Challenges Faced by Pregnant Teenagers: Two Studies and Their Recommendations

This paper explores two studies investigating the challenges faced by pregnant teenagers and the programs recommended to remedy this health issue. The studies are 'Effectiveness of an Abstinence-Only Intervention in Middle School Teens' and 'Child Development'. Proper management and planning are crucial for successful research. The article, 'Abstinence-only Intervention' and 'Child Development' have their advantages and disadvantages. The researchers should invest in areas that have high chances of resulting in positive impacts and nurture those who have potentials to bring positive effects to the research field.

Running head: TEEN PREGNANCY 1
Teen Pregnancy
Name
Institution

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Introduction
Pregnancy among females who are less than twenty years of age is referred to as teenage
pregnancy or adolescent pregnancy. Once a lady begins to ovulate, she can quickly become
pregnant if she involves herself in sexual activities. She can get pregnant after the onset of her
periods (Biggs, Karasek, & Foster, 2012). The pregnancy can even occur before her first
menstrual period. Women start ovulating at different ages depending on how well they are
nourished. Some start ovulating as early as twelve or thirteen years. Just like the other women,
young women face several challenges when they get pregnant. It is even riskier for those girls
who get pregnant while they are still under the age of fifteen years as they are yet not physically
developed to undergo the delivery process. Another common problem among young pregnant
women is the interruption of the schooling process. Based on the several challenges faced by the
pregnant teenagers; this paper explores two studies investigating the challenges faced by
pregnant teenagers. The two studies have also recommended programs that should be applied to
remedy this health issue. The two types of research were conducted on different occasions to
gather more information on the menace.
The study on the “effectiveness of an abstinence-only intervention in middle school
teens” is a project which was funded by the Wellness Block Grant from the Cuyahoga County
Children and Family First Council, and the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners. It was
conducted to examine the impacts of abstinence until marriage. It also researched, whether sex
education to teens can increase abstinence beliefs, increase resistance under certain
circumstances as well as reduction of experimentation of sexual activities among the youths. The
research also worked out towards encouraging abstinence among the sexually experienced
people. The study program was able to discover that, among the teenagers that had been

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undergoing sexual education; a significant number had shown a considerable increase in
awareness of HIV/STD knowledge (Borawski, Trapl, Lovegreen, Colabianchi, & Block, 2005).
“Child development” is an experiment that was conducted to see if adolescent problems
could be reduced through enhancement of social development among high school students
(Allen, Philliber, Herrling, & Kuperminc, 1997). The study was conducted by the “Teen
Outreach” which is a national volunteer service program. It addressed two problematic issues
among the youths. One of the problems was pregnancy among the teenagers and school failure.
The research was conducted on high school students.
The article, “Abstinence-only Intervention" has several advantages; to begin with, during
the research, it did not affect how students perceived teenage pregnancy. This helped in
reduction of risky sexual activities among such young individuals (Woodward, 2018). After the
research, students who had minimal knowledge about sexual activities reported having reduced
their willingness to use a condom in the future. This is a problem as out of it; teenage
pregnancies could rise (Kirby, 2010). Child development journal was advantageous because
control and treatment groups were matched adequately at the entry. This increased the efficacy
of the data obtained from the research (Velengtas, 2012). Unfortunately, it had a weakness that,
the treatment group displayed lower initial problem behaviors. This could probably make the
researchers fail to meet the purpose of the research (Rahman, 2017).
Proper management is advantageous to any researcher who wishes to carry out any
research. It was ideal for the two programs to plan appropriately. This helped them to reduce
various types of uncertainties which arise from research. No one can predict the future.

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Therefore, planning helped the researchers in the two programs to plan for any risky that was to
erupt during the research period. This helped to make the two types of research success.
Proper research depends on how cooperated the different participants in the study are. In the two
programs, researchers were well coordinated a factor that brought upon success out of the two
research programs. This helped to reduce duplication of the researcher's efforts (Ayache, 2014).
To add to the point, proper planning in the two studies helped to improve the morals of the
employees. This helped to create a favorable environment of order in the research. The various
researchers knew in advance what the programs expected of them. It encouraged them to do their
best during the examination. Attitude towards the analyses was also improved.
One of the strategic methods for improving research planning is through building on
research activities to ensure that the research outputs are of high quality. This helps to enhance
acquiring of impactful knowledge (Chase, 2012). This can be achieved by investing in areas that
have high chances of resulting in positive impacts. Secondly, the researchers should have made
sure that the various innovations that they employed amplified the research excellence. Those
who have potentials to bring positive effects to the research field should also be natured. These
two selections are vital for the two programs.
Planning in research helps the researchers to create a right field for the achievement of
their research goals (Hill, 2018). Both programs were able to attain their intended objectives.
This was due to improvement in their planning strategies. Improving a research program plan
involved reviewing the current plan for any shortcoming that needed to be addressed. This
helped in the formulation of stronger plans which can help the research programs to be effective
in their purpose.

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