Sociology Essay: Teenage Pregnancy - A Comprehensive Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of teenage pregnancy as a significant global social issue. It delves into the various causes, including poverty, lack of education, cultural factors, and peer pressure, which contribute to the prevalence of teenage pregnancies worldwide, particularly in developing nations. The essay explores the multifaceted impacts of teen pregnancy, affecting the individuals involved, families, and society at large, including health issues, educational disruptions, financial burdens, and social stigma. Furthermore, the essay examines various prevention strategies, such as education, open communication, and governmental policies, highlighting the roles of international organizations like WHO and UNFPA. The conclusion emphasizes the need for collaborative efforts from governments, communities, and individuals to address and mitigate the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy.

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Teenage Pregnancy

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main body........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In the modern times, there are several social issues and teen pregnancy is one of them. It is also
known as teenage pregnancy under which females get pregnant between the ages 13-19. It has
become a worldwide problem and affected many countries. There are several factors such as
inadequate knowledge, education, resources and poverty, which increase the probability of
teenage pregnancy. In developing nations, such situation occurs due to culture and social
barriers; however, in developed nations adolescence pregnancy occurs because of poverty and
lack of resources. In order to prevent this issue, a holistic approach is needed to be developed
which helps to reduce main causes of teen pregnancy.
Present situation
Teenage pregnancy is global problems that occur in all parts of the world. This problem is more
likely to occur in marginalized communities where people have lack of education and
employment opportunities. For some people, Teenage pregnancy is planned but majority people
have this problem because of social pressures (Sedgh and et al., 2015). There are many reasons
for teenage pregnancy in which social factors and unwanted sexual relations are the major
factors. In the developing countries, girls cannot resist marriage which later results in teenage
pregnancy. About 20% girls around the world face teenage pregnancy due to the sexual abuse as
a child (Sedgh and et al., 2015).
In the WHO report of 2018 estimation, more than 15 million girls are married before age of 18
and 90% of births occur to girls aged 15 to 19 years within a marriage. Every year, an estimated
21 million girls aged between 15 to 19 years and 2 million girls aged under 15 years become
pregnant in developing region (World Health Organization, 2018). Such problems also lead
many disadvantages for society, country, and attitude of individuals. During the teen pregnancy,
young girls have to face a lot of complications and it becomes a leading cause of girl’s age
between 15 to 19 years.
Main Causes
There are different types of factors involved which can result in teenage pregnancy. In the
diverse culture, customs and traditions lead to teen pregnancy. In many developing nations, the
teenage pregnancy is not accepted because girls give births before marriage. In the developed

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nations Teenage pregnancy is an unwanted situation (Langham, 2015). Some of the reasons are
given below.
In many types of research it is identified, a teen that becomes pregnant belong to low-income
group. These girls belong to the families who faced poverty and do not have enough resources to
raise their child. Due to poverty, these children cannot afford higher education and goals. Such
children grew in the negative environment and end up with less ambition to succeed in life or
make any other teen as friends. Lack of educations and self-awareness lead them towards unsafe
sexual activities (Anand, 2011). Such teens make a sexual relationship at a very young age and
have multiple partners, which can increase chances of teenage pregnancy (Jonas, 2016).
During the young age, teens face pressure to make new friends and fit with their peers. In such
situations, teen friends influence their decisions to establish sexual relations with other people
without the understanding consequence of teenage problems (Teen Pregnancy statistics, 2009).
Teenage sex appears as a way to pretend cool and fun thing; however, the outcomes of these
activities can lead to unplanned pregnancy. This situation is more likely to occur in developing
nations, where teen sex is considered as a sophisticated way to enjoy life.
Rate of teenage pregnancy is high in those societies where the tradition for girls is more strict
and available limited resources for them. Culture is creating a huge impact on society and girls.
In many cultures such as Asia, where teen marriage is common, which later lead to teenage
pregnancy. For example, in sub-Saharan African countries teenage pregnancy often consider as a
blessing because it is proof of women fertility (Mushwana, Monareng, Richter and Muller,
2015). In addition, in many developing nation teen people are not aware of precaution and birth
control methods. They are not aware how to deal with such pressures in life.
Nowadays, the sexual abuse is a very common activity. Teens face earlier pregnancy due to the
sexual abuse as they are not aware of sexual activities or any wrong intentions. Lack of
knowledge regarding sexual intercourse and abuse, these teens becomes pregnant by adult people
(Acharya et al, 2014). Many teen experiments with alcohol and drugs; however, in such
situations, they are not aware with the environment and randomly have sex with anyone which
later becomes a reason for teenage pregnancy.
Impact of Teenage pregnancy

