Teenage Pregnancy

In an effort to understand the effect of teenage pregnancy in the community of Rock Pond, a number of sources were examined. According to j.b (2002) in his dictionary Concise Dictionary, Teenage Pregnancy can be defined as "". According to ----- (0000) on his/her webside the causes of teenage pregnancy is, Lack of Parental Guidance: Most people evade their children from talking about sex. In some cases, they provide false information regarding sex and discourage their children to participate in any informative discussion about sex. In some cases, teenage mothers are not well educated about sex before getting pregnant and thus this leads to lack of communication between the parents and the children.

2) Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Among the adolescents, peer pressure is a major factor that encourages the teenage boys and girls to indulge in sexual activities. Early dating, as early as 12 years of age, is another factor that contributes to teen pregnancy. According to a research, 29% of teens were pressurized to have sex, 33% of teens were sexually active and that they felt things moving fast sexually.

3) Inadequate Knowledge about Safe Sex: Most adolescents are unaware of safe sex. They probably have no access to the traditional methods of preventing pregnancy. And the main reason behind is that they are either too embarrassed or fear to seek information about it. It was found that more than 80% of teenage pregnancies are unintended.

4) Exploitation by Older Men: This is another major factor that contributes to pregnancy among the teenagers. Those girls who date older men are more likely to become pregnant before they attain womanhood. Rape, sexual exploitations etc. also takes place that leads to unwanted pregnancy among teenage girls.

5) Socio Economic Factors: Teenage girls who belong to the poor families are more likely to become pregnant. Researchers have found that even in the developed countries teenage pregnancy occurs most commonly among the deprived sections.

According to Christine Gray () on her website www.pregnancyexposed.com, research has shown that one of the causes of teenage pregnancy is the lack of a sense of personal responsibility for their own actions, lack of maturity, and most importantly a lack of knowledge regarding sexual intercourse and contraception. Related to this, teen pregnancy is often closely associated with poverty, limited education and employment opportunities. She also continued to say that becaused, Jamaica has unfortunately experienced alternatively a period of marginal economic growth and negative growth recently. What monetary funds the country has are funneled into dealing with the enormous budget deficit and are subtracted from important social programs such as assistance to young women to teach them about sexuality and contraception. There is a terrifying lack of easily available contraceptives and youth friendly services are very rare.