?

When there is no one to go to about problems, they cannot be blamed when they grow. Children today cannot be expected to go through their lives without anyone to lean on for support. In most environments today children that are born to young parents will have no one to run to when they get stuck in a bad situation. Instead of talking to a responsible adult about their problems they are forced, as children, to figure it all out themselves. Often these children go solely on what they have seen on the street when they figure out what to do. Most of these individuals also must rely on themselves from a young age for everything else that they need also.

There is no one for them to go to when they need for or a bed to lay their head down on so they are forced to find one for themselves. The lifestyles of teen fathers are also proportionate to almost all of the failure and success rates. The type of lifestyle that you lead, as stated earlier, directly affects the decisions that one will make later on in ones lifetime. There are many contributing factors that make up ones lifestyle. One of these factors is the average amount of time that one will dedicate to their schooling. When you compare the rates of dropouts to the rates of those that actually end up graduating from even high school it is close to amazing to even look at.

Teen fathers were expected to complete fewer years of school than other young males (Pirog-good). When you see these rates it is not hard to find the comparison as far as the rates of teen fathers. 39% of all teen fathers graduate from high school prior to the age 20 (Campanella). Behavioral and discipline control is a major factor also in the school area. "Poor school achievement, low self-esteem for school achievement, and early disengagement are all associated with teen fathering (Thornberry). The kind of trouble that one gets into while in school can practically predict the criminal record that he will have as an adult.

If in trouble constantly as a child then the chances become rather good that he will be in trouble often as an adult. This is also a big part of the fathers' lifestyle as well. When it comes to taking care of your offspring the factors start to change. Even though a lot of the parents seem to have the ability to produce the children at an alarming rate not nearly as many of them can take care of their children quite as fast as they can produce them.

84% of fathers supplied support to the mother before birth, but less than 20% continued eighteen months after the birth (Anthony). Job expectations for these young teen fathers are not nearly as high as they should be. Two out of three fathers that are not with their child do not have a job (Hey). This shows that 57% of teen fathers are not working (DiConsiglio). We can end up being grateful for the fact that a lot more of these young parents are producing income for these children than the ones that are not producing income.

Most of these young fathers will end up producing some kind of income for their children. Teen fathers enter the labor world earlier than their peers and before their early to mid 20's earn more money (Pirog-good). Although the jobs that these young fathers find are ones at fast food restaurants many of them do make the effort to go out and get some kind of income even if it is minimal. Teen fathers earned $7,614 less than males without children, on an annual income (Pirog-good). Even though some of these fathers do get jobs, we still have to look at the numbers that don't. One cannot expect work to come at one and land right in your lap.

There are a lot of unemployment agencies available that can help you to locate work and put yourself into the situation that you need to be in to produce an income for your child to live of. If you want to raise your children the right way than you should be able to walk out your door and hike yourself on down to the nearest employment agency. If one is completely unable to find work for a short period of time there are options that you will be able to seek for assistance. Our government is very good about offering assistance to those who will truly need it.

There are a lot of places that one can go to when one needs assistance. Some of the assistance is available to the father but for most of it the mother will have to come with you to be eligible. Many things are available to help to out. It is not a bad thing to go to these places and seek the proper assistance if you are really in need of it. Some of the things that are offered to those that need it include but are not limited to welfare; self help programs, and parenting classes. All of these programs will be beneficial to those who need the assistance.

If you are looking to get involved in this kind of help you need to remember that you have to be dedicated to the cause. You must attend many appointments for all of these programs. You have to be honest and punctual and remember to be grateful for all of the help that you are going to receive. Getting yourself involved in these types of programs is, for some people, the first step in getting your life back in order the way that it should be. If you are dedicated to these programs and don't take them for granted they can be just the helping hands that many people need in their lives. Shamefully to say the life expectancies for these types of individuals are not as high as one would hope that they would be.

But, males that have fathered a child will report higher levels of self esteem than those who have not (Robinson). In a way one would probably understand why this is so, but often the truth can be one of the hardest things that you will hear in your lifetime. Many factors that include the ones that we have discussed in this paper are the reason for this tragedy. All though we can try to change the way that things are the harsh reality of it all is that we cannot always make the world perfect. Fathers, who stay with their own families, although this might not always be the best decision, are expected to live much longer than those who end up actually getting married after their children are born. 45% of teen fathers lived at home with both parents until age 18 (Pirog-good).

Single mothers can in some cases live long happy lives and take care of their children. 75% of teenage parents are not married (Robinson). On the other hand the suicide rates for young single mothers who are minorities are even higher than those for young males. In 1988, 1 in 70 unmarried males, age 15-19, fathered a child (Duberstein). Often the pressures of being a young mother on her own is too much for some people to even consider being able to handle. There are many programs out there that are made to help young fathers are able to change all of these statistics.

There is a program located in Georgia called the Christian Science Monitor dedicated to helping young fathers. These programs are available to anyone who is in need of them. Many of these programs are offered at high schools around the nation. Some of these programs are offered at various college campuses and help the father to grow and mature into his new family life. The majorities of these self-help programs are offered at government buildings in every county and require more effort on the parent's part than other programs. These self help programs require that everyone enrolls and attends regular group and single meetings.

You are required to keep in touch with the person that heads up your meeting and be willing to make sacrifices. If one really wants this help though it is expected that they would be willing to do all of this. The main idea of these programs, other than to provide help to these young fathers, is to improve or at least help teen fathers get a better self-image. When these teen fathers start to feel more positive about themselves, they become better individuals and better fathers in whole. We desperately need to do something to help out today's latest epidemic.

Many young parents are babies. "They have no idea of how to raise a child, little education and skill... they also lack the need to provide food, clothing, and shelter for the child. They still have a long time to learn what love is" (Hey). In order to help we need to be teaching instead of just constantly putting down our younger population as we have in the past. If we learn to appreciate our young people and want to help them do better than we can. Everyone will have to put effort forth in order to do this.

One of the main things that we need to be teaching is the importance of abstinence in today's society. With all of the diseases that are traveling around you would think that no one would want to have sex at all. You would think that young adults would be thinking about catching a sexually transmitted disease instead of just getting someone pregnant. It is unreasonable to think that we could convince the unmarried population to quit having sex all together. Since we cannot do this we should at least teach about safe sex. Health class in junior high is obviously just not doing the trick anymore.

It is time that we stop being timid about sex and start laying out all of the facts instead..