Research Question Are Children Of Adolescent Mothers example essay topic

Americans take great pride in their leadership among nations. Such a distinction becomes embarrassing however when the title is claimed for the highest teenage pregnancy rate of any developed nation with nearly one million pregnancies each year. There has been extensive research on the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy which has yielded important information about pregnancy rates and risk factors. Researchers concur that pregnancy is a time of dramatic transition. A first time pregnancy propels the mother from the status of woman to mother. While these changes are noteworthy for the adult woman confronting pregnancy, their effect is frequently magnified when the expecting mother is an adolescent.

Adolescent childbearing has become a prominent social issue because of the broad social and economic consequences (Harvey, 1995). Statement of the Problem Adolescent childbearing has become a prominent social issue because of the broad social and personal consequences. Babies born to teen mothers are at increased risk of developing physical, social, and cognitive problems and deficiencies. Teenage mothers are at increased risk for pre-term labor and premature childbirth. They are also at increased risk of pregnancy complications, infant physical disability, and low birth weight.

In many cases prenatal medical care is frequently delayed or inadequately delivered. Not only are there personal issues, there are social issues as well. For example, adolescent mothers are less likely to receive child support from biological fathers, less likely to work, and less likely to be able to provide for themselves and children without outside assistance (Coard, 2000). It is well documented that teenage mothers do not acquire as much education as teens who delay childbearing, therefore they are less likely to find stable employment and more likely to rely on public assistance, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty. In fact one half of teen mothers go on welfare within a year and 77% within five years of the birth of a child (Corcoran, 1999).

While teenagers make up less than 8% of the welfare caseload, 43% of long-term recipients gave birth for the first time when they were 17 years old or younger (Harris, 1998). As of Spring 1999 the estimated cost of society subsidizing these births is 20 billion dollars (Kellogg, 1999). Importance of the Problem Approximately every two minutes, a teenage girl in the United States gives birth (Ravert, 1997). Over the past few decades, the problem of teen pregnancy has grown considerably in this country. It has been receiving a great deal of public and official attention recently, including expressions of concern from President Clinton (Trad, 1999). However, the most extensive dilemma regarding the issue of adolescent pregnancy is the question of prevention.

Preventing teen pregnancy includes such problems as the availability of birth control, sexual education among children and adolescents, and a greater sense of support for pregnant teens. However, before society can begin to successfully prevent pregnancies among teenage girls, the underlying causes and facts about the dilemma must first be exposed Research Question Are children of adolescent mothers predisposed to adolescent childbearing? Independent and Dependent Variables For the purpose of this study, the dependent variable is children of adolescent mothers, which will be measured by the following definition: Being the of a teenage mother between the age of 13 and 19. For the purpose of this study, the independent variable is predisposition to adolescent childbearing which will be measured by the following definition: Whether or not the teenager is a parent, familial status of teenagers parents, i. e., divorced, married, separated, and socioeconomic status (SES). SECTION II LITERATURE REVIEW In this study, the researcher has come across a plethora of articles pertaining to teen pregnancy. All the articles in some way contributed to the researchers knowledge so a review of the literature was done.

Nature Factors The most extensive use of different forms of information gathering goes to Gordon (Gordon, 1996). In a study to evaluate the predetermined lists of causes and factors in adolescent decision making, used interviews, discussion, and observation to come to their conclusions. The results of the study were alarming when it found, that of the students evaluated most of the pregnant adolescents wanted to be pregnant and wanted to have their babies. They also found that many women want to remain single instead of being "tied down". Furthermore, they found just like all previous studies that low academic skills combined with poverty often results in pregnancy.

In 1998, Harris investigated the perceptions of 22 pregnant adolescents, and 8 adolescent fathers. All participants were African American. They were asked questions regarding sex, love, intimacy, pregnancy, and parenting. She found the earlier men arch does not hasten first intercourse. She found that younger age at first intercourse does not lead to more partners by first pregnancy. She found that a cycle of adolescent motherhood may exist.

