The negative consequences of teenage pregnancies on both teenagers and society have been well established. Not only does teenage pregnancy interfere with a girl’s educational achievements but it can also hinder her success in life. Numerous studies show that the most successful approach to combating teen pregnancy is a combination of both sex education and abstinence counseling. Both these methods educate and inform teenagers about how to use contraceptives and avoid risky sexual behavior. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Washington revealed that students who receive sex education are less likely to become teen parents, than those who get none or abstinence-only sex education.
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According to the National Health Information Center, every year in the United States 750,000 teenage girls will become pregnant. This means that 1 in 13 of all girls in the United States will get pregnant within their teenage years and as many as 80% of those pregnancies are unintended. About 30 percent of adolescent pregnancies result in abortion, 14 percent end in miscarriage, and the remaining 56 percent result in live births.
Parents of teenagers are encouraged to take an active role in the sexual education their children receive. Communicating the implications and consequences of risky sexual behavior, abstinence and the use of contraceptives will increase a teen’s chances of avoiding early motherhood and ultimately better prepare them to achieve their educational and professional goals. Teenagers of today want to have an open dialogue wherein they can voice their opinions without fear of parental consequences.
Truth be told, it is almost impossible to monitor a teenager every activity, but leaving yourself approachable and talking to your teenager about intimacy, responsibilities and parenthood will keep them better informed when they happen to be face with the decision of whether or not to give into peer pressure. We live in a society where children and teenagers are bombarded with glamorized images of sexual promiscuity in the media. Parents and psychologists have debated for years whether exposure to such explicit content at a young age contributes to teens being over-sexed and under prepared to cope with the consequences.
For the most part, it appears as though the combination of abstinence counseling and sexual education is the most effective approach to combating this expensive nationwide issue. Many public school systems are developing alternative education programs that encourage pregnant teenagers to complete high school while fulfilling their responsibility with teen pregnancy. These programs provide teenagers with a greater opportunity to improve their long term socio-economic status by achieving the same educational and professional goals as their non-pregnant peers.
References: http://www.health.gov/nhic/
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