...Media Influence on Teen Pregnancy Jessica Vickroy Devry University Media Influence on Teen Pregnancy “I wasn’t aware of the consequences of having sex and I didn’t know the symptoms of pregnancy. I had no idea I was pregnant for quite a while” (Currie, 2011). Stacey Currie was only fifteen years old when she got pregnant. Over recent years, the rate of teen pregnancies has declined in the United States but there are still around 850,000 teenagers who get pregnant each year. This yearly rate is still double the amount of Canada, and triples the amount of Spain (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2012). In efforts to educate teenage girls, the US cable television network, MTV, created two television series: 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. During 16 and Pregnant each episode followed a different teen throughout her pregnancy up to a few weeks after giving birth. Teen Mom followed some of the original mothers from 16 and Pregnant during the first few years of their child’s life. The intentions of these shows were sincere when first created but have developed into a mockery of their original message. Throughout the seasons of Teen Mom, the focus has become less about education, and more about ratings. MTV began to advertise each episode for the wild activities of the mothers rather than the struggles of being a teenage mother in today’s society. By advertising the mistakes each mother makes in gossip magazines, the wrong message is being...
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...Running Head: Teen Pregnancy in the United States Teen Pregnancy in the United States Lakiara Collins English II` Abstract Teen Pregnancy occur more than you think in the United States. More than 400,000 teen girls, aged 15-19 years old, give birth each year in the US. Having a child during teen years carries high costs emotional, physical, and financial to the mother, father, child, and community. Teen Pregnancy is becoming more popular in the media and from a political, ad educational standpoint. This is an underlying social problem that is now making it known. Teen Pregnancy in the United States “Each year in the U.S. almost one million teenagers become pregnant--at enormous costs to themselves, their children, and society”. (Pregnant Teen Help, Teen Pregnancy Statistics) Some would argue that teen pregnancy is all glorified. Other individuals would protest that it is too influential. Teen pregnancy is a rising social problem in the United States and among other countries. Teen pregnancy is now being publicized as multimedia corporations, with shows such as “16 & Pregnant”, “Teen Mom”, “Maury”, “Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and “Juno”. All of which concentrate on teen pregnancy. These shows or movies could be informational for young people. However, the shows display an altered reality that teen pregnancy is easy, laughs and joy. Despite what the shows might portray teen pregnancy is an uprising national and global epidemic. In the past teen pregnancy...
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...environment influences teenage pregnancy in the United States. The purpose of this essay is to identify how preeminent teenage pregnancy has become in teens ages fourteen and up, how famous it has become in the United States and how the majority of teens do not finish their education after becoming pregnant. The sources used in this essay provide the necessary information needed for readers to understand why and how a teenagers environment has become influential for them becoming pregnant. Teenage pregnancy is affecting teens by causing them to drop out of school and not finish their education which later results in a limited amount of choices when choosing a career. Outline Thesis: The social life of teenagers influences teenage pregnancy through pressure from peers, too much access to the media and lack of sex education from parents and teachers in the United States. I. Peer pressure in the United States is the major factor influencing teenage pregnancy in the U.S. A. During adolescence, teenagers often feel pressure to make friends and fit in with their peers. B. Many times these teens let their friends influence their decision to have sex. C. The Kaiser Family Foundation states that more than 29 percent of pregnant teens reported that they felt pressured to have sex. II. Excessive access to the media plays an important role in teenage pregnancy A. In the U.S today, the majority of teens have access to phones, tablets...
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...Teenage Pregnancy in the U.S. Brandon Lisak Principals of Sociology 4/31/2014 “Each year in the U.S. almost one million teenagers become pregnant at enormous costs to themselves, their children, and society”. (Pregnant Teen Help, Teen Pregnancy Statistics) Some would argue that teen pregnancy is all glorified. Other individuals would protest that it is too influential. Teen pregnancy is a rising social problem in the United States and among other countries. Teen pregnancy is now being publicized as multimedia corporations, with shows such as “16 & Pregnant”, “Teen Mom”, “Maury”, “Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and “Juno”. All of which concentrate on teen pregnancy. These shows or movies could be informational for young people. However, the shows display an altered reality that teen pregnancy is easy, laughs and joy. Despite what the shows might portray teen pregnancy is an uprising national and global epidemic. In the past teen pregnancy has been an underline issue that is vastly taking center stage. Media, education, and economy are all components to this phenomenon, nevertheless, how are they all connected? All of which will all be addressed in the contents of this paper. Which leaves the burning question, is teen pregnancy accepted into our society as a norm, or is it still a deviant act? First and for most, there are many different definitions of teenage pregnancy depending on the source of the information. However, as a broad definition defines teenage...