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The consequence of teenage pregnancy is enormous. It not only affects individuals not also
society, nation and also create an impact on a global level. In the developed nations, teenage
pregnancy leads to many financial problems and in developing nations it is considered as taboo.
Mother and children, both face different consequences (Saha, 2017). Following are the impact of
teenage pregnancy.
Teen who faces teenage pregnancy is an early life cannot pursue their higher educations. Due to
Teenage pregnancy, teen either takes break from education or decide to drop out from higher
education. They search new jobs or other way of income. In many research, it is identified that
teen select dropout from school because of embarrassment and harassment from friends and
society (The Urban Child Institute, 2014). This can increase the level of illiteracy in the society
and also lead many other barriers for individuals. The teen who can afford education later also
involved in crime and many other areas. This can become social threats.
In the developing nations, government provides welfare plan for maintaining population and
control over the birth rate. As lack of knowledge and high education, teen mothers are dependent
on such schemes to overcome financial problems. The government has to spend money on public
assistance, child healthcare and also need to facilitate health supplements to children. In addition,
in many countries like the USA and the UK have different laws and regulations under which teen
mother do not have to pay taxes (Taffa and Obare, 2017). The government has also organized
many training and awareness program for teen mother so they can maintain a healthy life. These
situations ultimately create a financial burden for government and other authorities.
An unmarried teenage mother has to face many social obligations from friends, society, and
other individuals. Such teen also does not get a good job in any company because of their social
status. Due to this the social life of an individual gets ruined and has to face many consequences.
In addition, this outcome also effects on teen parenting. Due to such obligations, teen becomes
harsh parent and their child’s life is also ruined.
After becoming a mother at an early age, the teen mother has to face huge emotional crisis and
lack of family support also lead emotional trauma. Several emotional and mental breakdown
triggers make teen as strict parents. This can also result in depression to individual and make a
mentally ill person. On the other hand, mother and child both have to face different types of

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health issues (Nadel and Thornberry, 2017). Teenage pregnancy creates a lot of medical
complications and child also faces several diseases such as low birth weight, deafness, and
blindness. The teen pregnancy also occurs due to lack of precautions. During the sexual
activities, the teen do not use birth control or any tools for safety which can also lead serious
health problems such as HIV. So, Teenage pregnancy has become a serious issue.
Prevention of Teenage pregnancy
There are different types of social and economic measures to prevent teenage pregnancy. Many
international bodies are working with other communities to spread awareness about the teen
pregnancy. International organizations such as WHO and United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) start many projects through which they spread awareness regarding teen sexual
activities. In addition, there are many other local NGOs, Youth committees and National
administration in different countries working together with international bodies so teen
pregnancy can be controlled.
In the report of UNFPA, every day 20,000 girls from developing nation give birth before
reaching age 18 which turns 7.3 million girls pregnancy every year. Due to such higher number
of pregnancies, girls are unaware of basic facilities and face financial problems. In order to
prevent this situation, UNFPA is working with different national NGOs and local government.
So, it can provide all aids to individuals to return to schools and complete education (United
National Population Fund, 2018). UNFPA also advocate providing sexual education among teen
and support teen education programs. Action for teenage girls program helps hundreds of girls to
fulfil their basic need, spread gender equality and also work for stop child marriages.
The world health organization is also working in a similar way. The WHO is helping teen people
to overcome teenage pregnancy with the help of its annual guidelines. The department of
reproductive health and research is maintaining guidelines and provide support the member’s
state to consult various individuals to contribute volunteer activities through the WHO program.
The WHO and the UN are working together to provide financial support to eradicate the social
issue (World Health Organization, 2018). Through such programs, people get aware and teen
girls can also overcome worst situations.

