Teen Pregnancy

“Teen Pregnancy”

Preventing teenage pregnancy has been a goal for many years now. Statistics have tried to keep up with the change in the teenage generation. Many people have different opinions on the subject of teen pregnancy, because to some people teens seem to be getting pregnant expeditiously in these times. People fail to realize that having a baby is a privilege to many people and not a problem. Many people take having a baby as a lightly. Getting pregnant and having a kid has many pros/cons. Having a child can be very hard on some people and cause them to break. When babies are brought into this world there are a lot of things to worry about. The greatest problem associated with teen pregnancy is financial instability. Most teens do not have the salary to support a child. In the prevention of teen pregnancy there are many things that are helpful. Abstinence is a for sure way of not getting pregnant. There are also other helpful ways to help prevent teen pregnancy, such as sex education and birth control. All of these things are essential in the helping to prevent teenage pregnancy.

Abstinence is when you abstain from sexual activities. Abstaining from sexual activities is a great way to prevent teen pregnancy, and the risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease. In the past few years less sex and more condoms use has meant lower rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Abstinence is not a crime, as most teenagers and their peers seem to think. The actual crime among teens is not being able to fit in. Most teens have sex because of their peers being sexually active. The percentage of sexually active males declined from 57.4 percent to 48.8 percent, essentially erasing the gender gap. In high school students alone the rate for being sexually active went from being 66.7 percent to 60.9 percent in the years of 1991-1997. Abstinence is very important, but the peers of teenagers are just as important. " The Nurture Assumption " says that peer groups matter a lot more than parents influencing how kids turn out, because you can pass your genes, but not your values. CFOC’s National Survey of Family Growth stated that teens are having less sex. CFOC also stated that more teenagers surveyed that their closest friends were involved in some sort of sex education class, and they were not sexually active. Abstaining from sex and learning more about sex are good ways to assure your knowledge and decrease teen pregnancy.

Sex education is the study of the characteristics of being a male or a female. Such characteristics make up a person's sexuality. Traditionally children have received information about sexuality from their parents, church, friends, their doctors, and many other people. Many young teens learn about their bodies first. They learn about their body part and why they are essential for the body to keep going each day. Many people believe that sex ed. being taught in schools assures children of correct and complete information about sexuality. Sex education prevents teenage pregnancy because it shows teens the proper way to use birth control if they choose to have sex. How sex education is taught varies greatly from on program to another, whether in school or any other program.

Sex education starts in kindergarten and continues through high school. From kindergarten through 4th grade, sex ed. teaches children about their bodies and attempts to promote a whole some attitude toward the self-development process. During these years teachers attempt to correct any false ideas children may have learned about sex. In the grades 5th through 6th teachers try to prepare students for puberty. For example, the children learn about nocturnal emissions, menstruation and changes that will take place in their bodies, they also learn and study reproduction. From grades 7th through 9th most young adults interest in sex increases, so they learn more about responsibility, and boy/girl dating. In high school, students learn more about the social and psychological aspects of sexuality. Many other subject come up at this time in a teenagers life, such as marriage, abortion, homosexuality, birth control, and many other topics. Through the teenage years there are a lot of things to be learned and taught, but the most focused on is birth control as stated by John