Teenage Pregnancy Research Paper

Teenage pregnancy is a serious issue in our society today where people become pregnant because they are not informed. The United States had the greatest amount of pregnancies. Teenage pregnancy affects not only females but males as well; it causes serious health and education problems. “Nearly 4 out of 10 girls become pregnant at least once before the age of 20.” () Most teens get pregnant because they want to know what it feels like to raise a child or because they see others with children and they find them cute and want them to themselves. Others get pregnant because they don’t know about the different ways of contraception and ways to stay safe. Many girls struggle with teen pregnancy because of their low confidence and self-worth. They feel that they are ugly and no guy would show them attention unless they give them what they want. In our society today Teenage Pregnancy affects both females and males in several ways.

The issue of teenage pregnancy started to interest me when used to go to Pennsylvania with my friend a great percentage of the females there were actually pregnant and I didn’t really understand why. I wasn’t really sure how big or how serious teen pregnancy is, but with little knowledge and a tremendous amount of curiosity, I wanted teen pregnancy to be my topic. Scope

Teen pregnancy is a continuously increasing problem in the United States today. The United States has the highest birth rates compared to places like Canada. In the United States, the 18-19 year old age group has the highest rate of teen pregnancy (“Teen” 1). Adolescents who are having sex without protection are those who are more likely to get pregnant. Teens who get pregnant have a greater chance of not completing high school or college (“Teen” 1). Those moms are usually the ones that end up with welfare.

Now a days less than four out of ten females use contraception (Doughty 1). A majority of teens today don’t have a future planned out for themselves leading them to go around doing what they want. The problem really is that parents need to be more, strict on their kids and make sure that they have a set of rules to follow (Doughty 2). Children of teen mothers are more likely to end up with disadvantages in the world around them. Also, when teens give birth to babies there babies are often at a lower birth rate (Garth 113). If teens took the time to sit down and realize the dangers of sexual intercourse and having children at a young age there is a greater chance that they will want to wait till marriage (Garth 116). A large number of teenagers don't understand how important and enormous the responsibility is to raise an additional human when they themselves are still being raised and have a lot of maturing to do. Teenagers must be mature enough and well informed about ways to look after not only themselves but their bodies as well, in order to defend themselves from getting STD’s, or pregnant if they are sexually active (W. 43). Adolescents don’t understand that getting pregnant while young has many negative risks, and those teens don’t truly understand that having a baby when your young is a huge responsibility (Stobbe 1). “That means that if the teen ever looked forward to something or had any goals in planned out for themselves they would have to put them off to the side, because their child must come first” (“Rise” 1). Many teenagers think that having a child isn’t that big of a deal and its like babysitting, but the truth is, its not, having a baby is a full time job that comes with a lot of responsibility and pressure (“Rise” 1). “Tolerance is the key to being able to handle a baby, and that is something that many teens don’t have” (“Rise” 1). Causes

The first cause of teenage pregnancy is having intercourse at an early age. The younger that a teen girl is when she begins having intercourse for the first time, the more likely it is for that teen to be involved in un-wanted sex (Garth 117). Most young girls...