Research

1. Teenage Pregnancy: Causes, Effects, and Related-consequences 2. The problem I want to talk about is how teenage pregnancy is not getting the right attention it should be getting and that those who do go through teenage pregnancy are always being judged. Teenage pregnancy is a common obstacle many people face all over the world. These women may have gotten pregnant through incest, rape, because they love their partner, or even because they were in the heat of the moment. They still deserve the right amount of education about the decisions they make and should be treated just as equal as those who do not experience teenage pregnancy. I have an understanding of teenage pregnancies and the hardships of it because I experienced it second-hand. I have two family members that had their first child between the ages of 16 to 19. I want other people to know that teenage pregnancy is not always something that happens willingly. Therefore, I want to learn the variables which can be spoken about in order to reduce the immediate judgments people have of other people who have had kids in their teenage years. 3. 3.1 The American Conservative, and Kelley Vlahos. "Born to Consume: For MTV, Teen Pregnancy Is Big Business." Ic.galegroup.com. Gale Group, July 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
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In this article, Kelley Vlahos argues that MTV showcases pregnant teenage girls who are famous for being pregnant and are on television but go through their everyday normal lives. She also says that these teens are willingly choosing the glamorous life of a celebrity rather than continuing on with their normal lives. Vlahos' argument is valid in relation to other people in the world who feel the same way about these girls being famous for something that is too risky to be played with. The article is somewhat useful because it shows how affective shows like this can be to teens that don't have children, because it is like they should have a baby to be cast into fame. 4.2 Commonweal, and Barbara D. Whitehead. "And Baby Makes Two: Why Teen Pregnancy Is on the Rise.” 10 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
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Whitehead begins her article saying that, teenage pregnancy is rising because of changes in the behavior of young women from the past until now. Girls today are taking the role that a 25-year-old would take in the early 1900’s. The Republican Party feels that teen pregnancy is immoral. This belief is a bit contradictive when Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. After that, the Republican Party started to view teenage pregnancy as just another obstacle of obstacles in the middle-class family life. This article uses another real life story that happened in Massachusetts to support its points and views. In this case, high school girls got pregnant all at the same time. It is very helpful because of the pros and cons that are listed to the sides of sex education. 4.3 Smith, William A., and National Academy of Sciences. "Reducing Teen Pregnancy." Ic.galegroup.com. Gale Group, Summer 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
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Smith discusses how he feels that the divide between abstinence-only and those that push for safer sex and contraception are both options of preventing teen pregnancy that can be embraced. Smith also adds that teenage pregnancy needs attention from many people all over the world. Smith's tone is sympathetic to those who do go through teenage pregnancy. The article is very helpful because it gives the open minded point of view towards teenagers making the decision to have sex, and discusses programs that help teens prevent pregnancy. 4.4 Ventura, Stephanie. "Teenage Pregnancy." Ic.galegroup.com. Gale Group, 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <
In this article, Stephanie Ventura discusses that the cost of funding for teenage pregnancy is going down annually from1991 to 2005. She also talks about how rates have been going up and down from 1991 to 2010 and how the U.S. still has the highest teenage pregnancy rates. Ventura’s points are suitable and educational and often have facts and statistics from other sources. The article is useful in its talk about outcomes of teenage pregnancy, causes of teenage pregnancy rates, behavioral changes, decline of attitude towards STDs, and the effect of policy changes. 4.5 Boonstra, Heather. "Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs Are Ineffective." Gale Group. Http://www.ic.galegroup.com, Fall 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
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In this article, Heather Boonstra talks about how funding for the abstinence-only programs was debated over. Boonstra also talks about the rise of abstinence-only programs as well as how these programs have inaccurate medical information. Boonstra’s argument is well put and relevant. She defends her views with relevant facts. The usefulness of this article is limited because it only supports one side/ view about teenage pregnancy programs and their effectiveness. 4. Hypothesis: People who have socioeconomic disadvantages and/or do not like school are more likely to become pregnant in their teen years and therefore do not receive the attention and education they deserve. 5. Research Method: The method I chose to conduct research based on my hypothesis would be using secondary analysis and unobtrusive measures. Secondary analysis is “analyzing data that others have collected” (130, Henslin). I would choose this method because the existing data could have information that could greatly impact my supporting details, and I am able to look at the data in a different way. I would also choose unobtrusive measures because although I have already experienced teen pregnancy second-hand, this method would allow me to have a better understanding of why people are not looking at teenage pregnancy as an obstacle. I also feel that they should be more open-minded to women who go through it. 6. Personal Reaction: The materials I found respond to the implicit question in my problem statements and thesis. I have learned a lot of facts that give me a precise perspective of the problem of teenage pregnancy in our society. These materials give me the causes of teenage pregnancy as well as the effects and the related-consequences that Boonstra, Smith, Vlahos, Ventura and Whitehead all point out. As Smith points out “When the issues of sexual activity and use of contraceptives are addressed, the worst possible picture is painted.” (Smith, 1). This goes back to how people are judgmental of pregnant teenage women and are skeptical without knowing any facts.
I believe the source that responded to my question was Smith’s “Reducing Teen Pregnancy” article. This article is the most relevant source because it includes the sides of people who are for and against sex education for teenagers with the example of how many states really evaluate the effectiveness of their programs. Right now “eleven states have conducted these evaluations” (Smith, 1) and every one of these states feel that these programs aren’t changing the attitude of the teenagers’ behaviors. These behaviors will not change because of all of the judgment that is passed around all over the world. Teenage pregnancy will go down in every country, just as long as people can be a bit more understand as to why it happens.
The most important thing I learned is to keep up with the data and the sources I read. I also learned that teenage pregnancy has an abundant amount of causes that I did not know could even occur. Experiencing teenage pregnancy second-hand gave me such an advantage for this paper because I can understand the hardships that these young women go through. I also could relate to the articles because of this advantage, it made writing the research paper better for me.
The hardest part about doing the research paper was not getting too deep into almost every reason why people just happen to judge these young women. There are many reasons why these people react this way, but what I feel is that they should be able to do some research of their own and understand that teenage pregnancy is global; it happens everywhere. It happens to the young women that probably thought it would never happen to them. Another part that was hard about this research paper was summarizing for the annotated bibliography.