Also, love and intimacy are not synonymous with sex. Furthermore, she found that pregnancy is not usually a means of gaining love. She also found that early parenthood does not always lead to educational derailment. In 1995, Rodriguez and Moore (Rodriguez, 1995) designed a study to seek connections among the developmental, cognitive, social, and emotional variables inherent in teen pregnancy issues by assessing the perceptions of pregnant teens currently enrolled in school based pregnancy programs.

The data in this study sought to determine correlations among personal, family, race / ethnicity, and educational background variables and unplanned teen pregnancy like membership in one parent family, a lack of emotional closeness with family members and dearth of sex education in their family and educational background. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to volunteer respondents enrolled in 14 school based pregnant / parenting programs in Texas. They found that adolescents perceived a lack of emotional closeness with their parents, they indicated a dearth of sex education, and evidenced race / ethnicity differences on key variables. Another conclusion was the if we don't teach our kids sex education by the age of 10 it may be to little to late. It was the goal of South and Baume r to evaluate Wilson's (1987) argument that racial differences in rates of premarital childbearing can be attributed to racial differences in the types of neighborhoods inhabited by black and white women. They used a sample of 562 women who participated in a National survey of Children.

The 1980 census was also utilized in this study. They found that both indicators of neighborhood socioeconomic status, neighborhood disadvantage and neighborhood affluence are significantly associated with your women's risk of having a teenage pregnancy (South, 2000). In a medical study conducted by Susman, Schmeelk, and Wor all, blood samples were drawn from 59 low income pregnant adolescents from the ages of 13 to 19. The blood was analyzed in order to examine the links between products of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), and depression and antisocial behavior in pregnant adolescents.

They found that there is a significant relationship between depression and conduct disorders and CRH (cortisol releasing hormone). This poses a significant risk to the fetus in since CRH is related to fetal lung maturation (Susman, 1999). In one case, Tomal (Tomal, 1999) used the 1994 Illinois Department of Public Health birth data to study teenage birth rates as a pooled sample and as an un pooled sample to determine not only the importance of various predictors on teen birth but to also determine whether the effects are statistically significant in two different age groups. The study showed that young teens reacts differently than older teens to their socioeconomic environment, although neither groups birth rates were statistically related to unemployment rates or population density.

The impact of education was strong. The impact of income was surprisingly low. They also found that being part of a married couple family impacted the older teens more than it did the younger teens. Roberts, Roberts, and Morgan interviewed 30 African-American women. They wanted to identify the factors in the histories of women at-risk, especially alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy that would interfere with positive behavioral change. After interviewing all participant with a questionnaire that was redesign of a Roberts (1996) they found surprisingly that there were no significant differences between the participants from a drug treatment center, and normal university students.

The results of this study show that that teenage pregnancy remains a big issue. It found that substance abuse and poverty influence women to maintain relationships with drug dealers and to engage in prostitution as a way to support themselves and their children. Rape and incest, as well as sexual and physical child abuse were significant problems in the histories of many of the participants (Roberts, 1996). Nurture Factors In an attempt to examine the relationship of socio demographic, family, and health factors to the occurrence of repeat pregnancy, Coard, N itz, and Felice examined Eighty first time adolescent mothers. The mothers were recruited from a clinic at a university-based medical center over a four-year period. The mothers were interviewed and administered 50-item questionnaire.

The findings of the three researchers was that 34% of the adolescent mothers who were 16 at the time of first birth had a repeat pregnancy in the second year. They also found that 76% of the mothers who used oral contraception did not get pregnant in the second year. Another finding was that the mothers who used implant means of contraception didn't get pregnant 95.1% or the time. Which shows that the implant sticks are more effective than oral contraceptives (Coard, 2000).

