Week 3 Paper

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Capella University *

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Sociology

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Feb 20, 2024

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Introduction “For individuals, pregnancy initiates marked physical, emotional, and socialization shifts. At a social level, pregnancy and parenthood have fundamental implications for families, communities, and society. These life-changing events have far reached implications, particularly for adolescents. Relative to adults, the implications for adolescents magnify due to limitations in economic resources, life experiences, educational background, employment opportunities, and interpersonal skills” (Benson, 2016). Programs and preventions have been successful in preventing and treating teen pregnancy and research shows that teen pregnancy has decreased throughout the years due to these programs and preventions. Throughout this paper the following topics will be discussed. Nature of the problem such as the prevalence of teen parenting. Cause of the problem such as the risks associated with teen pregnancy and lastly interventions. Interventions and programs that can be utilized to serve teen parents and provide a safe and positive outcome for the teen parents and baby. Nature Of the Problem According to the CDC the US teen birth rates has been declining since 1991. Teen birth rates continued to decline from 17.4 per 1,000 females in 2018 to 16.7 per 1,000 females in 2019. This is another decrease from 2018, about 4%. Birth rates fell 7% for females aged 15 to 17 years and 4% for females aged 18 to 19 years. The US teen birth rate is still substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations and racial/ethnic and geographic gaps in teen birth rates persist (CDC, 2021). The CDC reports that the reasons for the declines are not totally clear, they believe that these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity and more teens who are sexually active and using more forms of contraceptives than in previous years.

Parenting is difficult as an adult let alone as a teenager. As a teen parent there are many consequences at different multiple levels. From the national perspective, adolescent childbearing in the US is estimated to cost taxpayers almost $11 billion each year. The average annual taxpayer cost associated with a child born to an adolescent mother is estimated to be $1647. These costs are mostly associated with negative consequences for the children of adolescent parents, such as the expense of foster care and more than usual health care. From the social and educational level research shows that nearly half of all adolescent mothers do not earn a high school diploma and roughly a third never obtain their GED. Adolescent mothers are more prone to depend on various forms of public assistance for about one third of their parenting years (Lachance et al., 2016). Lastly, research has noted that adolescent mothers continue to lead high- risk lifestyles after the birth of their child and are at risk of a second pregnancy within 24 months. Adolescent fathers also face educational and economic consequences throughout their life. Causes Of the Problem The cause of this issue can be determined by many reasons and by many different people such as, lack of contraceptives, uneducated about sex, no structure or supervision by parents, to name a few. Different women experience different effects and risks. Research shares that teen mothers experience emotional and mental health problems, but it depends if whether the pregnancy was intended or wanted compared to teen mothers who have accidental pregnancies. Another risk is the social location after the child is born. Teen parents lack supports from family and friends after having a baby. For example, if a teen mother is kicked out of her home due to getting pregnant, she is most likely going to be living in an unstable environment. Research explains that teen women are more vulnerable to poverty, violence such as domestic abuse and

sexual assault. Teen parents are more likely to not have a formal education after giving birth such as high school diploma or GED. Research stated that teen parents are more likely to have children to more than one partner which increases these risks even more (Lachance et al., 2016). Interventions Throughout the research regarding teen parenting there were many positive interventions and programs but there were also controversial interventions I found. Research reported that many services for teen pregnancy encourages adoption, so the child and mother have a better chance of success throughout their life. Studies show that only 1-2% of teens chose the adoption route. Another controversial intervention research reported on was, abortion. “Prior research indicates that most teenagers initially arrive at the decision to seek an abortion even before confiding in a single other person. Most adolescents also confide in someone, usually an adult, prior to seeking an abortion. Teens seeking abortion in the US states without mandatory parental notification, 75% had consulted an adult before seeking the abortion. Research states that social workers usually do not get involved with a teen until after the abortion, which causes frustrations among social workers due to them needed prior to pregnancy to prevent a situation like abortion” (Benson, 2016). More positive interventions and programs for teen pregnancy include, developmentally driven, emotion focused and evidence-based parenting interventions. These interventions are educational parenting curricula, case management, home visitation, and clinic- based approaches. Research suggests that these strategies should not be implemented alone but as a team for the best support for the teen. Programs and interventions that appear to have the best results for teen pregnancy are, being educated on sex education, being able to obtain different forms of birth control and contraceptives. Planned parenthood offer these services and teens can obtain services through them without their parents or guardians’ knowledge. A program

