Teen Pregnancy: The Downfalls for Teen Parents and Their Children

Teen pregnancy has always been common, up until the early 1900s, however, it has become something looked down upon. In the earlier days, it was common for a teenager to be childbearing. Now, in this day and age, teen parents, mostly mothers, are looked down upon, belittle, and some are even kicked out to be on their own with no help. The pressure and judgment females go through when they are pregnant can cause detrimental downfalls, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Safe Sex is not something naturally spoken of in a home to prevent teen pregnancies from happening. Most parents try to avoid the conversation with their child(ren), hoping they will not involve themselves in sexual activities until they are older. Without the knowledge of safe sex and being a parent, teen parents can go through major downfalls, for example, depression, lacking education, and as well as, not being financially stable to provide for themselves and their child. This issue affects communities, ethnicities, and families all over, from grandparents to grandchildren. Every family member is affected from the conceiving of a child is brought upon them. The pregnancies change many factors in the lives of the teen parents, more females than males, however, their lives can take a drastic negative change. Changes that are not taught to teenagers as much as it should be and as often. Safe sex and pregnancy is a lesson that should be thoroughly taught to a child as they grow up. Depression is a major downfall that a teen parent can go through. Statistics prove it is more likely for a teen parent to go through depression than a teenager without preparing to become a parent. Research suggests that childbearing causes psychological distress among teenagers. Having a baby at a young age even affects your social life, your personal life and communication skills. Childbearing pushes you away from people, being scared of judgment from peers and elders.

In “Teen Pregnancy Issues and Challenges,” from the American Pregnancy Association, states “Many people say it is hard enough just being a teenager by itself – add in pregnancy and all that planning and preparing that comes with it, and it becomes even more challenging. Sometimes, “challenge” can be an understatement.” A teen parent being lost and lacking the knowledge of raising a child can put them in a hard place where they do not know if they want to keep their child, abort it, or put it up for adoption. The rate of teen pregnancy and depression are relating to the community in many ways. They distant the child from society and life in general. With depression forcing its way through a teen parent, it would make it hard for a teen parent to continue their schooling to graduate. Jason M. Fletcher mentioned in his entry in Journal of Human Resources that most teen mothers do not graduate high school. It tends to be hard on a female to carry a child and make sure they stay on their school, while learning the basics of raising a child. Studies show “teenage childbearing likely reduces the probability of receiving a high school diploma by 5 to 10% points. ” During pregnancy you have to miss a certain amount of days in school causing them to get behind in classes, school work and other school activities. Catching up on missed work can be a hard task to do while getting items ready for a child and going through the pain of carrying a child. It can be uncomfortable being at school and trying to focus would be hard with a discomforting pain. It also increases the probability of receiving cash assistance and decrease years of schooling. With depression and lacking knowledge, leads to being unable to be stable financially. Without a high school diploma it is hard to get a well-off job, unless it is a fast food restaurant, a waiter(ess), or a cashier at a local mini mart. It becomes hard to obtain the requirements needed to get a good paying job. Leaving the adolescents parents to pick up the slack of what they cannot get, since they are lacking the pay they may need. A major problem teen mothers face, is not having a job to buy the essentials needed to care for her child.

However, if they do have a job, they can’t bare to work enough hours, considering their physical disadvantage. Teen fathers statistically are more likely to abandon the responsibility of being a father. Resulting in them not being in the child’s life. Leaving the mother, the only dependable person. Having a baby so young which can reduce the likelihood of the teen to finish school. Meaning, they’re robbed of good education and therefore a stable job afterwards. Teen mothers work long hours and will have the least time to study, do homework or may even find it difficult to make it to class. Some teens are lucky enough to have a supportive family, but the responsibility is ultimately still on her and her family might struggle to help her provide. Most doctor visits the teen partakes in, to attend to babies prenatal care are covered by teens parents or another support system. This social issue has become important because it is happening more often than expected nowadays. More girls are dropping out of school and going through depression because the judgmental society we live in.

According to Laura McDavitt, “have struggled with high poverty and high teen birth rates and local governments could reduce both poverty and teen birth rates by re-examining the predominantly conservative abstinence-based programs popular in many states.” Many people want to establish more abstinence and safe sex programs hoping for the numbers of teen birth rates to slow down the increasing numbers. The rates of teen pregnancy have risen from 9% to 41% since 2015. There are nearly 193,477 cases of teen pregnancies a year. More cases in a year that have ever been counted for. Most of the teens give their child up for adoption, abort them, or sign their rights over to their parents to be raised as their siblings. It has become detrimental in the society that we live in. Teen parents have become childish, immature, and nonchalant to the idea of condoms or female condoms. Adolescents have been raised without being taught the consequences and dangers of unprotected sex. Teen pregnancy has been around for many, many years and will never become extinct, however, it can decrease in percentages with the teachings of safe sex, pregnancy, STIs, STDs, etc. If there were more programs around to benefit the issue there could be a hope in decreasing numbers. We chose this topic to do our research on because we are all teenagers who see other teenagers go through such problems daily, showing that none of us are educated thoroughly on the topic at hand.

As a whole, we believe this issue should be talked about more and taught to all children across the world. Teen pregnancy has resulted in deaths and miscarriages in several cases from the downfalls we have talked about and many others. There should be more lessons and programs on pregnancy in teens. The percentage increase from 2015 to now is outrageously high. In the early 1900s, it was normal for teenagers to be pregnant, however, the percentage from the time period was 11%, still a low number compared to the 41% it has now become. Most teens have become excited to carry a child thinking it would make them an adult earlier, only to leave them in the wild about things they did not know they would go through during and after the pregnancy. Most teen fathers do not stick around for the baby, claiming they are not ready for the child or the child is not theirs, leaving the teen mother to fend for herself with the help of her family who may be overwhelmed with another mouth to feed, clothes to buy, and the amount of stress that comes with the infant coming into the world. There are so many factors that can cause downfalls within teen pregnancy. My group and I believe this topic is something that should be a serious topic at the dinner table, in the classroom, and even on the streets. It is something that has taken the world by shock and used its disadvantages against those of young descent who does know any better.