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.
Prevention is something that is more than just a simple band-aid solution. It has great impact at numerous societal and governmental levels. The most basic, and easiest to implement, program is one of comprehensive sex education prior to the advent of puberty, and then progressively more detailed as the teen ages. While this is controversial, especially in areas in which "abstinence only" policies prevail,...
One curriculum, from Holland, that has proven quite successful, is combining values, attitudes, communication and negotiation skills, as well as biological aspects of reproduction. This is echoed in the press, other forms of the media, and a health-care advice and protection system that guarantees confidentiality and a non-judgemental approach, as well as free condoms and birth control (Moncloa and Johns, 2003; Valk, 2000).
REFERENCES
Linking Teen Pregnancy Prevention to Other Critical Social Issues. (2010, March). Retrieved November 2010, from the Namtional Campaign: http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/why-it-matters/pdf/introduction.pdf
Edin and Kefalas. (2005). Promise I can Keep: WHy Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Moncloa and Johns. (2003, April). Best Practices in Teen Pregnancy Prevention . Retrieved November 2010, from Journal of Extension: http://www.joe.org/joe/2003april/tt1.php
Valk, G. (2000, July/August). The Dutch Model. Retrieved November 2010, from UNESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001201/120152e.pdf
