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Teenage Pregnancy Research Paper Outline

Introduction

Thesis: Teenage pregnancy is caused by a myriad of issues and lack of parental guidance and support is just one of its many causes.

Body Paragraphs

1. There is a significant lack of enough sex education among teenagers in the US.
   1. That is, teenagers are not taught on the importance of using contraceptives or avoiding engaging in pre-marital sex.
   2. Most of the times, the people responsible for teaching the young adults on the importance of engaging in responsible sexual activities brush off the idea due to the idea that we are living in a new age of technology.
   3. That is, due to the availability of the internet teenagers can seek this information on their own.
2. The growth and availability of the internet does more harm than good to teenagers.
   1. The internet is filled with a lot of information and content that can provoke teenagers to engage in sexual activity.
   2. Usually, parents may fail to monitor their children’s internet usage and in the process, teenagers might use the internet to meet sex partners who prey on young children.
3. There has been an increase in pornography consumption in the US.
   1. The advantages of the internet to many Americans cannot be ignored ranging from easy accessibility to news, sports, videos and advertisements.
   2. According to studies, the consumption of pornography in the US has risen in the last few years making it appear as an acceptable leisure activity.
4. Negative attitude of health staff make it difficult for teenagers to access contraceptives.
   1. In the current age, it is difficult to prevent teenagers from accessing sexual content on the internet or through other channels
   2. Therefore, most of them are sensitized on the importance of using contraceptives.
   3. Teenagers who try to access contraceptives are met with an unbecoming and negative attitude.
5. Peer pressure has played its role in the increase of teenage pregnancies in the US.
   1. The victims of peer pressure often face pressure to make friends and become similar to their peers.
   2. A majority of teenagers in the US engage in sexual activity even when they do not understand the consequences of their actions just to please friends ending up with teenage pregnancy.
6. Low self-esteem and low image perception play a significant role in the rise of teenage pregnancies.
   1. Due to a desire to belong to a group and hide the aspect of having a low self-esteem the concerned teenager engages in sexual activity and ends up pregnant.
7. Poor parenting styles is a major cause of teenage pregnancy.
   1. In the modern times, parents are so engaged in money making activities that they forget to offer moral guidance and support to their children.
   2. Teachers and others have also failed but the fact that sexual education begins at home has been tremendously ignored.
   3. Therefore, most children turn to their peers on sexual activity lessons. The information offered is often biased and malicious since they all suffer from a lack of sex education.
8. Some teenage girls are feeling hopeless in life.
   1. They have no hopes in education as they are poor academic performers.
   2. They have no career aspirations.
   3. The resort to pregnancy as an alternative path to adulthood ad independence.

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Conclusion

In the wake of the 21^st century, teenage pregnancy is undoubtedly a major problem. In the U.S., a majority of people blame the increase in teenage pregnancy to poor parental guidance. However, as it has been discussed poor parenting is just one of the many reasons contributing to teenage pregnancy.

Research Paper on Teenage Pregnancy

Introduction

The issue of teenage pregnancy has been a significant issue in many nations across the world. The term teenage pregnancy here refers to a situation whereby a woman of less than nineteen years gets pregnant. In a bid to solve the problem, it is crucial to understand the major causes of this societal scourge. Some parties argue that teenage pregnancy is caused by a lack of parental guidance and support, but the problem goes deeper than that. A myriad of issues cause teenage pregnancy and lack of parental supervision and support is just one of them.

There is a significant lack of enough sex education among teenagers in the United States. That is, teenagers are not taught about the importance of using contraceptives or avoiding engaging in pre-marital sex. Most of the times, the people responsible for educating the young adults on the importance of participating in responsible sexual activities brush off the idea due to the notion that we are living in a new age of technology. Their argument is that due to the ready availability of the Internet, teenagers can seek this information on their own (Finer & Zolna, 2014). However, this is not usually the case and the result is often early teenage pregnancies.

The growth and availability of the Internet does more harm than good to teenagers. The Internet is filled with a lot of information and content that can provoke teenagers to engage in sexual activity. Usually, parents may fail to monitor their children’s Internet usage. In the process, teenagers might use it to meet sex partners who prey on young children. Therefore, parents have largely failed in their duty to ensure that their teenagers use the Internet for appropriate purposes and this has significantly contributed to teenage pregnancies.