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...Teen Pregnancy—A Social Issue After researching various statistics, I found that premarital pregnancy is quite prevalent in teenagers throughout the world. Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how one would break the news to their parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. People might think that they can help others, or one might be too embarrassed to search for help. For the most part, when one sees teenagers raising children, we often think that the teen has been raped or is too mature for their age. For this reason, some totally miss the issues that one must have been exposed to in their society, the society of their home, community, school. There are many viewpoints as to why teenage females are having so many children out of wedlock. However, the facts are obvious—teenaged females are highly influenced by many social issues, but those with the lack of strong parental guidance, sex education, and positive mass media are more likely to have a premarital pregnancy. As one travels the globe, they will find that industrialized and developing countries have distinctly different rates of teenage pregnancy. In the online article, “Teen Pregnancy on the Rise,” Sipokazi Maposa says that in developed...
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...COM 362 Teen Pregnancy Outline General Purpose: To inform Specific Purpose: To inform my audience on the background information, communication, and possible resolutions regarding the teen pregnancy conflict in America. Central Idea: The issue of teen pregnancy is a growing problem in our society. This conflict is associated with the lack of education and restriction on teen pregnancies and abortions. I. Introduction A recent article from Parents Magazine stated that, “a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that one-third of teenage mothers didn’t use birth control because they didn’t think they could get pregnant” (Rossi, 2012). Researchers found that moms often thought they couldn’t get pregnant the first time they had sex or at a specific time of the month. With the amount of glorified pregnancies and sexual content in the media today we really need to take time to analyze this conflict. (Parents Magazine) II. Orienting Material I would like to talk to you today about the conflict of teen pregnancy. I will provide you with background information on the teen pregnancy along with what is currently happening with the conflict. By analyzing the desired out comes and communication strategies of the opposing sides we can take the steps towards resolving these conflicts. Credibility My credibly on the topic comes from my research and personal experience. I was drawn to this topic because I had a lot of friends in...
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...> College Guide > College Essays > Teen Pregnancy—A Social Issue Teen Pregnancy—A Social Issue Custom User AvatarBy Official_DKW, Ypsilanti, MI More by this author Email me when Official_DKW contributes work After researching various statistics, I found that premarital pregnancy is quite prevalent in teenagers throughout the world. Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how one would break the news to their parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. People might think that they can help others, or one might be too embarrassed to search for help. For the most part, when one sees teenagers raising children, we often think that the teen has been raped or is too mature for their age. For this reason, some totally miss the issues that one must have been exposed to in their society, the society of their home, community, school. There are many viewpoints as to why teenage females are having so many children out of wedlock. However, the facts are obvious—teenaged females are highly influenced by many social issues, but those with the lack of strong parental guidance, sex education, and positive mass media are more likely to have a premarital pregnancy. As one travels the globe, they will find...
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...Adrian Llañez Dr. Susan Cardenas HL S 301V 4 May 2014 Preventing Teen Pregnancy Sexuality is a huge, broad topic. When breaking it all down, one thing stands out to me: teen pregnancy. This topic is one of major debate and draws the attention of several governments worldwide to help prevent a problematic trend. While there are several agencies in the United States designed to educate and attempt to lower the teen pregnancy rate, the United States still maintains one of the highest rates in the world. I believe that while we in the United States try to lower this rate, we are not doing enough to educate and better inform the youth. We need to invest in comprehensive sex education and change the messages were sending teens through the media. I’m from an area where teen pregnancy is a norm. It frightens me knowing that my two younger sisters may become part of a tragic statistic. People blow off teen pregnancy like it is not a big deal, but we need to fix the “solutions” that our government has set out. We have several programs currently available to youth in the United States one of which is sex education. However the media play the most negative role in offsetting the work we as a society perform to help our teens be healthy and not fall into a trap. While sexuality is completely natural and healthy, teens are still not fully aware of some of the consequences that come with teen sex. The first thing I see that needs to be changed is our sex education system. The United...