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that is used statewide and country wide that show positive results is the Triple P program which stands for Positive Parenting Program. “The Triple P Program is one of the most effective evidence-based parenting programs in the world, backed up by more than 35 years of ongoing research. Triple P gives parents simple and practical strategies to help them build strong, healthy relationships, confidently manage their children’s behavior, and prevent problems developing. Triple P is used in more 30 countries and has been shown to work across cultures, socio- economic groups and in many kinds of family structures (Mollborn, 2017).” Another program that assists teens is state services such as, food stamps, medical insurance, and child services. This assists teens in being able to financially support themselves and their baby. Also, there are programs such as Catholic Charities and WIC (Women and Infant Children) that provide free diapers, wipes, and babies essentials to families with low income. According to the NIH the dilemma for solving teen pregnancy is that “teenage pregnancy and childbearing have for some years been regarded as difficult and grave problems for the United States. Although policies and programs have been developed to reduce the incidence of children having children, their combined impact has been minimal, and the rates of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing remain high. As the Center for Population Options noted, a cycle of poverty often begins with an unintended adolescent pregnancy. Teenage pregnancies do not occur in a vacuum. Too often they are the product of economic disadvantage and inadequate educational systems, of poor housing, family instability, and the emotional deprivation associated with it. Because the children of teenage mothers have an even slimmer chance of escaping these conditions, they, too, may become adolescent parents. The reality of almost 1 million teenage pregnancies a year demonstrates that this country's social and economic systems are failing a substantial proportion

of our young citizens and, in doing so, are helping to perpetuate and enlarge the number of poor and badly educated men and women ( NCBI bookshelf, 2019).” Final Thoughts In conclusion, even with programs, interventions and preventions teen pregnancy is still statistically high compared to western countries. There has been a significant decrease in teen pregnancy so that proves that programs, interventions, and preventions are showing positive results. Research suggests that the biggest “unknown” and dilemma with teen pregnancy is how the teen is growing up. Teens are unable to control who their parents are, the supervision the parents provide or the lack thereof, being a child of a teen mother increases the chance of the child becoming a teen mother, being in a low-income family, being a product of physical and sexual abuse or a witness to domestic violence. Children that grow up in homes like this are more at risk to become a teen parent. Research provides many different types of preventions, interventions, and programs but what I found unique about the approach is that some of the solutions where abortion, adoption, safe haven boxes etc. I understand the reason behind these interventions, but I believe it would be a difficult topic to discuss with a teen regarding finding a solution to their pregnancy. As years and decades past more research will be developed and more programs will be offered to teen parents and there will be even more prevention strategies for teen pregnancies. Continue research helps social workers learn new ways to know what services there are for this population and how to provide these services. Almost all the research I did they all said the same thing in common and that was the statement, “teenagers are too young to be having children".

References Benson, M. J. (2016, June 4). After the adolescent pregnancy: Parents, teens, and families - child and adolescent social work journal . SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:CASW.0000043358.16174.c6? error=cookies_not_supported&code=0a60f350-2813-44dc-840b-8b65c8a8c3ed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, November 15). About teen pregnancy . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm The dilemma of teenage parenthood - science and babies - NCBI bookshelf. (2019). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235276/ Faulkenberry, T. J. (2019, September 17). Introducing a new jasp-fueled textbook: Learning statistics with Jasp - jasp - free and user-friendly statistical software . JASP. https://jasp- stats.org/2019/09/17/introducing-a-new-jasp-fueled-textbook-learning-statistics-with-jasp/ Lachance, C. R., Burrus, B. B., & Scott, A. R. (2016, October). Building an evidence base to inform interventions for pregnant and parenting adolescents: A call for rigorous evaluation . American journal of public health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490682 Mollborn, S. (2017, March). Teenage mothers Today: What we know and how it matters . Child development perspectives. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5438165

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