Please help me!! I have to do a project about teen pregnancy and I have to summa
ID: 3494104 • Letter: P
Question
Please help me!!
I have to do a project about teen pregnancy and I have to summary one article. Honestly, I do not know how to write one paragraph to summary it....
1st
Teen Pregnancy in the United States
In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is another record low for U.S. teens and a drop of 8% from 2014. Birth rates fell 9% for women aged 15–17 years and 7% for women aged 18–19 years.1
Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years.2,3
Still, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations4, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist.5
Disparities in Teen Birth Rates
Teen birth rates declined from 2014 to 2015 for all races and for Hispanics. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, teen birth rates decreased:
10% for Asian/Pacific Islanders
9% for non-Hispanic blacks
8% for Hispanics
8% for non-Hispanic whites
6% for American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN)1
In 2015, the birth rate of Hispanic teens were still more than two times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white teens. The birth rate of non-Hispanic black teens was almost twice as high as the rate among non-Hispanic white teens, and American Indian/Alaska Native teen birth rates remained more than one and a half times higher than the non-Hispanic white teen birth rate.1 Geographic differences in teen birth rates persist, both within and across states. Among some states with low overall teen birth rates, some counties have high teen birth rates.5
Less favorable socioeconomic conditions, such as low education and low income levels of a teen’s family, may contribute to high teen birth rates.6Teens in child welfare systems are at higher risk of teen pregnancy and birth than other groups. For example, young women living in foster care are more than twice as likely to become pregnant than those not in foster care.7
To improve the life opportunities of adolescents facing significant health disparities and to have the greatest impact on overall U.S. teen birth rates, CDC uses data to inform and direct interventions and resources to areas with the greatest need.
The Importance of Prevention
Teen pregnancy and childbearing bring substantial social and economic costs through immediate and long-term impacts on teen parents and their children.
In 2010, teen pregnancy and childbirth accounted for at least $9.4 billion in costs to U.S. taxpayers for increased health care and foster care, increased incarceration rates among children of teen parents, and lost tax revenue because of lower educational attainment and income among teen mothers.8
Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, whereas approximately 90% of women who do not give birth during adolescence graduate from high school.9
The children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and to drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face unemployment as a young adult.10
These effects continue for the teen mother and her child even after adjusting for those factors that increased the teenager’s risk for pregnancy, such as growing up in poverty, having parents with low levels of education, growing up in a single-parent family, and having poor performance in school.10
CDC Priority: Reducing Teen Pregnancy and Promoting Health Equity Among Youth
Teen pregnancy prevention is one of CDC’s top seven priorities, a “winnable battle” in public health, and of paramount importance to health and quality of life for our youth. CDC supports the implementation of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs that have been shown, in at least one program evaluation, to have a positive effect on preventing teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, or sexual risk behaviors. Evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs have been identified by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) TPP Evidence Review, which used a systematic process for reviewing evaluation studies against a rigorous standard. Currently, the Evidence Review covers a variety of diverse programs, including sexuality education programs, youth development programs, abstinence education programs, clinic-based programs, and programs specifically designed for diverse populations and settings. In addition to evidence-based prevention programs, teens need access to youth-friendly contraceptive and reproductive health services and support from parents and other trusted adults, who can play an important role in helping teens make healthy choices about relationships, sex, and birth control. Efforts at the community level that address social and economic factors associated with teen pregnancy also play a critical role in addressing racial/ethnic and geographical disparities observed in teen births in the US.
2nd
Teen Pregancy is a Serious Problem
Bad for the Mother
Future prospects for teenagers decline significantly if they have a baby. Teen mothers are less likely to complete school and more likely to be single parents. Less than one-third of teens who begin their families before age 18 ever earn a high school diploma.
There are serious health risks for adolescents who have babies. Young adolescents (particularly those under age 15) experience a maternal death rate 2.5 times greater than that of mothers aged 20-24. Common medical problems among adolescent mothers include poor weight gain, pregnancy-induced hypertension, anemia, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and cephalopelvic disproportion. Later in life, adolescent mothers tend to be at greater risk for obesity and hypertension than women who were not teenagers when they had their first child.
Teen pregnancy is closely linked to poverty and single parenthood. A 1990 study showed that almost one-half of all teenage mothers and over three-quarters of unmarried teen mothers began receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child. The growth in single-parent families remains the single most important reason for increased poverty among children over the last twenty years, as documented in the 1998 Economic Report of the President. Out-of-wedlock childbearing (as opposed to divorce) is currently the driving force behind the growth in the number of single parents, and half of first out-of-wedlock births are to teens. Therefore, reducing teen pregnancy and child-bearing is an obvious place to anchor serious efforts to reduce poverty in future generations.
