Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is considered a public issue because it is a matter that not only involves the pregnant teen herself but also the parents, those related to the parents, the school for example as well the country’s image. Teenage pregnancy became a public issue right after the numbers of unwanted teen pregnancies went up and with these numbers up then other social malpractices will emerge with it, things like throwing away of babies and abortion. Social acts as these will affect the country’s image as well as the parents, in a society where things like this happen it will basically mean the publics concerned that is parents, teachers and government aren’t doing their job like implementing sex education in government schools, teaching proper sex education in schools and the upbringing of the child is terrible. According to the South African Journal of Psychology, teen pregnancy can lead to an increase in school dropouts and this will affect the image of the government when it comes to educational issues. This essay will talk about how teen pregnancy specifically in Malaysia is considered a public relations issue, the publics involved as well as their relation or interest to the issue. According to the Malay Mail online news article titled Teenage Pregnancy: Premature Adulthood published on August 11th 2010, it had questioned the Malacca’s chief minister’s suggestion of building schools specifically for teens with unwanted pregnancies. The reason behind is that if this suggestion is put into action then it will simply encourage more teens to get pregnant, this conclusion was referenced to an event in Australia in the 1980s in which the government paid money to teenage mothers as a means of solving the teen pregnancy issue but instead the overall number of unplanned pregnancies shot up the roof. How this first issue is related to public relations is that publics like the press and a government figure the Chief Minister of Malacca are involved in this issue. It appears as though the teen pregnancy issue in Malaysia has been a nuisance to the government in general and in order to save face, the government has decided to step up and find a way to solve the issue. The Chief Minister’s attempt to solve the issue has been critiqued by the Malay Mail press release and the writer known as Jordan Tan from Kuala Lumpur who’s shown an interest in the issue has come up with his own suggestion which he believes will help solve the issue in a way. Jordan says that first instead of using rash methods to solve the issue, the main cause of the problem or factors need to be recognized and a long term solution created afterwards. Jordan strongly addresses that unwanted pregnancies are caused by poor relationship between the parents and their children, the fastened hormonal growth ingested in food that makes young children mature physically faster and emotionally are still fragile and finally exposure to what is shown in today’s media. What Jordan is trying to do is reach out to the parents to change their methods of raising their children. Parents are so focused on work and making money that they forget to spend quality time with their children and instill value in them, instead children are metaphorically babysat by video games, television and other media material. The solution that Jordan offers is that the parents should monitor what their kids are doing and that the amount of money they make will not compensate for the tragedy in which their children end up becoming drug addicts, game addicts and surprise mums. Likewise a media release from The Malaysian Insider, an anonymous reader who names himself Father John published content about the issue of teen pregnancy stating how the Malacca government is making a mistake in rushing to allow child marriages in an attempt to get rid of out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Though he is just an anonymous reader of The Malaysian Insider, it can be said that Father John is an aware public, reason behind is that he is aware of the issue, he is aware of the effects and he is also aware of the constraints needed. He tries to address to the government and the readers of The Malaysian Insider that the main issue that should be taken action upon is premarital sex and not out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Throughout this entire article Father John seems only to address the government and parents in this article. He being an aware public probably tried to get his message and opinion spread out through The Malaysian Insider in hopes of getting apathetic publics, non-publics and even latent publics to be more active as well in this issue. Of the two groups he addresses to, the parents seem to be the latent publics as in they know what is happening but are unaware of the effects or the causes. The government can be seen as active publics, reason behind is because their involvement with the issue is high, their awareness of the problem is also high but their constraint recognition is a bit off or ineffective that’s why Father John seems to critique it so much. Father John claims that before jumping to solutions, it must be known that this whole issue has become of public concern because of values and norms that today’s youth hold on to. These values are affected by the society in which youths live in, the people around them, religious beliefs and family influence. He strongly explains how families hardly sit down with their children and teach them good principals instead they stress mostly on them having good grades and making wealth. Father John finally concludes by saying “The government clearly needs to engage with society and all its stakeholders to seek direction on how to restructure our society and address our social ills. It must cease pretending that it has all the answers. From the evidence of this measure proposed by the Malacca state Government, it is evident that it does not even comprehend the question, let alone have an answer.”

REFERENCES * Tracy, T and Macleod, C. I, 2010, ‘A decade later: follow-up review of South African research on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy’, South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p18-31, 14p * Malay Mail Sdn. Bhd, 2009, Teenage pregnancies: Premature adulthood, online, from http://www.mmail.com.my/content/45977-teenage-pregnancies-premature-adulthood * Child marriage not a solution to teen pregnancy, 2010, online, from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/child-marriage-not-solution-to-teen-pregnancy-father-john/

References: * Tracy, T and Macleod, C. I, 2010, ‘A decade later: follow-up review of South African research on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy’, South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p18-31, 14p * Malay Mail Sdn. Bhd, 2009, Teenage pregnancies: Premature adulthood, online, from http://www.mmail.com.my/content/45977-teenage-pregnancies-premature-adulthood * Child marriage not a solution to teen pregnancy, 2010, online, from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/child-marriage-not-solution-to-teen-pregnancy-father-john/