PREVENTING TEENAGE PREGNANCY

Preventing teenage pregnancy

Preventing teenage pregnancy

Nursing 203March 17, 2008This paper will discuss several areas of adolescent risk taking behavior and environmental factors that increase the prevalence of risk taking. It will also include some current statistics related to adolescent risky behavior. Risk taking is inherently linked with teenage behavior. Risky behavior is common for this age group, because the adolescent is striving to develop autonomy from authority figures and to develop significant relationships with peers (American Nurses Association, 2003, p. 10). The types of risk taking behavior that adolescents participate in include: drug and alcohol use, tobacco use, motor vehicle injuries, self-inflicted injuries, risky sexual activities and homelessness. There is a relatively high prevalence of most of these manifestations in Canada warranting a thorough study of this type of behavior in adolescents. For example, the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) found that in 2002, girls between the grades of 6 and 10 increased their weekly alcohol consumption from 3% to 23% and boys in the same grades increased their weekly use from 6% to 34% [Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), 2005]. Regarding substance abuse, the CCHS found that 31% of males and females aged 12 to 17, claimed to have tried marijuana in 2000-2001; 13% had tried other illicit drugs (such as, cocaine or crack)” (CIHI, 2005). In the U.S.A., illegal drug use among adolescents more than doubled from 5.3% to 11.4% from 1992 to 1997 (Oman & al., 2005, p.1425). A 2005 study conducted in Thunder Bay by the Superior Points Harm Reduction Program (SPHRP) found that of the street-involved or at-risk youth surveyed, aged 24 and under, over 98% of them had used drugs over the previous 12 months (DeProphetis et al., 2006, p. 44). Of that same group, over 30% were injection drug users and over 38% of those who do not inject drugs know someone who does (DeProphetis et al., p. 44). These are indeed alarming figures, since the youth abusing substances like this are the mothers and fathers of tomorrow, and will have a major impact upon their future children's development and sense of identity.

After increasing gradually from 1987 to 1991, the birthrate for teens aged 15-19 turned down for 10 directly years, from a high of 62.1 per 1,000 teens elderly 15-19 in 1991 to a record reduced of 45.9 in 2001, according to initial figures. The birthrate for young teenagers elderly 15-17 fell 8 percent from 2000 to 2001, coming to 25.3 births per 1,000 teenagers. All 50 states had a down turn in their teen birthrates between 1991 and 2000, with 10 states recording turns down of more than 20 per hundred during this period. latest declines in both birth and abortion rates show that teen pregnancy rates are extending to fall. general teen pregnancy rates have fallen 19 per hundred since 1991. About 900,000 pregnancies happen each year among American teenagers aged 15-19. Most of these pregnancies are unintended. nearly 190,000 teens elderly 17 and junior have ...