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...you know teen pregnancy is one of the most alarming issues in our country today. Teen pregnancy has been an issue for decades. Even though the numbers have changed it still remains an issue. Figuring out why the number of teens giving birth is so high and ways to prevent is very important. It is important that we know the risk factors and that we educate our youth about those risks. . In 2009, there were around 410,000 teenage girls, ages ranging from 15-19, which had given birth in the United States. And that is a 37% decrease in the teen birth rate in 1991. There are many risk factors for teen pregnancy. Having lack of knowledge on ways to prevent pregnancy, peer pressure, and society. In a study done by Kearney and Levine (2012), “ a teenage girl in Mississippi is four times more likely to give birth than a teenage girl in New Hampshire”. Teenagers who are uneducated about sex and contraceptives are more likely to have an unplanned pregnancy. Giving our youth the knowledge of every option they have to prevent pregnancy is the key. Teaching our youth about abstinence is not always effective. So it is important to educate them on every contraceptive there is available to them such as birth control pills, depo shot, condoms, and the IUD. This does not just stand for our teenage girls, it is also important that we educate our young men as well, considering they do play a major role in this as well. Peer pressure is also a major factor regarding teen pregnancy. Teenagers...
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...Suddenly teen pregnancy is cool? It seems that nowadays pregnancy "Is no longer a scary word," says Ottawa-based sex therapist Sue McGarvie, "It's been normalized." Teen pregnancy is up partly because there is less of a stigma associated with teen pregnancy since there is more of a “cultural permission” to be a younger mother. The rise is also partly due to the portrayal of celebrity teens and television shows such as “16 and Pregnant,” which give teens the idea that “having a baby is the new handbag.” As the rise of teen pregnancy shows rise, so do the teen pregnancies in America. It is saddening to watch the young women and men on these shows idolized and being made to be celebrities of our society. Though MTV holds to the fact that they are trying to expose the struggles of teenage sex, in reality, they are making these too young mother and fathers to be stars. When the victims of not practicing safe sex are plastered across the cover of People, for their "hardships," the reverse effect is given. These television shows give teenagers the idea that they could become famous for getting pregnant while glamorizing teen pregnancy, and it falsely portrays how teen pregnancy really is . 16 and pregnant is a show that airs on MTV every week. It shows the emotional journey of pregnant 16 year olds from the doctor’s appointments to fights with the baby’s daddies. Dr.Drew helps the world get an eye opening look into the real issues of being a teen parent...
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...Throughout the previous years, teenage pregnancy has become a public distress and has generated abundant attention in the Philippines. Nearly every year, there is an increase in the percentage of pregnant teens. In August 2014, the Philippine Statistics Authority released the final results of the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). The survey shows that childbearing is increasing among girls from 15 to 19 years old across all regions in the Philippines. Teenage pregnancy is prevalent in the Philippines due to the influence of media, absence of good role models and lack of financial resources. Messages from the newspapers, magazines, radio and television have always had a great influence in shaping adolescent behavior. The media and advertising business has always been successful in making people recall their brands. Advertising not only encourages consumers to buy goods and services they cannot afford, but also appeals to the emotions of the customers. Sex appeal is used to sell products in many ways. The people in the media industry take advantage of the audience’s responsiveness to sexual stimuli to make a profit. The increasing sexualization of content in the media suggests teenagers that these are normal ways to behave. Advertisement and the media have found ways to sell sex, regardless of the target audience. Sex talk is typical in magazines like Cosmopolitan, FHM and Maxim. Sex is the main theme in TV series like Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl...
