Teen pregnancy
Teen pregnancy: Education as a predictor
By Daniel Wallace
Teen pregnancy is a pressing issue concerning millions of people every year. Three out of ten females become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of twenty according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. About a quarter of these pregnancies are to unmarried teens. This may explain why the United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world. Teens are especially at risk and unplanned pregnancy seems to effect them the most for some obvious reasons. The National Campaign tells us that 41% of teens who begin families before the age of 18 ever complete high school, and only 2% of teen mothers earn a college degree by the age of 30. Not only are the mothers in danger, but the children of teen parents see consequences as well, they often do worse in school and are 50% more likely to repeat a grade. Educational failure is said to be a key predictor of teen pregnancy.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy is one major organization helping in the national fight against this epidemic. In 2002 this organization was given a grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help states and communities improve their teen pregnancy prevention efforts. Launched in ’02 the project-“Putting What Works to Work”- is an effort that recognizes and conforms other research-based practices that help prevent teen-pregnancy. PWWTW, as its called, work closely with states and communities to incorporate such practices into their work. PWWTW will be led by the National Campaign with support from Child Trends, Philiber Research Associates, and other distinguished organizations in the study of adolescent well-being and research. Another agency helping this cause is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The HHS funds a wide range of health and human services programs through state block grants, including those that provide health and social services to teenagers that further pregnancy prevention goals.
What’s being done?
The best intervention for this issue is public awareness; this issue must be addressed on a national level and constantly reinforced. One such intervention has been used for the past six years and has proven itself to be useful; the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Held the first week in May, this occasion encourages teens to go to the events official website and take an online quiz testing their responses to sexually provocative situations. This event is supposed to raise awareness and provide a safe and realistic alternative instead of simply insisting on abstinence-only education.
Continuing education about this issue would be incredibly helpful. The National Campaign states that students who feel a strong connection to their school and community programs are more likely to postpone sexual activity. In general sexual education is enforced in middle school and seems to be put on a back-burner when high school comes around. The main source of sex related information is said to be the teen’s parents and not peers, when in actuality peers play a major role in relaying sexual information; this is extremely detrimental because of misinformation. If sexual education was mandated in high school teen pregnancy would no doubt see a serious decline. Youth development programs are proving promising in lowering rates a teen pregnancy according to the National Campaign. These programs include during or after school classes, school-to-work activities, community service activities, mentoring, tutoring and other activities that foster promote awareness among youth
mwalsh @ April 10, 2008
This subject is very interesting and is becoming more and more of a problem. I really enjoyed reading about this topic it was very informational
This article had a lot of interesting and useful facts and percentages about teen pregnancy. For example the National Campaign tells us that 41% of teens who begin families before the age of 18 ever complete high school, and only 2% of teen mothers earn a college degree by the age of 30. This fact really got to me and I also enjoyed reading this article. The first paragraph especially because it really captured my attention.
This article is very interesting and I agree with it. Teen pregnancy is becoming a big issue nowadays and I think that getting all the facts out and informing people about it is a big step towards trying to change it.
I enjoyed reading this article. I agree with it completely. I think that there really does need to be more education about teen pregnancy. If there is more facts being let out then there will be more prevention being done.
Awareness of the issues at hand is only the first step in understanding a social problem. Teen pregnancy is a huge problem universally but just knowing about it is not enough, actions need to be taken to prevent it from happening. This article gave effective information about the problems we face in teen pregnancy, but also how to do something about it. The article was well written easily understood and makes you think about the issues at hand, and what you or your government can do to help solve them.
I think this is a very important article that all young teens should read. I feel that the best way to decrease this problem is to give them education about pregnancy & sex. I think the United States have come a long with preventing pregnancy and informing teen the effects of sex but I still feel that we will always have this problem.