Further, there has been an increase in pornography consumption in the United States. The advantages of the Internet to many Americans cannot be ignored, ranging from easy accessibility to news, sports, videos, and advertisements to being a great source of entertainment. However, the same Internet has given rise to a detrimental yet widely desired product in the form of pornography. According to studies, the consumption of pornography in the U.S. has risen in the last few years making it appear as an acceptable leisure activity (Price, Patterson, Regnerus, & Walley, 2016). The problem arises when pornographic content gets into the wrong hands, such as to teenagers, who might not have the ability to make informed decisions on the topic.

On another note, negative attitude of health staff makes it difficult for teenagers to access contraceptives. In the current age, it is difficult to prevent teenagers from accessing sexual content on the Internet or through other channels. Therefore, most of them are sensitized on the importance of using contraceptives. However, there is a common perception among many health care professionals that contraceptives are meant for people within a particular age bracket (Viner, 2013). In the process, teenagers who try to access the drugs are met with an unwelcoming and negative attitude. The result, yet again, is an increase in teenage pregnancies.

Peer pressure has also played a role in the increase in teenage pregnancies across the U.S. The victims of peer pressure often face pressure to make friends and become similar to their peers. Sometimes, a teenager may be influenced to engage in sexual activity even when they do not understand the consequences of the act. Usually, a group of teenagers may make it seem that engaging in sexual activity is cool and sophisticated (Viner, 2013). Therefore, a majority of teenagers in the country participate in sexual activity even when they do not understand the consequences of their actions to please friends, often ending up with teenage pregnancies.

Another factor responsible for teenage pregnancy is low self-esteem and low self-image perception. The aspect of low self-esteem and peer pressure are interconnected. That is, a young boy or girl suffering from low self-esteem gets into a group that makes them feel confident about themselves. However, members of the group may influence the boy or girl to engage in sexual activity with one of the group members to be accepted into the group (Cherry & Dillon, 2014). Due to a desire to belong in a group and hide the aspect of having low self-esteem, the concerned teenager may decide to engage in sexual activity and probably end up becoming pregnant.

Poor parenting is another major cause of teenage pregnancy. In the modern times, parents are so engaged in money-making activities that they forget to offer moral guidance and support to their children. Teachers and others have also failed, but the fact that sex education begins at home has been tremendously ignored. This situation makes most children to turn to their peers for sexual activity lessons. The information offered is often biased and malicious since they all suffer from a lack of sex education (Cherry & Dillon, 2014). Consequently, many children end up pregnant.

It is further revealed by research that some adolescent girls choose to intentionally become pregnant because they have lost hope in other life goals. Such girls do not have any realistic career or education expectations given that they are victims of low self-esteem and poor school performance. They thus consider getting pregnant as an alternative route to acquiring adult status and gaining economic independence. Usually, an adolescent female who becomes pregnant is already having academic challenges at school and does not have much educational expectations. They are neither confident they will complete their secondary education (Domenico & Jones, 2007). Some also become mothers so as to escape abusive situations at home.

Conclusion

In the wake of the 21^st-century, teenage pregnancy is undoubtedly a significant problem. In the United States, a majority of people blame the increase in this problem to poor parental guidance. However, as has been discussed, poor parenting is just one of the many reasons contributing to teenage pregnancy. Other causes of the problem include low self-esteem, unmonitored Internet usage, increase in pornography consumption, peer pressure, negative attitude from health care provides on the use of contraceptives among teenagers, lack of enough sex education from all quarters, and hopelessness in life.

References

Cherry, A. L., & Dillon, M. E. (2014). International handbook of adolescent pregnancy: Medical, psychosocial, and public health responses. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media.

Domenico, D. M., & Jones, K. H. (2007). Adolescent pregnancy in America: Causes and responses. The Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education, 30(1), 4-12.

Finer, L. B., & Zolna, M. R. (2014). Shifts in intended and unintended pregnancies in the United States, 2001–2008. American Journal of Public Health, 104(S1), S43-S48.

Price, J., Patterson, R., Regnerus, M., & Walley, J. (2016). How much more XXX is Generation X consuming? Evidence of changing attitudes and behaviors related to pornography since 1973. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(1), 12-20.

Viner, R. (2013). ABC of adolescence. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.

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