Welcome to Pregnancy Guide
Teenage Pregnancy Help Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
You may also listen to this article by using the following controls.
When Reality Hits – The Effects of Teenage Pregnancy
from:Trying to distinguish the effects of teenage pregnancy is a complex task given the difficulty in separating pre-existing conditions and those that are a direct result of adolescent pregnancy. Despite this complication, though, there is a large amount of research which shows that a pregnant teenager will encounter a great deal of negative effects. First and foremost of these effects of teenage pregnancy is the emotional stress of being pregnant at such a young age and of having to make a decision as to what to do about the pregnancy.
Teenage mothers are more likely to drop out of school than their peers who are able to avoid pregnancy. Statistics from 1997 show that only 41% of adolescents who have children before they reach 18 years of age graduate from high school, compared to 61% of adolescents from similar backgrounds who delay pregnancy until at least 20 or 21 years of age.
Because many teenage mothers drop out of school, another of the effects of teenage pregnancy is their lack of necessary job skills to be successful in the work force. Many teenage mothers then become dependent on public assistance. Over 75% of all unmarried teen mothers go on welfare within 5 years of the birth of their first child. On the flip side, though, some studies have shown that for teenagers who live in poverty, getting pregnant and being supported by the father of the child could be a “survival mechanism” to avoid an even more hopeless situation.
Adolescent mothers may not have adequate parenting skills and could harm the psycho-social development of their child, resulting in another one of the effects of teenage pregnancy. Studies show that teenage mothers do not provide their children with stimulation through touch, smiling, and verbal communication, nor do they seem sensitive to their child’s needs. Furthermore, children of teenage mothers are more likely to suffer from poor nutrition. Many adolescents, in addition, show a great deal of anger towards their child and rely heavily upon punishment. Indeed, the incidence of developmental disabilities and behavioral issues is higher in children of teenage mothers.
When these children grow up, they often exhibit poor academic performance, failing to graduate, being held back, and scoring poorly on standardized tests. Daughters of teenage mothers are more likely to fall into the trap of teen pregnancy themselves and sons of teenage mothers are three times more likely to go to prison.
Effects of teenage pregnancy also include health risks for the mother and the child. Indeed, women aged 15-19 experience four times the risk of maternal mortality compared to 25 to 29 year old women. The risk is even higher for girls aged 10 to 14 and the children of these adolescent are more likely to fall sick or die in infancy.
Warning: file(http://www.searchfeed.com/rd/feed/TextFeed.jsp?trackID=Q3835304521&pID=62408&cat=teenage+pregnancy+help&nl=5&page=1&excID=) [function.file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
in /home/cwatchco/public_html/preparents/teenage/datas/searchfeed.php on line 8
Teenage Pregnancy Help Specific links
Teenage Pregnancy Help News
Alexandria finds money for pregnancy prevention program that state lawmakers cut - Washington Post (blog)
Alexandria finds money for pregnancy prevention program that state lawmakers cut Washington Post (blog) By Anita Kumar The General Assembly left town last week without restoring funds for a pregnancy prevention program for teens. But Alexandria managed to scrape together enough money to replenish its coffers. The City Council approved spending $65000 on ... |
Soroptimists offer different perspectives on teen pregnancies - San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Soroptimists offer different perspectives on teen pregnancies San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Staff photo by Watchara Phomicinda) Soroptimist International of Puente Hills offered different perspectives on teen pregnancy at its annual scholarship luncheon on May 23. Speakers included a teen father as well as the child of teen parents. |
No One Solution to Reducing Teen Pregnancy - Huffington Post (blog)
No One Solution to Reducing Teen Pregnancy Huffington Post (blog) Business reporter Matthew Yglesias argued that low-income teen moms aren't poor because they have babies to take care of. They have babies because they are poor. The way to cut the teen pregnancy rate, he wrote, is not to pass out contraception, ... |
Teen Pregnancy: Still Too High - MyrtleBeachOnline.com
Teen Pregnancy: Still Too High MyrtleBeachOnline.com Too many folks, Alton said, don't see that the problem remains. Though the rate has dropped, 329 teenagers in Horry County still became pregnant in 2010. We've made good progress, he said, “but let's not call it success.” Why should we care? |
Providing a Lifeline for Liberia's Teenage Mothers: A Former Teenage Mother ... - Liberian Daily Observer
Providing a Lifeline for Liberia's Teenage Mothers: A Former Teenage Mother ... Liberian Daily Observer “I am waging a war against ignorance, a war against abuse and a war against illiteracy to end rampant teenage pregnancy,” says Pauline passionately. In 1982, when Pauline became pregnant at the age of 18 right after graduating from high school, ... |
Polo program offers Philly teens life lessons - ESPN
Polo program offers Philly teens life lessons ESPN She had more pressing matters to face -- like gang violence, teen pregnancy and a raging drug epidemic in her neighborhood, one of the poorest in Philadelphia. But when a friend told her about a program in which she could spend her afternoons caring ... |
Motherhood starts before pregnancy - Payson Roundup
Motherhood starts before pregnancy Payson Roundup ... in the Roundup detailing Gila County's rate of children in single-parent households (40 percent), rate of teen pregnancy (40 per 1000), and that 62 out of 100 women giving birth are unmarried, and most are on AHCCCS (taxpayer-funded health care.) ... |