Bad for the Child
Children born to teen mothers suffer from higher rates of low birth weight and related health problems. The proportion of babies with low birth weights born to teens is 28 percent higher than the proportion for mothers age 20-24. Low birth weight raises the probabilities of infant death, blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental retardation, mental illness, and cerebral palsy. In addition, low birth weight doubles the chances that a child will later be diagnosed as having dyslexia, hyperactivity, or another disability.
Children of teens often have insufficient health care. Despite having more health problems than the children of older mothers, the children of teen mothers receive less medical care and treatment. In his or her first 14 years, the average child of a teen mother visits a physician and other medical providers an average of 3.8 times per year, compared with 4.3 times for a child of older childbearers. And when they do visit medical providers, more of the expenses they incur are paid by others in society. One recent study suggested that the medical expenses paid by society would be reduced dramatically if teenage mothers were to wait until they were older to have their first child.
Children of teen mothers often receive inadequate parenting. Children born to teen mothers are at higher risk of poor parenting because their mothers—and often their fathers as well—are typically too young to master the demanding job of being a parent. Still growing and developing themselves, teen mothers are often unable to provide the kind of environment that infants and very young children require for optimal development. Recent research, for example, has clarified the critical importance of sensitive parenting and early cognitive stimulation for adequate brain development. Given the importance of careful nurturing and stimulation in the first three years of life, the burden born by babies with parents who are too young to be in this role is especially great.
Children with adolescent parents often fall victim to abuse and neglect. A recent analysis found that there are 110 reported incidents of abuse and neglect per 1,000 families headed by a young teen mother. By contrast, in families where the mothers delay childbearing until their early twenties, the rate is less than half this level—or 51 incidents per 1,000 families. Similarly, rates of foster care placement are significantly higher for children whose mothers are under 18. In fact, over half of foster care placements of children with these young mothers could be averted by delaying child-bearing, thereby saving taxpayers nearly $1 billion annually in foster care costs alone.
Children of teenagers often suffer from poor school performance. Children of teens are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade; they perform much worse on standardized tests; and ultimately they are less likely to complete high school than if their mothers had delayed childbearing.
Bad for Us All
The U.S. still leads the fully industrialized world in teen pregnancy and birth rates—by a wide margin. In fact, the U.S. rates are nearly double Great Britain's, at least four times those of France and Germany, and more than ten times that of Japan.
Teen pregnancy costs society billions of dollars a year. There are nearly half a million children born to teen mothers each year. Most of these mothers are unmarried, and many will end up poor and on welfare. Each year the federal government alone spends about $40 billion to help families that began with a teenage birth.
Teen pregnancy hurts the business community's "bottom line." Too many children start school unprepared to learn, and teachers are overwhelmed trying to deal with problems that start in the home. Forty-five percent of first births in the United States are to women who are either unmarried, teenagers, or lacking a high school degree, which means that too many children—tomorrow's workers—are born into families that are not prepared to help them succeed. In addition, teen mothers often do not finish high school themselves. It's not easy for a teen to learn work skills and be a dependable employee while caring for children.
A new crop of kids becomes teenagers each year. This means that prevention efforts must be constantly renewed and reinvented. And between 1995 and 2010, the number of girls aged 15-19 is projected to increase by 2.2 million.
II
Research has identified a host of factors—related to individual behavior, family and community situations, and cultural pressures—that contribute to teen pregnancy. Most programs to prevent teen pregnancy focus on one of these groups of factors.
Behavior and Risk-Taking
Teens who get pregnant or cause a pregnancy are often engaged in a pattern of poor choices. Teens who use or abuse drugs and alcohol, who have had a history of violence and delinquency, or are failing at or dropped out of school have higher rates of sexual activity. Teens using drugs and alcohol are more likely to put themselves in sexually risky situations and are much less likely to use contraception. Teen girls whose first partners are older teens or adult men are also less likely to use contraception and are more likely to report that their first sexual experience was involuntary or unwanted. And, teens who begin intercourse at a young age have a higher risk of getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy.
Giving teens the skills and motivation to make informed decisions about sexuality can reduce sexual risk-taking. Helping teens avoid other risk-taking behaviors may also help teens avoid a pregnancy.
The Environment
The environments that children grow up in have an important influence on their risk of teen pregnancy. As [researcher D. Kirby] recently wrote:
"Research shows that youths at greatest risk [for teen pregnancy] are more likely to live in areas with: high poverty rates, low levels of education, high residential turnover, and high divorce rates. Their parents are more likely to have low levels of education, to be poor, to have experienced a divorce or separation, or to never have married, and their mothers and older sisters are more likely to have given birth as adolescents."
Increasing the capacity of families and communities to nurture teens and help them stay in school and set goals for their lives may contribute to lower rates of teen pregnancy. Young people who feel supported by parents, school, and community during their adolescence are buffered against the risk of too-early pregnancy.
