Teen pregnancy as a social problem

Introduction

Teen pregnancy is a case whereby a teenage girl, between the ages of 13 and 19 can become pregnant. Typically, a girl within this age range cannot be considered to be an adult and thus considered too young to conceive and bear a child. Besides this, childbearing comes with many other responsibilities in which case a teenage girl may not be able to address.

Background

Thesis: This research seeks to investigate significant facts and factors surrounding teen pregnancy, which identifies it to be a social problem.

The issue of teen pregnancies have has been a matter of concern to religious leaders, policymaker, social scientists, and the communities due to the threats posed on the lives of the young mothers and their children. The life of a teen girl changes the instant that she bears a child at such as young age. The life of the child is also affected in multiple ways, and so is society. Already, the topic of teen pregnancy has attracted the attention of parents, social communities, and leaders who wish to take various initiatives to reduce its incidence. However, the social perception of teen pregnancy continues to challenge these efforts due to media influences, which continue to portray teen pregnancy positively.

According to analysis by Edwards (2015), persons who are below 25 years comprise half of the world’s population with 1.8 billion making up those aged between 10 and 25 years. Evidently, most people become sexually active before they are 20 years old. Besides this more, 49 percent of girls in the least developed countries get into marriage before they reach 18 years. This set of data shows that the risk of having teenage pregnancies is still high. There are fewer cases of teenage pregnancies in the world today as compared to how the situation was in the early days before the 1970s. However, this is no reason to justify the current rate of teenage pregnancies nor is it a claim that the situation has been exaggerated. The truth of the matter is that most of the teenage pregnancies in the earlier days were to married couples; besides this, early childbearing was considered to be a social norm. Current situations are completely different from what existed in the past, especially since many women, who choose to postpone childbearing, have socially adopted methods such as the use of contraceptives and legal abortion. This topic is important in comparing the past and present experiences of teen pregnancy with the aim of projecting what the situation will be like in the future.

Statement of the problem

Importance of the study

Teen pregnancies affect different parts of the world differently. The situation experienced in developed countries is definitely different from what is being experienced in the least developed. This is determined by the social and economic factors in the respective countries. It is therefore important to conduct this study to investigate the factors, which influence teenage female into early pregnancies. Is this issue out of their control or are they just a victim of circumstances? According to Mkwananzi (2017), teenage pregnancy in developing nations is attributed to issues such as low levels of education, high poverty rates, and lack of parental guidance through the teenager’s life. Particularly in South Africa, Mkwananzi conveys that the country has experienced an increased rate of teenage pregnancies. “Many girls are getting pregnant at a very tender age.” This makes her question the social moral disposition of the residents. From her research, she concludes that teen pregnancy is more of a social issue than an emotional or physical issue. Many teenagers don’t have a good relationship with their parents, which enable them to talk about certain issues, which in turn would more likely help the teenager in avoiding an unwanted pregnancy.

Is the situation the same in developed nations? The situation is very different in developed countries where more teenagers have access to quality education and sensitization about how to avoid teen pregnancies. However, the context of the influences of teen pregnancy is still considered a major social concern; the difference, in this case, is that the media has significantly contributed to influencing teenage girls to think that teen pregnancy is acceptable in the society and nothing is wrong with it. Different sources have researched the role played by mass and social media in influencing the social perceptions of teenage pregnancy. The general argument is that it’s not only teen pregnancy which should be considered to be a social problem, but the portrayal of media of teen pregnancy in itself is also a bigger social problem. In this part of the research, it shall investigate how the media has continued to glorify sex and paid no regard to responsibility.

According to Strukel (2016), American reality TV series such as Teen Mother have portrayed teenage pregnancy in a way that is more likely to encourage a teenage female to become pregnant. The media has continued to focus on themes such as changing relationships and the struggles that teen mothers have to undergo when raising the child whereby it teaches the teenage girl that there is always a way through life after teen pregnancy. This type of depiction by the different media sources has increased the urge to indulge in sex and get pregnant among teenagers.

Besides film, music has also negatively influenced teenagers into indulging in sexual acts without the considerations of abstinence or the use of contraceptives. This has encouraged more teens to engage in irresponsible behavior as they seek to satisfy their desires without minding the consequences of their actions. As a result more teen girls who get pregnant are forced to drop out of school so that they can tend to the needs of the baby first before they can embark with their education. In the current world, a teenage girl is expected to be engaging in life development activities such as education, which will enable her to peruse other life opportunities. For this reason, teenage pregnancy has been viewed as a social problem. Besides this, the incidence of teenage pregnancy is a social concern, which is caused by irresponsible behavior in teenagers, lack of maturity, illiteracy, poverty, and other negative social attributes (Wendland, et al. 2017).

The purpose of the study

The purpose of this research study is to investigate significant facts and factors surrounding teen pregnancy, which identifies it to be a social problem. In this section, the research will focus on the negative impacts of teen pregnancy in our society (Wendland, et al. 2017). These impacts will be classified into three segments; i) impact on the teen mother, ii) impact on the child, and iii) impact on the community (this will include the siblings of the teen mother, the parents, and the larger community).

Research questions

This research will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What factors have continued to cause teen pregnancies in the world?

2. What role does social media play in encouraging or discouraging teen pregnancies?

3. What negative impacts of teen pregnancies make is a major social problem?