In 1995 Harvey and Singer (Harvey, 1995) administered the Teens Health Needs Assessment Survey in order to dig deeper into the multiple factors associated with engaging in sexual intercourse like demographic characteristics, personal variables, and problem and risk-taking behaviors. The study was conducted in a public high school in the Pacific Northwest. The findings of these researchers was that in both female and male adolescents, the strongest predictor of sexual activity was alcohol consumption. After age and parental education variables are entered and the effects of these are controlled, alcohol consumption is the variable that enters first. In 1999, Kellogg distributed a 9 page survey to 168 pregnant or parenting adolescents newly enrolled in a school age parenting program in San Antonio. She wanted to explore whether early sexual experiences, as well as other factors, are related to the age at which adolescents become pregnant.

She found that younger age at USE was associated with both younger age of first WSE, and younger age of first pregnancy. It also found that direct and indirect relationships were found between sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy (Kellogg, 1999). In an effort to determine whether or not teenage childbearing affects educational attainment, work experience, and wages Klepinger and colleagues analyzed the data collected in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. After reviewing the information they found that adolescent fertility substantially reduces the human capital investments of young women.

Young white mothers earn less because they obtain less formal education and work experience. For black women, early childbearing has adverse effects on schooling and thus on wages. The researchers determined that teenage childbearing reduces white women's wages by 23% and black women's wages by 13% (Klepinger, 1999). In a study to examine the sexual behavior of Black Hispanic youth Miller, Forehand, and Kot chick interviewed 907 adolescents and their mothers. The participants were part of a Family Adolescent Risk Behavior and Communications Study. All the participants were either Black or Hispanic.

The researchers found that the categorization of youth by age of first intercourse, sexually active or not sexually active and number of sexual partners fails to present the fully picture of sexual risk taking. They also found that alcohol consumption was associated with most outcome measures tested (Miller, 2000. In 1995 Morgan, George, and Fisher (Morgan, 1995) reported on a study that they did to study the role of selected psychological and sociocultural factors in placing suburban, white, middle class adolescents at risk for becoming pregnant. The study was conducted on female adolescents between the ages of 15 and 21 who attended North Shore University Hospital's Five towns Adolescent Health Service. The results of this study were that the earlier a person starts having intercourse the better chance they have of getting pregnant before they are 20 years old. This study also found that of the girls sample the ones who's mothers died had at lest one child.

Since there were only 3 kids who's mothers had died this would need further exploration. In 1995, J Pete-McGadney (McGadney, 1995) investigated the possible association between self-concept as a function of race, geographic location, and pregnancy. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire was administered orally to 199 adolescents who were found at one of two schools for pregnant adolescents in Florida. After analyzing the information from the questionnaire the researchers found that the self-concept of pregnant adolescents does not mirror that of their non-pregnant control group. The also found that all the feelings that are different aren't all bad.

They found that there are a few traits that are associated with self-concept that are positive. (Ravert, 1999), conducted a study that was to investigate whether there is a relationship between the pregnant adolescents family stress level and the perception of her pregnancy as a life event. They also examined the age of first men arch among pregnant adolescents and its relationship to family stress levels. The researcher utilized the Adolescent Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes to measure family stress levels. She examined the results of 97 adolescents who were recruited from six community parenting clinics. She found that the subjects had higher than normal family stress levels.

She found no significant relationship between family stress levels and the age of men arch. Educational / Program Evaluation There is a program in the U.S. called Journey Toward womanhood. It is a program that is grounded in the belief that by instilling a sense of pride and self-determination females will delay sexual intercourse. In 2000, Dixon, Schoonmaker, and Phil liber (Dixon, 2000) took an in-depth look at the program and its effectiveness. The study was conducted on 65 African American females, 33 who had participated in the JEW training, and 32 who didn't. They found that the training is effective, and it does help deter sex, unprotected sex, and pregnancy.

The purpose of a study done by Somers and Gleason was to study the effectiveness of the BTIO program that utilizes fake children to simulate parenthood. The sample was comprised of two samples of adolescents. They were mostly Caucasian with the first group being 9th and 10th graders and the second group being 11th and 12th graders. Each of the groups was administered the questionnaire before the BTIO training and after the BTIO training.

After the program students showed positive indications of lessons learned in the training. This research provides hope that mock child rearing experiences can offer some contribution to the deterrence of teen pregnancy (Somers, 1999).