Teen Pregnancy
...including poverty, crime, unemployment, and high dropout rates among their students. The main issue I would like to discuss is teen pregnancy. Despite the decline in babies being born to adolescent mothers nationally, teen pregnancy still remains a problem. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school, less likely to get married, and more likely to depend on welfare than their peers. Teen pregnancy robs teens of their childhood and their futures as productive adults. It also robs their children, and their children's children. Many programs have been implemented to help prevent teen pregnancies. The Department Health and Human Services have implemented Abstinence Education and other programs in schools to promote abstinence from sexual activity until marriage. The problem with this is that too many times parents are not involved in these educational programs. What about the teens that had adolescent mothers as children, it tends to be a vicious cycle. Too many parents and other adults in positions of leadership are unwilling to take a strong stand against teen pregnancy. In some communities it is considered to be the norm. That is why everyone should play a part and get involved in small rural communities to educate and help solve some of the issues involved with teen pregnancy.
Etiology of the problem:
In my opinion the etiology of the problem starts with the home environment. Children live what by what they are taught at an early age. In poor communities such as Red Springs, low level incomes, single-parent families and uneducated parents help contribute to adolescent pregnancies. A study by Berry, Shillington, Peak, & Hohman, (2000) states “at the mezzo level, given the finding that low level of mother's education attainment is a risk factor, it may be advantageous to continue the attempts of educators to include parents, specifically mothers, in...
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