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...TEEN PREGNANCY Teen pregnancy is a very social issue in America. As some parents try to teach their sons and daughters to abstain from putting themselves in a teen pregnancy situation, it is evident that it is rapidly still occurring. In 2012 the teen birth rate was 305,388, which is 29 births per 1,000 girls. (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, 2014) According to statistics this a “42 percent decline between 1990 and 2008.” (Health, 2014) MTV has a series of shows pertaining to teen pregnancy that some say glamorize it. 16 and Pregnant is one of those shows, and Teen Mom is another that follow the lives and pregnancies of young teen girls. While watching these shows rarely do you see actual struggles the girls are going through with their babies and parenting, it is more the struggles of the teens and their relationships and friendships. How could these shows possibly help young teen and pre-teen girls abstain from sex or make smart choices when it comes to pregnancy prevention? While society sees these shows as ridiculous and glamourizing, statistics show a decrease in teen pregnancy since the airing of the shows. According to Neilsen ratings, google searches, and social media studies have shown that there were increased searches on birth control methods and abortion. (Wilson, 2014) I believe that most teens that are surrounded by family, enrolled in school, allowed to play sports, and attend church are more likely to abstain from teen...
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...help but wonder; if this is truly helping prevent teen pregnancy. Over the last decade, teen pregnancy has increased in the United States, and has affected society socially, educational and economically. What programs have been put in place to decrease these statistics? How is this effecting the United States overall? In this paper I will discuss how it not only affects society, but also the teen parent, child, and society. Every year in the United States more than one million teens become pregnant in the United States. Of these one million pregnancies more than 500,000 babies are born to teen parents. This means that everyday at least 3,000 teens become pregnant. Nevada is ranked number one for pregnancies among ages 15-19. The rates of live births in Nevada for women ages 15-19, ranks Nevada at number 8 (Guttmacher Institute, U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity, September 2006). With these shocking statistics you cannot help but wonder, what are we as a society doing to help prevent this major issue? Schools have placed sex education classes as an elective class that students are allowed to take to inform themselves on prevention and safe sex. Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female that is under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. Generally a teen pregnancy is unplanned, nor is the mother married. Various studies have shown that teen pregnancy is connected to many issues such as; lack of sex education...
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...Related Literature and Studies This chapter presents the related literature and studies about the factors affecting teenage pregnancy. Implications of these related articles and topics were used in the conduct of this study that aimed to describe the theoretical basis of the study being undertaken. A. PERSONAL FACTORS Positive family interaction According to Perez (2010) even though family relationships are important, family communication is especially important because it gives the foundation in a teenager’s life and relationships. Without the strong communication dialogue between family members, teenagers are more likely to make unhealthy choices with their life and relationships. In general, people find it difficult to communicate and understand what is happening in the world around them. Not having communication dialogue between family members is disruptive to the family’s environment and structure. It is especially destructive to an individual’s life because without communication, the individual is left with no support and clarity of his/ her social surroundings. The field of communication offers knowledge and understanding between family members and individuals. Family communication is the foundation that strengthens family interaction. Lack of communication affects behaviors and attitudes. Young people who reported feeling a lack of parental warmth, love, or caring were also more likely to report emotional distress, lower self-esteem, school problems...
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...Discourage Teenage Pregnancy? Teenage pregnancy has become a major issue in today’s society for our adolescents. This is a major problem for all who are involved. It creates hurt and a struggle for on the parents, especially for the mother (Gonchar and Schulten). Also for the parent(s) of the teenager this creates struggles for them because more often than not, they end up with the load of caring and looking after the child while the teenage parents are at school or out doing other things that teenagers do. Raising a child as a teenager is not easy. Teen parents are more likely to struggle to deal with parenthood, and the child is more likely to grow up with numerous issues. Every year about 750,000 teenage girls will get pregnant unexpectedly (Gonchar and Schulten). Then society is faced with the question of “Do Television Shows like 16 and Pregnant Promote or Discourage Teenage Pregnancy?” which has caused controversial discussions since the release of the show. There is no way to put the blame of an excess in teenage pregnancy on the creation of television shows such as this. Television media shows do not promote teenage pregnancy because we all know that getting pregnant is a result of one’s personal choices and decisions. Since as early as the 1990s, teenage pregnancy has posed a big problem for the United States society. The United States has the highest rate of teenage parents in the industrialized world. The debate and issue over teenage pregnancy came long before shows...
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