Teen Pregnancy Formally, Teen Pregnancy

Teen Pregnancy

Formally, teen pregnancy is based on a woman who will not reach her 20th birthday by the expected birth of her first child. This definition does not assume marriage, nor if the woman is legally an adult (depending on the country). The idea of marriage and birthing age has, of course, changed based on societal and cultural issues. At one time, when the lifespan was 40, it made sense for a girl to begin her childbearing years as soon as she was able, usually around 12-13. In contemporary U.S. culture, however, the amount of information and professional data that is needed to become a well-rounded citizen is so high that we usually gauge 18 as the very minimum age to begin to have the resources and/or acumen to raise a family. Like many other contemporary issues, though, the impact of diet and artificial hormones in the food supply, combined with advertising and entertainment's push towards sexuality, often pressures younger people to experiment with sex far earlier, regardless of the health or psychological consequences (Linking Teen Pregnancy Prevention to Other Critical Social Issues, 2010).

However, this is not to say that there have not been tremendous successes in curbing teenage pregnancy since 1991. National statistics show that because of the work in family planning, sex education, the availability of birth control, and even free condom distribution, has especially had an effect on social statistics in the United States. The United States still has one of the highest teen pregnancy ratios (about 750,000 annual, or about 3 out of every 10, mostly focusing on the poor and disenfranchised population. In fact, the problem is multifaceted; if a baby is born to a teen mother, the parents unmarried when the child was born, and the mother failed to receive her GED or high school diploma, a child has different levels of chance of growing up and remaining in poverty. 27%, in fact, with one of the above; 42% with two, and 64% with three. but, the public and societal costs are cut drastically, and a child has about a 7% chance of growing up in poverty if none of the items mentioned happens to them (Ibid.).

However, the issue changes drastically when some of the sociological issues of contemporary society are introduced. Certainly, trying to legislate morality is not the answer; the issue of becoming pregnant is rarely one of a moral nature. Most of the urban poor that comprise the bulk of the teen pregnancy population indicate they still wish for marriage and a nuclear family someday. Instead, many of these teen mothers indicate that having a baby at an early age was an opportunity to prove their worth, that they were actually women who could be loved, and coming often from homes in which there is no father, not long-term loving relationship, that they could enter the adult world and have a baby which would be 100% dependent upon them with unconditional love (of course, not thinking about all the responsibility that goes along with having a child) (Edin and Kefalas, 2005, 3-9).

Typically, class does have an effect upon teen pregnency for a variety of reasons. The urban poor tend to have less access to some of the opportunities and activities of middle and upper class girls; they are often alone longer during the day because their mother or grandmother is working; they often do not have access to the same amount of information about birth control and/or abstinance that other children; and they are often so mired in poverty that they are looking for something that they can control, hold onto, and actually be responsible for. Often poor teen mothers feel that having the baby, and the attention they receive as "magic" and, for the first time in their lives, feeling loved and nurtured (Ibid., 7-11). Of course, this "honeymoon" period rarely lasts once the realities of feeding, lack of sleep, and the constancy of care become part of the reality.