INCREASING KNOWLEDGE IN ADOLESCENT ABOUT PARENTING

Increasing Knowledge in Adolescent about Parenting



Increasing Knowledge in Adolescent about Parenting

Introduction

Although teen pregnancy rates dropped significantly in the USA over the past decade, rates remain higher than in many other developed countries (Ventura et al., 2001; Flanigan, 2001). Almost 900,000 teenage girls still become pregnant each year in the USA and significant racial/ethnic disparities exist (Ventura et al., 2001). Given the adverse economic and health consequences stemming from teen pregnancy, including low birth weight and economic hardship, no one is claiming that the battle is won. Instead, experts are debating what motivated the decreases in sexual activity and increases in the use of contraceptives at first intercourse, and strategizing ways to continue the positive trends. Possible explanations for the good news include economic prosperity, more informed and cautious attitudes about sex, improved use of contraceptives, and funding of new teen pregnancy prevention efforts through welfare reform (Darroch and Singh, 1999; Flanigan, 2001).

Teen pregnancy concerns many people in the United States. We must now ask what can be done to decrease the number of teen pregnancies? After exploring numerous options to reduce this problem, I feel that I have found the most successful one. Because it is not a simple answer, it has many concerns that come along with it. Teaching sex education could be the best way to fight this problem. However, the argument that is brought up every time that this method is spoken about is people asking, “At what age should these kids be taught about sex?” I feel that teen pregnancy has gotten extremely out of control and not enough action has been done to stop the problem. From a teenager's point-of-view, I come face to face with the reality of teens getting pregnant on a daily basis. I have personally gone through my cousin giving birth at age 16 and how dramatically it changed her life forever. I was then left to ask myself, What did my environment do to prevent me from being an adolescent mother and what did the environment not do to my cousin to make the same choice I did? While researching this problem I had no idea what I was looking for. All I knew is that teen pregnancy posed a problem that continues to grow and it doesn't seem like much is being done to facilitate the problem.

When researching this problem I found numerous options to help this problem, and also the emotional problems these teen mothers were facing before and after pregnancy. I feel that the benefits will be greater if the problem is investigated more thoroughly. This topic is extremely important to debate because it affects so many people. Many people don't even realize that it is affecting them because this problem hasn't happened to anyone close to them but whom do you think pays for welfare? Over 66% of citizens in the United States who receive welfare are adolescent mothers. This goes to show that the problem does affect everyone ...