Cultural and Media Messages
Teens are barraged by TV shows, films, songs, and advertising in which sex has little meaning, unplanned pregnancy seldom happens, and sexual partners are rarely married, let alone committed to each other. Sexual themes permeate the pictures and plot lines. Teens may spend more time in the presence of these messages than in the presence of alternative messages that value staying in school and preparing for adulthood.
Teen pregnancy is just one problem young people face in our culture today—and perhaps not the most pressing one. Parents identify violence, gangs, drugs, and pressure from peers to engage in unhealthy behaviors as even greater risks than early pregnancy.
Communities can help prevent teen pregnancy even when that issue is not the primary focus of an initiative. Pregnancy prevention can be adopted as part of a strategy that focuses on more immediate concerns of that community.
Categories of Prevention
Most teen pregnancy prevention programs have emphasized education, skills, abstinence, and access to contraception. However, the definition of what constitutes teen pregnancy prevention is best expanded to include activities that seek to instill teens with confidence and a sense of the future. This speaks to motivation to avoid pregnancy, a critical element in a pregnancy-free adolescence.
Many different kinds of programs exist to help teens avoid pregnancy. They can be divided into several categories:
education for teens about sex, relationships, pregnancy, and parenthood;
reproductive health services for teens;
programs to strengthen teens' bonds with family and community;
youth development and school-to-career programs;
media campaigns; and
multiple component campaigns.
Bad for the Mother
Future prospects for teenagers decline significantly if they have a baby. Teen mothers are less likely to complete school and more likely to be single parents. Less than one-third of teens who begin their families before age 18 ever earn a high school diploma.
There are serious health risks for adolescents who have babies. Young adolescents (particularly those under age 15) experience a maternal death rate 2.5 times greater than that of mothers aged 20-24. Common medical problems among adolescent mothers include poor weight gain, pregnancy-induced hypertension, anemia, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and cephalopelvic disproportion. Later in life, adolescent mothers tend to be at greater risk for obesity and hypertension than women who were not teenagers when they had their first child.
Teen pregnancy is closely linked to poverty and single parenthood. A 1990 study showed that almost one-half of all teenage mothers and over three-quarters of unmarried teen mothers began receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child. The growth in single-parent families remains the single most important reason for increased poverty among children over the last twenty years, as documented in the 1998 Economic Report of the President. Out-of-wedlock childbearing (as opposed to divorce) is currently the driving force behind the growth in the number of single parents, and half of first out-of-wedlock births are to teens. Therefore, reducing teen pregnancy and child-bearing is an obvious place to anchor serious efforts to reduce poverty in future generations.
Bad for the Child
Children born to teen mothers suffer from higher rates of low birth weight and related health problems. The proportion of babies with low birth weights born to teens is 28 percent higher than the proportion for mothers age 20-24. Low birth weight raises the probabilities of infant death, blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental retardation, mental illness, and cerebral palsy. In addition, low birth weight doubles the chances that a child will later be diagnosed as having dyslexia, hyperactivity, or another disability.
Children of teens often have insufficient health care. Despite having more health problems than the children of older mothers, the children of teen mothers receive less medical care and treatment. In his or her first 14 years, the average child of a teen mother visits a physician and other medical providers an average of 3.8 times per year, compared with 4.3 times for a child of older childbearers. And when they do visit medical providers, more of the expenses they incur are paid by others in society. One recent study suggested that the medical expenses paid by society would be reduced dramatically if teenage mothers were to wait until they were older to have their first child.
Children of teen mothers often receive inadequate parenting. Children born to teen mothers are at higher risk of poor parenting because their mothers—and often their fathers as well—are typically too young to master the demanding job of being a parent. Still growing and developing themselves, teen mothers are often unable to provide the kind of environment that infants and very young children require for optimal development. Recent research, for example, has clarified the critical importance of sensitive parenting and early cognitive stimulation for adequate brain development. Given the importance of careful nurturing and stimulation in the first three years of life, the burden born by babies with parents who are too young to be in this role is especially great.
Children with adolescent parents often fall victim to abuse and neglect. A recent analysis found that there are 110 reported incidents of abuse and neglect per 1,000 families headed by a young teen mother. By contrast, in families where the mothers delay childbearing until their early twenties, the rate is less than half this level—or 51 incidents per 1,000 families. Similarly, rates of foster care placement are significantly higher for children whose mothers are under 18. In fact, over half of foster care placements of children with these young mothers could be averted by delaying child-bearing, thereby saving taxpayers nearly $1 billion annually in foster care costs alone.
Children of teenagers often suffer from poor school performance. Children of teens are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade; they perform much worse on standardized tests; and ultimately they are less likely to complete high school than if their mothers had delayed childbearing.
