Teenage Pregnancy

Essay by greshy3107University, Bachelor'sA-, November 2006

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Teenage pregnancy occurs when women or men under the age of 20 have sexual intercourse and the woman becomes pregnant. Teenagers may have sexual intercourse with other teenagers or with adults. What influences teenagers decisions about unplanned Pregnancy?

Teenage pregnancy arises from individual, family, and social factors. These include but are not limited to culture, religion, moral values and beliefs, law, education, economic circumstances, lack of support structures including access to care and other resources, and mental and emotional well-being. Some causes are being poor, living in a single-parent household child abuse, risky behaviors such as drug abuse and early or unprotected sex. It usually occurs outside of marriage. A child born to an unmarried teenage high school dropout is 10 times as likely as other children to be living in poverty at ages 8 to 12 according to National Centre for Health Statistics (us) on Teen Births.

Being a teenage mother can be difficult and can become a social factor.

Many face prejudice and stigma from their communities and depression, lower educational levels. With a young mother's education cut short, a teenage mother may lack job skills, making it hard for her to find and keep a job. A teenage mother may become financially dependent on her family or on public assistance causing higher rates of poverty poorer "life outcomes" in children of teenage parents. Teen mothers are more likely than mothers over age 20 to give birth prematurely. About 17 percent of teen mothers go on to have a second baby within three years after the birth of their first baby. Teens may not have good parenting skills, or have the social support systems to help them deal with the stress of raising an infant. Teens too often have poor eating habits, neglect to take their vitamins,