Teenage Pregnancy, Research Paper Example

Teenage Pregnancy and Sexuality: the Consequences for Individuals and Society

The teenage years are a time when adolescents are going through the process of forming their own identities and becoming the people they will be as adults. In modern times, teenagers face a host of problems that were not present even a generation ago. Teen pregnancies are certainly nothing new, as the statistics will bear out, but teenagers today are growing up in societies that are much different than the societies in which their parents and grandparents lived. With the advent of the internet, and changing societal attitudes about sexuality, teenagers and even children are confronted with images and ideas about sexuality in a seemingly constant state. Although the adage that “sex sells” is also nothing new, it seems that sex is now the only thing that sells, and graphic sexual images are present in virtually every aspect of modern culture. From the vast array of pornographic imagery prevalent on the internet, to advertisements for everything from clothes to perfume to computers containing images of a sexual nature, it seems that sexuality is virtually inescapable. Given the changes in societal attitudes about sexuality, it seems almost inevitable that children and adolescents are becoming exposed to sexual images, and engaging in sexual practices, at ever-younger ages. These changes have real consequences, from the effects on teen pregnancy rates to the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases among young people. This paper is not intended to offer any “solutions” to the problem of teen sexuality and teen pregnancy, though it is possible that raising awareness of these significant issues may be the first step towards attempting to reduce the harm inflicted by teen sexuality and teen pregnancy.

As noted, teen pregnancy is nothing new. In fact, from an historical perspective, one could even say teen pregnancy is “common,” as teenage girls have been getting pregnant upon reaching the age of sexual maturity for many thousands of years. Of course, many of the contemporary problems associated with teen pregnancy have also been problems for millennia, such as higher mortality rates both for teen mothers and for their offspring. In the modern era, many things have changed, and these changes have served to make teen pregnancy significantly less desirable than ever (Kovacs).

Prior to the modern era of quality medical care and societal changes that afford women more opportunities in life than simply serving as baby factories, it made sense for humans to reproduce at a younger age. With human mortality rates often measured in just a few decades, the idea of “waiting” to have children made little sense. In the 21^st Century, of course, things are very different. Modern medicine and health care means that, in first-world nations, people are generally living longer than ever. Along with longer lifespans, women in modern societies have greater opportunities to develop careers and lifestyles independent of marriage or other relationships to reproductive partners. Along with these changes, contemporary attitudes about sexuality have changed to the degree that teen pregnancy is more often than not viewed as a negative, as opposed to being practically a necessity throughout most of human history (Leishman).

As attitudes about teen sexuality have changed, so too has our understanding about the potential pitfalls of early pregnancy. The list of problems associated with teen pregnancy is long, and the younger the age of the pregnant teenager, the greater the risks and problems associated with those pregnancies (Kovacs). Children of teenage mothers have higher mortality rates than the children of adult mothers; a study done by The Lancet medical journal noted that children born to girls aged fifteen and younger were nearly twice as young to die in infancy. Along with the higher infant mortality rates, similar figures were demonstrated for young mothers, with teenagers of the same ages (fifteen and younger) showing almost exactly the same higher rates of death during childbirth (Kovacs).

Along with the problem of teen pregnancy, sexual activity among teenagers, regardless of whether it results in pregnancy, has been shown to be statistically dangerous. Younger teenagers who are sexually active show higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases than young adults who begin sexual activity in later adolescence or in earlier adulthood. The rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia, AIDS, and other sexually-transmitted diseases have all been shown to be rising in sexually-active teenaged populations, despite the fact that more is known about these diseases –and how to prevent them-than ever before. In some cases, diseases like AIDS are taken less seriously than they were a decade ago, as there is a belief among many that AIDS is now a curable, or at least manageable, disease (Paranthoy, Broughton, and Fone). While there is no question that AIDS treatments have made enormous advances in recent years, it is still a highly dangerous and serious disease.

Given the continued problems associated with teenage pregnancy, two particular questions come to mind: first, why are the rates of teen pregnancy so high, and second, what can be done about it? The first question was addressed in part in the introduction to this paper: we live in a society that is overflowing with images of sexuality. Everywhere we turn, we are confronted with sex; it is in advertisements, films, television, music videos, and every other form of media. At the same time as society is flooded with images of sexuality, the availability of effective education about sexuality and pregnancy may simply not be keeping up with the rates at which these images are presented. This may result in a series of mixed messages being delivered to today’s teenagers: on one hand, they are receiving barely-adequate information about sexuality and pregnancy that often amounts to little more than “just say no, but if you say yes, heres’s a condom.” The more complicated messages and information about sexuality, such as discussions about the complex emotions associated with sexual activity, and the real risks associated with teen pregnancy or sexually-transmitted diseases, may too often go untaught (Paranthoy, Broughton, and Fone).

Teenagers are more dependent on learning their societal roles from their peer groups than ever before. Like no other time in human history, children are growing up in single-parent households, or households where both parents are working, and at the same time, advances in mass communication, from cell phones to social media sites (as well as the seemingly endless amounts of sexual and pornographic images on the internet) are connecting adolescents to each other in new and uncharted ways. Teenagers are learning about sex at ever-younger ages, and at the same time, the information they are learning may be distorted through the mediums by which such information is transmitted (Leishman).

The news is not necessarily all bad. There are some statistics that show teen pregnancy rates are leveling off, or even shrinking, in some countries (Leishman). This does not necessarily mean that teenagers are less likely to engage in sexual activity, but it does possibly indicate that those teen who are sexually active are learning to take such precautions as using birth control, such as birth control pills to condoms. Though sex-education in public schools remains a touchy subject among many parents, and the easy access to condoms and other forms of birth control leads some to believe that such access actually encourages sexual activity, there is no question that lowered rates of pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases among teenagers can only be seen as a positive step. It is likely that the problems associated with teenaged sexual activity will remain problematic for the foreseeable future, but hopefully, with continued advances in educational and other resources, that some of these problems will continue to lessen in years to come.

Works Cited

Kovacs, Maria. “Teenage Pregnancy.” Lancet 328.8508 (1986): n. pag. Web. 10 Aug 2011.
Leishman, June. “Childhood and Teenage Pregnancies.”Nursing Standard 18.33 (2004): n. pag. Web. 10 Aug 2011.

Paranthoy, S., H. Broughton, and D. Fone. “Teenage pregnancy: who suffers?.” Child Care, Health, and Development 35.5 (2009): n. pag. Web. 10 Aug 2011.