Teen Mom

Essay by taylorsolomonCollege, Undergraduate October 2014

download word file, 5 pages 0.0

Taylor Solomon

Argumentative Essay

Dr. Sykes

20 October 2014

"Teen Mom" Promotes Teen Pregnancy

Reality television often has the tendency to present an unrealistic view towards issues regarding real life situations. Teen pregnancy is one of the most misleading topics presented on reality television. Tabloids feed off of the shows' popularity by plastering the pictures of the teens on magazines and online, making them seem more appealing. Teen pregnancy as presented on reality television shows is irresponsible, dangerous and misleading by promoting an unrealistic view of young parenthood, encouraging pregnancy and glamorizing the consequences that result from such issues.

Parenthood is the leading cause of girls dropping out of school. More than 50% of teenage mothers do not graduate from high school. The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the western world. Bearing a child at any age can be difficult but for teenagers it can have substantial negative effects not only for the teen but also for their families.

Since teenagers are mainly dependent on their parents or guardians this burden is pushed back on them as well.

Studies show that 3 in 10 American teen girls will get pregnant at least once before the age of 20. That's nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year and about 25% of teen moms will have a second child within two years of their first child. In some cases, children born from parents who are adolescent will have more behavioral problem and poorer education than those children born to more mature aged parents. Childbearing also costs U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars due to increased public assistance programs, foster and public health care. Despite these unfortunate facts, between 1991 and 2013, the teen birth rate has decreased from 61.8 to 26.6 per 1,000 teens. Although the...