Human Sexuality Project Draft

Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy of a woman who is aged 19 or younger. Even though
the number of teenage pregnancies has been falling in recent years, the United States still has
the highest number of teenage pregnancies among developed countries. Teenage pregnancies
constitute a major social, health, and economic problem as teenage mothers experience lower
educational attainment, face unemployment, have higher chances of being incarcerated, and
suffer mental health problems. These negative effects of teenage pregnancy are not limited to
the mothers; their children also face similar problems. Therefore, it is important to find and
implement measures that effectively address the problem of teenage motherhood. This project
examines some of the causes of teenage pregnancy, their consequences to both the mother
and the child, and prevention measures.

Causes of Teenage Pregnancy

There are many factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy. According to Akella &
Jordan (2014), the main factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy are social and economic
background of the teenager and their cultural values and norms. With regard to social and
economic background, Akella & Jordan (2014) found that children raised in single-parent
household are more likely to be teenage mothers than children raised in two-parent
households.

Poverty is also a major contributor of teenage pregnancy. Poor teenagers are more
likely to engage in unprotected sexual behaviors which result in teenage pregnancy. The
connection between poverty and teenage pregnancy could be that poor teenagers often live in
neighborhoods where they are likely to be victims of sexual violence. They are also likely to
engage in sexual relations for money.

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Lastly, Akella & Jordan (2014), argue that the level of education of the parent has an
impact on the likelihood of a teenager getting pregnant. Generally, the lower the parent’s
education level the more likely their teenage daughters are to get pregnant. Poorly educated
parents may not be able to provide their children the right information about reproductive and
sexual health. As a result, their teenage daughters are likely to engage in unprotected sexual
relations out of ignorance.

In addition to socio-economic background, Akella & Jordan (2014) also found that
cultural values and norms are also a major determinant of whether a teenager gets pregnant or
not. They found that teenagers often imitate their parents. If a teenager’s mother also got
pregnant when they were teenagers, the teenager might not see getting pregnant while still a
teenager as a problem. Family values may also determine the teenager’s decision-making. For
instance, if a teenager’s family strongly believes that abortion is wrong, the teenager may
decide to carry the pregnancy and deliver a baby rather than abort. Closely related to family
values is religion. Teenagers who have strong religious beliefs may be reluctant to engage in
sexual relations before they get married. As such, they may be less likely to get pregnant as
teenagers. They also likely to prefer carrying the pregnancy and delivering instead of going
for abortion because of their religious beliefs (Akella & Jordan, 2014).

Consequences of Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy has consequences to both the teenage mother and the child. For the
teenage mother, the consequences can be economic, social, and health. According to Walker
& Holtfreter (2019), the stress that teenage mothers experience during pregnancy and after
delivery often leads them to engage in deviant and criminal behaviors which may result in
their incarceration.

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Apart from suffering from stress and depression, teenage mothers also suffer from
stigma. Society generally has a negative view towards teenage pregnancy. The understanding
of teenage pregnancy continues to be dominated by negative stereotypes. Teenage pregnancy
continues to be popularly linked with irresponsibility and promiscuity. Therefore, young
mothers suffer from discrimination and stigma. According to Jones et al. (2019), the stigma
against teenage mothers is so strong that even other teenage mothers do not like associating
with fellow teenage mothers. Jones et al. (2019) holds that the negative portrayal of teenage
mothers in the wider society could be responsible for the strong stigma that teenage mothers
face.

The pregnancy of teenage mothers also often disrupts their school attendance.
According to Kappeler (2015), most teenagers who get pregnant end up dropping out of
school. Due to their low educational attainment, teenage mothers struggle to get a job. Most
of them have to depend on welfare payments for their survival. Thus, many teenage mothers
end up suffering from poverty.

It is not just the mothers that face the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy;
their children also face similar consequences. According to Lehr et al. (2016), children of
teenage mothers are often at risk of various development delays. These delays include fine
motor, problem-solving, and personal-social development. Lehr et al. (2016) argues that these
development delays are a result of the stress that teenage mothers experience during
pregnancy and after delivery.

Interventions for Preventing Teenage Pregnancy

In the U.S., teenage birth rates peaked in the early 1990s (Kappeler, 2015). Since
then, the rates have been steadily declining. For instance, between 2012 and 2013, teenage

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pregnancy rates declined by 10%. The decline in teenage births was experienced across all
racial groups with American Indians and Blacks recording the highest decline. Despite this
decline, the U.S. still remains the country with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy among
developed countries. There also remain significant racial disparities with regard to teenage
pregnancy. For instance, teenage birth rates among Hispanic, Black, and American Indian
communities remain almost as twice as high as those of Whites (Kappeler, 2015).

Various interventions have been explored to help in further reducing teenage
pregnancy rates and lower racial disparities. The most common intervention measure for
preventing teenage pregnancy is sex education. Sex education has many components. The
components include abstinence-only programs, safer-sex practices, and contraception. All
these components constitute comprehensive sex education. However, in many countries,
including the U.S., there has been promotion of abstinence-only programs at the expense of
comprehensive sex education (Carter, 2012). According to Carter (2012), an abstinence-only
approach is not only ineffective in preventing teenage pregnancies, it also positively
correlates with an increase in teenage pregnancies.

Instead of focusing on ineffective abstinence-only programs, the rates of teenage
pregnancy can significantly be reduced through adoption of comprehensive sex education
(Evans et al., 2014). Comprehensive sex education includes teaching teenagers safe sex
practices and use of contraception. According to Carter (2012), the comprehensive sex
education approach is the most effective measure of reducing teenage pregnancies. Thus, in
order to accelerate the reduction in the rates of teenage pregnancies, it is important to expand
the adoption of comprehensive sex education across the country.

Conclusion

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Teenage pregnancy remains a major social, economic, and health problem in the U.S.
Over the past three decades, there has been a continuous in teenage pregnancy rates. Despite
this drop, America’s teenage pregnancy rates remain the highest among developed countries.
Therefore, it is important to intensify efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy levels in the
country. In this paper, it has been shown that comprehensive sex education is the most
effective approach of reducing teenage pregnancy rates.

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References

Akella, D., & Jordan, M. (2014). Impact of social and cultural factors on teenage
pregnancy. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 8(1), 3.

Carter, D. (2012). Comprehensive sex education for teens is more effective than abstinence.
The American Journal of Nursing, 112(3), 15.

Evans, R., Garner, P., & Honig, A. S. (2014). Prevention of violence, abuse, and neglect in
early childhood: A review of the literature on research, policy, and practice. Early
child development and care, 184(9-10), 1295-1335.

Jones, C., Whitfield, C., Seymour, J., & Hayter, M. (2019). ‘Other Girls’: A Qualitative
Exploration of Teenage Mothers’ Views on Teen Pregnancy in
Contemporaries. Sexuality & Culture, 23(3), 760-773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-
019-09589-4.

Kappeler, E. M. (2015). Adolescent health and teen pregnancy in the United States: a
progress report. Public Health Reports, 130(3), 196-198.

Lehr, M., Wecksell, B., Nahum, L., Neuhaus, D., Teel, K. S., Linares, L. O., & Diaz, A.
(2016). Parenting stress, child characteristics, and developmental delay from birth to
age five in teen mother–child dyads. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(3),
1035-1043.

Walker, D. A., & Holtfreter, K. (2019). Teen Pregnancy, Depression, and Substance Abuse:
The Conditioning Effect of Deviant Peers. Deviant Behavior, 1-16. DOI:
10.1080/01639625.2019.1666610.