Bad for Us All
The U.S. still leads the fully industrialized world in teen pregnancy and birth rates—by a wide margin. In fact, the U.S. rates are nearly double Great Britain's, at least four times those of France and Germany, and more than ten times that of Japan.
Teen pregnancy costs society billions of dollars a year. There are nearly half a million children born to teen mothers each year. Most of these mothers are unmarried, and many will end up poor and on welfare. Each year the federal government alone spends about $40 billion to help families that began with a teenage birth.
Teen pregnancy hurts the business community's "bottom line." Too many children start school unprepared to learn, and teachers are overwhelmed trying to deal with problems that start in the home. Forty-five percent of first births in the United States are to women who are either unmarried, teenagers, or lacking a high school degree, which means that too many children—tomorrow's workers—are born into families that are not prepared to help them succeed. In addition, teen mothers often do not finish high school themselves. It's not easy for a teen to learn work skills and be a dependable employee while caring for children.
A new crop of kids becomes teenagers each year. This means that prevention efforts must be constantly renewed and reinvented. And between 1995 and 2010, the number of girls aged 15-19 is projected to increase by 2.2 million.
II
Research has identified a host of factors—related to individual behavior, family and community situations, and cultural pressures—that contribute to teen pregnancy. Most programs to prevent teen pregnancy focus on one of these groups of factors.
Behavior and Risk-Taking
Teens who get pregnant or cause a pregnancy are often engaged in a pattern of poor choices. Teens who use or abuse drugs and alcohol, who have had a history of violence and delinquency, or are failing at or dropped out of school have higher rates of sexual activity. Teens using drugs and alcohol are more likely to put themselves in sexually risky situations and are much less likely to use contraception. Teen girls whose first partners are older teens or adult men are also less likely to use contraception and are more likely to report that their first sexual experience was involuntary or unwanted. And, teens who begin intercourse at a young age have a higher risk of getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy.
Giving teens the skills and motivation to make informed decisions about sexuality can reduce sexual risk-taking. Helping teens avoid other risk-taking behaviors may also help teens avoid a pregnancy.
The Environment
The environments that children grow up in have an important influence on their risk of teen pregnancy. As [researcher D. Kirby] recently wrote:
"Research shows that youths at greatest risk [for teen pregnancy] are more likely to live in areas with: high poverty rates, low levels of education, high residential turnover, and high divorce rates. Their parents are more likely to have low levels of education, to be poor, to have experienced a divorce or separation, or to never have married, and their mothers and older sisters are more likely to have given birth as adolescents."
Increasing the capacity of families and communities to nurture teens and help them stay in school and set goals for their lives may contribute to lower rates of teen pregnancy. Young people who feel supported by parents, school, and community during their adolescence are buffered against the risk of too-early pregnancy.
Cultural and Media Messages
Teens are barraged by TV shows, films, songs, and advertising in which sex has little meaning, unplanned pregnancy seldom happens, and sexual partners are rarely married, let alone committed to each other. Sexual themes permeate the pictures and plot lines. Teens may spend more time in the presence of these messages than in the presence of alternative messages that value staying in school and preparing for adulthood.
Teen pregnancy is just one problem young people face in our culture today—and perhaps not the most pressing one. Parents identify violence, gangs, drugs, and pressure from peers to engage in unhealthy behaviors as even greater risks than early pregnancy.
Communities can help prevent teen pregnancy even when that issue is not the primary focus of an initiative. Pregnancy prevention can be adopted as part of a strategy that focuses on more immediate concerns of that community.
Categories of Prevention
Most teen pregnancy prevention programs have emphasized education, skills, abstinence, and access to contraception. However, the definition of what constitutes teen pregnancy prevention is best expanded to include activities that seek to instill teens with confidence and a sense of the future. This speaks to motivation to avoid pregnancy, a critical element in a pregnancy-free adolescence.
Many different kinds of programs exist to help teens avoid pregnancy. They can be divided into several categories:
education for teens about sex, relationships, pregnancy, and parenthood;
reproductive health services for teens;
programs to strengthen teens' bonds with family and community;
youth development and school-to-career programs;
media campaigns; and
multiple component campaigns.
Explanation / Answer
The data and researches suggest that there is decline in teen pregnancies since 2015. Teen pregnancies entail financial, social, educational, health and other such impacts on the teenagers and their families. The decline in teen pregnancies cannot be attributed only to the less indulgence in sexual activities but to the use of protection during sex. CDC suggests the implementation of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs to prevent teens from, 1. Getting pregnant and 2. From contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Even the children born to teenage mothers suffer from a lot of distress and face a lot of struggle during growing up. The factors that lead to teenage pregnancies are behavioral, person specific, environmental and to a large extent media related. It may be concluded that teenage pregnancy is not only harmful to the family facing it, but also to the mother and the child as well.
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