Teen Pregnancy and Reality Tv

Teenage Pregnancy: Society’s Newest Trend After being raised with three sisters, I’ve come to notice that your typical teenage girl spends the majority of her time thinking about clothes, school, and boys. While I could be wrong about the clothes and school part, the numbers give me a leg to stand on when it comes to boys, 76.4 girls per 1,000 females who are pregnant are spending all of their time worrying about bringing a child into the world due to teen pregnancy (Henshaw, 2004). Within the past decade or so, the perception of teenage pregnancy has changed from an act of wrongdoing that is frowned upon to a “fashionable baby bump”. Why has this perception changed? I’d be willing to bet it’s from all of the new reality television shows and movies portraying teen pregnancies and not enough parent involvement. In the United States, teenage pregnancy has become a common occurrence with three out of ten girls getting pregnant before the age of twenty (Dooley, 2010). Most young teenagers feel as if conception will never come from their scandalous deeds but, in fact, it happens more often than what we think. What is causing teenagers to experiment in consensual sexual activity at such a young age? A sample survey was given to eighth graders in New York community both sexual active and those who abstained. Researchers found that these teenagers engaged in sexual activity due to having used marijuana and being drunk (Little and Rankin, 2001). Another finding is teenagers think consensual sex is a “social craze;” for instance, boys initiate sex to become popular and/or raise their social status and girls have sex to “attain approval” (Little and Rankin, 2001). The survey brings to light that sex education is not the only thing necessary to combat teen pregnancy, but also alcohol and drug abuse education. I am not only pointing a finger at MTV but their latest television series depicting teens being pregnant really makes my blood boil. 16 and Pregnant and The Secret Life of an American Teenager, two popular series, are not showing teenagers that the majority of the baby’s fathers do not marry the children’s mothers, two-thirds of families involving teenage moms are low income, less than half of teenage moms under eighteen graduate from high school as well as less than 2% earn college degrees, and lastly TV shows do not prepare a teenager for a baby (Dooley, 2010). Parents must become more aware of the garbage that’s being broadcast on mainstream television and find a way to get through to their children that what they are watching is not acceptable.
One issue the survey is not clear on is the parents’ involvement and sexy advertisements being an influence on teenage consensual sexual activity. On the other hand, many television series portray a teenager getting pregnant and their pregnancy being a normal occurrence that happens in everyday life such as 16 and Pregnant on MTV and Secret Life of an American Teenager on ABC Family (Dooley, 2010). Television shows want to present a dramatic show and pregnancy seems to be the hot topic so to speak. Even though some parents know and allow their children to watch these shows, others do not. According to Rosenzweig and Wolpin (1995), the parents’ involvement in their children’s lives has an effect on the way their children act outside of the family’s home. Those parents who do let their children watch these pregnancy television shows do not realize the message that their children are receiving. But what are these TV series telling teenagers? What 16 and Pregnant and The Secret Life of an American Teenager, is not showing teenagers is that 80% of the baby’s fathers do not marry their child’s mothers, two-thirds of families involving teenage moms are low income, less than half of teenage moms under eighteen graduates from high school as well as less than 2% earn college degrees, and lastly TV shows do not prepare a teenager for a baby (Dooley, 2010). Many parents need to get involved in their teen’s social lives which include talking to their kids about sex and the consequences of having sex before television shows dictate their teenagers’ lives. Not only do teenage pregnancies affect the young girl, but it also has an effect on the adolescent fathers and family members. Studies show that paternal adolescent fathers have an effect on their sons who are young fathers themselves (Sipsma, Biello, Cole-Lewis, and Kershaw, 2010). For example, Billy is Sam’s father. Billy had Sam when he was just a teenager and now Sam, who is in his teenage years, is expecting his first child. Data given shows sons born with adolescent fathers are 1.8 times more likely to become adolescent fathers than sons born with older fathers (Sipsma et al., 2010). According to Sipsma, Biello, Cole-Lewis, and Kershaw (2010), some key factors of adolescent fatherhood are “delinquency, maternal education, early adolescent dating, and race/ethnicity, and physical risk environment;” in which, all these factors contribute to teenage fatherhood. To sum up these findings, parents should educate young males, who are at high risk for continuing the cycle of teenage fatherhood, with pregnancy preventions. Another way teenage pregnancy affects others is involving family members and the baby itself.****** . Rosenzweig and Wolpin (1995) states pregnancy at such a young age has a biological effect on the growth of the fetus.*** Lastly a combination of television shows and parent involvement can affect teenage pregnancy, but another factor affecting teens getting pregnant is stress. Researchers believe teenager mothers undergo a period of high levels of depression (Mollborn and Morningstar, 2009). According to The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (2009), they found that teenage mothers have high levels of distress than adult mothers and teenagers without children. Researchers also found that levels of distress did not seem to accompany the childbearing process, but the teenager already had high stress levels even before getting pregnant (Devereux, Weigel, Ballard-Reisch, Leigh, and Cahoon, 2009). This relates back to parents involvement because research shows teens “receive less support from peers and family” resulting in increased stress levels before and after pregnancy (Devereux et al., 2009). Stress levels can be prevented with the proper help from the teenager’s parents; in order, to help the teenager not resort to sexual intercourse to help their stress levels. . Teenagers face many obstacles growing up from being the most popular kid in school to getting into college; add in the pressure of bearing a child then the challenges become extraordinarily difficult. With this said, teenagers need to receive the proper involvement and information from parents and a better portrayal of life as a teenage mom from the media, teenage pregnancy is close to 100% preventable. On the other hand, due to the lack of parent involvement which induces stress upon a teenager and media portraying teenage pregnancy as something “easy” or “cool,” teenagers assume having sex does not have consequences. Teenagers should realize their young pregnancy does not just affect them, but it affects their family as well; therefore, a teen should receive better information and have a close “talking” relationship with their parents to prevent stress and unclear facts on teenage pregnancy. At the end of the day having one child raise another brings added stress upon everyone involved with the two parents.

References
Dooley, T. (2010, July 12). Television teen baby boom dilemma episodes of favorite adolescent dramas are tackling the issue of pregnancy head on, but stigmas remain teen: abortion a touchy subject. Houston Chronicle,p. D.1. Retrieved February 17, 2013, from Southeastern Newspapers.
Henshaw, S. (2004, February 19). U.S. Pregnancy Statistics. The Allan Guttmacher Institute, 293-308. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
Little, B., & Rankin, A. (2001). Why do they start it? explaining reported early-teen sexual activity. Sociological Forum, 16(4), 703-729.

References: Dooley, T. (2010, July 12). Television teen baby boom dilemma episodes of favorite adolescent dramas are tackling the issue of pregnancy head on, but stigmas remain teen: abortion a touchy subject. Houston Chronicle,p. D.1. Retrieved February 17, 2013, from Southeastern Newspapers. Henshaw, S. (2004, February 19). U.S. Pregnancy Statistics. The Allan Guttmacher Institute, 293-308. Retrieved February 17, 2013. Little, B., & Rankin, A. (2001). Why do they start it? explaining reported early-teen sexual activity. Sociological Forum, 16(4), 703-729.