Pregnancy Among Teens and Young Adults: Not a Function of Education in Contraceptive Use Elea Sevrain

50% of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned 50% of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Teen pregnancies greatly contribute to this number despite extensive efforts to educate teens on birth control.

These statistics beg the question, does being educated about methods of birth control necessarily mean young adult heterosexual couples will utilize birth control?

Adolescence is About Finding Oneself Teens, especially girls, attempt to discover who they are as people. At times, teens can become lost and confused as to what makes them who they are, and what defines them as an individual. These feelings can be frightening for some adolescents.

Adolescence is About Finding Oneself In an attempt to cope with difficult feelings and fears that surround the infamous “identity crisis,” some teens make the conscious decision to become pregnant, even when they are educated about birth control and manners in which to avoid pregnancy. This is because they want to become pregnant. Those most susceptible teens to this decision are those who lack self-awareness and self-confidence. One study suggests, “Youngsters who believe, on whatever evidence, that they have a bright future ahead of them - who have a clear and positive idea of who they are - find it easier to make positive decisions, easier to resist peer pressure, easier to make the sacrifices necessary for academic excellence, and easier to say no to drugs, sex and other future-threatening temptations.” [Raspberry 1986] As such, those who do not have this perspective seek to fill a void they feel, and this sometimes manifests itself into the decision to become pregnant.

Other Contributing Factors This project posits that identity crisis alone cannot account for the active decision to become pregnant; that other factors contribute to such an important decision. In addition to identity-seeking, these include: Coming from a ‘broken home’ Symptoms associated with adolescence An attachment to the father An idealized fantasy of raising a child Uncertainty with how to cope with feeling arising after the loss of virginity

Broken Home A broken home can consist of living with a single parent, having divorced or separated parents, or dealing with unhappy, fighting parents among other parental pressures. Astoundingly, 45% of young pregnant girls come from such ‘broken homes.’ In addition, most pregnant girls faced some sort of social disruption at some degree of intensity. Furstenberg et. al. 1969

Symptoms Related to Adolescence Adolescence itself is associated with a set of behaviors that, when coupled with other factors mentioned in this research, can lead a teen to the decision to become pregnant. Such common teen behaviors include: Impulsivity Difficulty viewing the future realistically Difficulty of grasping the concept of “here and now” Feelings of invincibility, i.e. “that would never happen to me” Confusion in reference to identity

Attachment to the Father This factor is related to that of a broken home. Girls that come from a broken home might seek a complete family of their own, believing that they can start one with a boyfriend by having a baby. Other girls believe that becoming pregnant will make the father less likely to leave her. Simultaneously, this factor is also linked to typical adolescent behaviors and thought processes, as it exhibits not only impulsivity, but also an idealized view of the future that is unrealistic.

Baby Fantasy Teens who chose to become pregnant have an idealized view of what life would become with a child. The media sheds some light on the difficulty associated with the process, but also glorifies it at some points in TV Shows such as ‘Teen Mom’ or “Sixteen and Pregnant.” Again, linked with the common teen thought process of being incapable to picture the future realistically, teens who chose to get pregnant may not understand the level of responsibility and sacrifices they must make in order to appropriately parent a baby.

Coping With New Emotions Adolescence is a common time for individuals to chose to engage in sexual relations for the first time, or the loss of virginity. However, sex is communicated to young girls as a bad thing that only “bad girls” decide to do. Such messages are an attempt to keep teens from engaging in sexual actions at too early an age; however, when teens age and sex becomes appropriate, they may become confused on how to deal with emotions associated with having sex for the first time. Since the focus of many “talks” with parents and the like are structured only around saying ‘no,’ a teen does not know how to deal with the emotions that occur after she says ‘yes.’ This confusion can lead to risky behavior, resulting in pregnancy.

Conclusion A wide variety of factors impact the active decision of a teenager to want to become pregnant, and this research finds that lack of education in regard to birth control is not among them. Though by no means should education of birth control cease, a different emphasis should be focused on to prevent ‘unintended’ teen pregnancy. The word unintended is placed in quotations, as some pregnant teens claim their pregnancy was unintended so as not to face parental disapproval. Educators should attempt to raise the self-confidence of teens. Further, they should counsel teens through the popular ‘identity crisis,’ so that it does not become so overwhelming that the decision to have a baby is taken in order to curb the emotional stress it causes. In short, this research finds that the ‘unintended’ pregnancy rate might decrease by targeting teen mothers and assisting them through perhaps the most difficult phase of life in this day in age: adolescence.