Ending Teen Pregnancy Although Teen

Ending Teen Pregnancy

Although teen pregnancy rates are at a historic low, teen pregnancies still occur at alarming rates ("U.S. Pregnancy Rate Down from Peak; Births and Abortions on the Decline"), and America still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any major industrialized nation (Hunt). For the teens experiencing those pregnancies, there is little consolation in the fact that the national trend is towards lower teen pregnancy rates. Therefore, the challenge for a successful teen pregnancy prevention program is targeting those teens that are most at risk of becoming sexually active and possibly pregnant.

Because research suggests that the majority of teens consider themselves as part of a couple when they engaged in their first sexual activity (Ryan), pregnancy-prevention efforts should be aimed at teens involved in relationship. While pregnancy-prevention efforts currently focus on the female members of those pairs, future efforts should concentrate equally on both the male and female members of those couples. Specifically, the efforts should concentrate on helping validate teens' feelings about their romantic partners and encouraging them to engage in couple-like behaviors, educating teens about contraceptive and their correct usage, and delaying the age that teens first engage in intercourse. Increasing teens' understanding that romantic relationships and feelings are legitimate, increases their investments in their romantic relationships, which should make them more likely to communicate with their partners and less likely to become pregnant.

The evidence suggests that the more couple-like behaviors engaged in by teen sexual partners, the more likely they are to discuss contraception before having sex for the first time with that partner (Ryan). Couple-like behaviors included thinking of themselves as a couple, telling others they were a couple, going out alone, exchanging "I love you," meeting each other's parents, going out in a group, exchanging presents, and spending less time with friends (Ryan). Only 29% of teens that engaged in four or fewer of those couple-like behaviors discussed contraception before having intercourse for the first time with that partner, in contrast with at least 75% of teens that engaged in seven or eight of those couple-like behaviors. Unfortunately, the evidence also suggests that the more couple-like or intimate behaviors engaged in by a couple, the more likely that couple is to actually have sex (Ryan). Rather than having casual sex with relative strangers, 85% of teens report having a romantic relationship with their first sexual partners (Ryan). However, there is a sex-based discrepancy in those numbers. Boys are less likely than girls to discuss contraception prior to a first sexual experience with a new partner, are less vigilant about the use of birth control, and appear to have a less-romantic view of first sexual experiences (Ryan). Therefore, only targeting boys that describe themselves as part of couple would not necessarily be effective in reducing teen pregnancy rates. Instead, the behavior has to engage in observational behavior to determine whether boys appear to be romantically involved, and then help the boys view their sexual partners in a more romantic light. The viewpoint shift should result in more couple-like behaviors. The more couple-like behaviors that teenagers engage in, the more likely they become to discuss and use contraceptives.

Contraceptive use is essential in reducing teen pregnancy rates; teens who do not use contraceptives have a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within the first year ("Teen Sex and Pregnancy"). Furthermore, abstinence-only programs have not been shown to have an appreciable impact on teen pregnancy rates (Hunt). In fact, more and earlier safe-sex education appears to help reduce the number of teen pregnancies (Hunt). However, the most effective existing approaches to preventing or reducing teen pregnancy seem to combine both abstinence and contraceptive usage.

One thing is clear: contraceptive use alone will not be enough to prevent teen pregnancy. While contraceptives are very successful in preventing pregnancy if used properly, they are also subject to a wide variety of user error. Furthermore, some researchers suggests that the recent decreases in teen pregnancy rates are not due to increased use of contraceptives alone, but also to an increased abstinence rate among teens (Mohn). While encouraging teenage boys to engage in couple-like behaviors increases the likelihood that they will discuss contraception with their partners before engaging in sex for the first time, those discussions will not necessarily always lead to sexual intercourse. One of the unspoken positives is that, by discussing contraception, teenagers are discussing the possibility that a pregnancy could result from a sexual relationship. Hopefully, a side effect of those contraceptive discussions will be an increase in the likelihood that teenage couples will delay their first sexual experiences.