Teen Pregnancy
A growing epidemic, teenage pregnancy, affects many families. In some case, many teenagers want to have babies or are uneducated about birth control. Parents and families of these teenagers seek blame in the education system, the government, or peer pressure. Who is to blame? What follows explains a survey conducted to gain insight on the social responses of teenage pregnancy and education. The team interviewed 16 personnel between the ages of 19 and 42.
According to teenhelp.com, 80% of teenage pregnancies are unintentional. 62-70% of teenagers have already had sex by their 18th birthday. The use of contraceptives are on the rise, however, inconsistent use can cause a 90% chance of pregnancy within a year. In many states, sexual education consists of abstinence-only instruction without educating teenagers about how to use birth control. Teenhelp.com reports that 89 % of parents agree that the education should include information about contraceptives while 15% of parents feel abstinence-only education is the key to teen pregnancy prevention.
Question two, nine of 16 claim that friends are most influential regarding sex, this might be because teens are easier to persuade. Question three, 14 of 16 agrees that open and honest communication with parents will help to avoid or postpone teenage sexual activity. According to question number four, parents are 100 percent responsible for teaching their teens about teenage pregnancy. Interviewers elaborated that parents should conduct these teachings because raising a child requires a high level of responsibility. However, this task may be difficult for a parent to accomplish because the teenager is more likely to be influenced by their friends and build intimate relationships with the opposite sex ("Developmental Milestones", 2014). Furthermore, time is against both parents and teens. Parents and teenagers attend school, sports, religious events, work, and many other extracurricular activities. These daily events are obstacles parents must overcome for a face to face conversation.
When question number five was asked; how influential are schools on sex education/prevention? Nearly 69 percent responded with “somewhat influential”. Teenagers are in a school environment for countless hours; therefore, some parents rely on teachers to educate and influence their children decision-making process. A high school teacher noted that teachers are still outnumbered by many peer pressuring teens influencing one teenager. Whether the youth is alone or with friends, 56 percent agrees on question six that at a minimum, it is important for teenagers to be educated about abstinence until after high school. According to question seven, 100 percent is in agreement that there should be more efforts to prevent teen pregnancy. This proves to us that regardless of where each participant lived, that they were aware of the lack of community support regarding teen pregnancy.
Question eight of the survey asks, “How important is it for you to avoid getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant right now.” According to survey responses, 56% of participants feel that it is important to avoid pregnancy. Team B concluded that this response could be because many of our participants are between 19-42 years of age. These participants either already have children or are settled into his or her career.
Contraceptive questions on the survey asked the participants how much they know about contraceptives, condoms, or other forms of birth control. On a scale of one to four; the participant knows nothing, knows a little, knows enough, or knows everything. More than half of participants feel that he or she knows enough about condoms, birth control, or other forms of birth control. A few admitted that he or she did not know much about birth control. Team B concluded that the sexual education must not have existed or was inadequate when our participants were
