Those at highest risk of teen pregnancy are girls from single parent homes, families with low socioeconomic status, and girls with a sister who became pregnant as a teenager (Talashek, Alba, & Patel, 2006). A significant risk factor identified by the National Center for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy (NCPTP) is that 75% of pregnant teens have mothers who were also pregnant as a teenager (VanLenten, 200?). The lifestyle of the average teenager is not conducive to fetal development. Teen mothers are more likely to smoke, eat a fast food diet, less likely to have adequate prenatal care, and more
In 2006, the proportion of mothers with newborns that were in the workforce was at 57% (“Working Parents”, 2012). That number increased to 61% in 2008 (“Working Parents”, 2012). There are many single working mothers who have not finished High School or received a GED. This leads to problems down the road. Thirty percent of teenage girls who have dropped out of school listed pregnancy or parenthood as the primary reason (“Teen Pregnancy Prevention”, n.d.).
Every day more people die in America than are born. Any increases in population since 1972 have been due to immigration.2 The sociological perils we face are not those of population explosion, but population reduction. The Population Research Institute agrees, and concluded, “Our long-term problem is not too many children, but too few children.”3 The legalization of abortion resulted in a drastic reduction of the number of children in this country. By 1980 there were 6.5 million fewer school-age children in America than just a decade earlier. This required the closing of nine-thousand elementary schools.4 Legalized abortion has resulted in over 46 million fewer taxpayers in America to support the elderly.
I am the baby of four girls. My parents separated and divorced before I was a year old. At 10 months old, the odds were stacked against me. Research of Dr. Bravada Garrett-Akinsanya and many other studies have discovered shocking and astonishing finds; “Daughters of single mothers are 53% more likely to marry as teenagers, 111% more likely to have children as teenagers, 164% more likely to have a premarital birth and 92% more likely to dissolve their own marriages.” (Garrett-Akinsanya) I didn’t know it yet, but the likelihood of me becoming a statistic was practically
Foster care is unfavorable to American society, because “according to national statistic 40 to 50 percent of those children will never complete high school. Sixty-six percent of them will be homeless, go to jail or die within one year of leaving the foster care system at 18.” “80 percent of the prison population once was in foster care, and that girls in foster care are 600 percent more likely than the general population to become pregnant before the age of 21.” BRITTANY NUNN (2012), author of Statistics Suggest Bleak Futures for Children Who Grow up in the Foster Care
The lack of education leads to further development of barriers such as a financial barrier and poor lifestyle that makes them unable to provide for themselves and their child. Most jobs that do not require a high school diploma only offer a minimum wage and do not offer adequate benefits to meet all medical needs. “key indicators of health, infant mortality rates and low-birth weight rates, were elevated when infants were born to mothers who were less educated” (Flores et al,1998). Considering that statement I believe that the biggest barrier affecting this vulnerable population’s health is education. Vulnerable mothers that do not finish getting their education become discouraged and loose the motivation and drive to tackle the oncoming challenges that life brings, creating for them another barrier on the micro level; it being a financial barrier.
The rate of teen pregnancy is high, as you can see in mainstream America. Girls with babies are now even getting their own shows. Birth control significantly cuts down on the teen pregnancy rate. If a sexually active teenage girl can have open access to birth control, the odds of her getting pregnant
According to Journal of Pediatrics (2010), “40% of obese children already have 2 or more risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise is the leading cause. The case study of Jenna Riley presents a 14 year old teenager who’s struggling with her weight and diabetes. In addition, she is very self-conscious about her weight and feels emotionally rejected by her friends because she is overweight. According to National Institutes of Health (2011), "Children with obesity-related diabetes may have serious difficulties making basic lifestyle changes” (Obese teens and diabetes, para.).
Teen pregnancy proceeds as a major issue with more than half of all teenagers in the United States stating that they had participated in sexual intercourse at least one point before high school ended. For these reasons, its highly probably for teen pregnancy to happen when one becomes sexually active at a young age and don’t realize the consequences. Teen mothers whom 2 doubtlessly received the proper education are “less likely to complete high school, tend to earn less and are disproportionately poor. About 50 percent of all teen mothers are on welfare within one year of the birth of their first
High rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are an important problem (Kirby, 2009). The Center for Disease control says that one-third of girls get pregnant before the age of 20, there are 750,000 teen pregnancies annually. They also report that eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens. Statistics suggest that in spite of school based sex education, sexual abstinence campaigns and access to contraception, teen pregnancy continues to be a serious