What Are the Causes of Teen Pregnancy?
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What are the causes of teen pregnancy?
There are many different situations that teenagers get themselves involved in that can lead to teen pregnancy. Many teenagers do not understand the risks that are involved with having sex. Teenagers today are growing up in a culture in which peers, TV and motion pictures, music, and magazines often transmit either covert or overt messages that unmarried sexual relationships (specifically those involving teenagers) are common, accepted, and at times expected, behaviors. To find out what the real causes of teen pregnancy are, I interviewed a few teenagers about their experiences and encounters with pregnancy. If teens were more educated and less influenced by the media teen pregnancy would decrease.
One of the biggest issues in teenage relationships today is trust. The issue is not about the lack of trust but instead too much trust. Many teenage girls tend to trust their boyfriends/sexual partners way too much. I interviewed Kaci and 18 year old college student and she had a lot to say about trust issues.
“My boyfriend Scott and I had not been going out very
long but we had known each other for five years.
Because we had known each other so long, I completely
trusted him. After all he had never really done
anything significant enough to break my trust. We
started having sex about four months into our
relationship, but we always made sure we had a condom
because I was not going to have unprotected sex. One
night he came over and we started fooling around,
almost immediately I got up and grabbed a condom and
gave it to him and I thought he had put it on. Then we
started fooling around a little bit more and eventually
had sex. Later that night after he left I went back in
my room and on my bed was sitting and unopened condom.
I couldnt believe that we had just had unprotected sex
and I didnt even realize it. I thought that I was
pregnant and that was the worst feeling that I have
ever had. My period was late and for two weeks I
thought I was going to have a baby, I didnt know what
I was going to do. I decided to go get a pregnancy test
and it turned out I was fine and my period started. I
havent talked to Scott since all of this happened and
I dont think I will ever talk to him again.”
The worst part about relationships like this is most girls eventually will go out with their boyfriends again and trust them all over again and just forget about what happened in the past. Teenage girls need to realize that no matter how much the trust a boy, they can still get pregnant if no protection is used.
Education about responsible sexual behavior and specific, clear information about the consequences of sexual intercourse (including pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and psychosocial effects) are frequently not offered in the home, at school, or in other community settings. Therefore, much of the “sex education” that adolescents receive filters through misinformed or uninformed peers. Schools used to have projects and programs for the students to participate in to learn how hard it is to take care of a child. I interviewed my friend Jess a 17 year old high school student on what she learned from a school project about taking care of a child.
“When I was in 7th grade we were given a male partner
and an egg. The assignment was that each pair of
students had to take care of the egg for a week. We had
to keep the egg by our side at all times and if we left
it anywhere the other groups could steal it. We also
had to be very careful with it because it could break
so easily. It was one of the hardest assignments that I
have ever had to do. I definitely
learned how hard it is
to take care of a child and that it requires a lot of
responsibility.”
If activities like this one were still around today many young teenagers would realize how much time and effort a baby requires and therefore have safer sex.
Today teenagers are trying to grow up way too fast, some even think they are mature enough to have a child, when in reality they have no idea how difficult it is to have a child. There have been many cases where teenage girls lie to their boyfriends and tell them they are on birth control when they really arent. I interviewed Alyssa, an 18 year old college student, who lied to her boyfriend because she wanted to get pregnant.
“I have always thought that I am more mature for my
age, so I decided that I wanted to have a baby. I
thought that having a baby would make my life so much
better. My boyfriend and I had been going out for about
a year and we had been sexually active since the
beginning, but I was always on birth control. I decided
that I would just stop taking my birth control and not
tell my boyfriend and see if I could get pregnant.
After a couple of months of having sex without birth
control I got pregnant, I decided not to tell anyone
for a while. I honestly did not know how my boyfriend
would react. After a month a being pregnant I decided
to tell my boyfriend, he could not understand why I did
such a terrible thing. He said I was trying to ruin his
life and then threatened to tell my parents if I didnt
get an abortion. Sure enough the next day he told them,
my parents flipped out. They were so angry with me and
told me I was way too young to be a mother. My parents
told me that I had to get an abortion. I was
devastated, but my parents made me realize how hard it
would be to have a child at such a young age.”
Teenage girls need to learn that having a child is a huge deal and their lives will be changed forever. They will have to grow up so fast that they will miss out on the rest of their teenage years and spend most of their time working to provide for their child. Also many teenage mothers never finish school. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school (only one-third receive a high school diploma) and only 1.5% have