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At the local level, various governments and the state departments are working together to stop
teenage pregnancy. In the Asia, in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the main reason
for teen pregnancy is because of early age marriage. In order to stop such activities, the
government of India discourages child marriage. In addition, the government of Philippines is
working with different local and family planning department to eradicate the issue (United
Nations, Sustainable development knowledge platform 2018). The government is also promoting
sex education and awareness among boys and girls. Apart from this, the government is also
providing a financial reward to rural people for attending a late marriage. In the developed
countries like the USA, and the UK government has set different tax rules or no tax policies for
teen people and also provide consultation to teen so they can take complete education.
Conclusion
In order to prevent Teenage pregnancy government and local people need to work with each
other. It is a worldwide problem which is increasing day by day and its outcomes are horrible. As
mentioned in the above essay, there are different causes that can lead to teen pregnancy. In each
region, there are different factors driving this problem such as culture, poverty, lack of education
and drinking habits. However, the causes can be different, but the outcomes are similar. It not
only affects an individual but whole society. So, in order to avoid this problem government
provides better resources to avoid Teenage pregnancy.
Recommendations
There are a lot of preventions available which help to avoid the Teenage pregnancy some of
them are given below.
The first prevention is providing better education. The UN and WHO is working together to
make sure each and every teen receive a higher education or compete for college graduation.
With the help of education, teen can learn the positive environment and stay away from sexual
activities. This makes an individual more responsible and lives a healthy life.
The second suggestion is lead open communication with children. Through which teens can
share their feelings and become proactive towards sexual activities and use birth control. This
approach helps to build a strong relationship with child and parents. The society becomes aware
and also teen can do any job and provide a better life for her child. In addition, society should

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also promote positive parenting among young mothers can also improve children chance for
success.
In each country at a different level, the local and national government need to formulate and
apply laws and policies to prevent early marriage. Girls should attend schools and protect them
from coerced sex. The government can also provide economic incentives and livelihood program
to empower women and develop concern towards teen girls.

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References
Acharya, D. R. & et al.(2014). Factors associated with teenage pregnancy in South Asia.
Anand, V. (2011) What Are The Triggers of Teenage Pregnancy in Different Countries. [online]
available from< >Accessed on [26th March 2018]
How Adolescent Parenting Affects Children, Families, and Communities.[online] available
from< >Accessed on [26th March 2018]
Jonas, K., Crutzen, R., van den Borne, B., Sewpaul, R., & Reddy, P. (2016). Teenage pregnancy
rates and associations with other health risk behaviours: a three-wave cross-sectional
study among South African school-going adolescents. Reproductive Health, 13(50).
LANGHAM., R.Y. (2015) What Are the Causes of Teenage Pregnancy?.[online] available
from< >Accessed on [26th March 2018]
Mushwana, L., Monareng, L., Richter, S., & Muller, H. (2015). Factors influencing the
adolescent pregnancy rate in the greater Giyani Municipality, Limpopo Province–South
Africa. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 2, 10-18.
Nadel, E. L., & Thornberry, T. P. (2017). Intergenerational consequences of adolescent
substance use: Patterns of homotypic and heterotypic continuity. Psychology of
Addictive Behaviors, 31(2), 200.
Saha, R. (2017) 11 Negative Side Effects Of Teen Pregnancy On Society .[online] available
from<http://www.momjunction.com/articles/effects-of-teen-pregnancy-on-
society_00384725/#gref>Accessed on [26th March 2018]
Sedgh, G. & et al. (2015). Adolescent pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates across countries:
levels and recent trends. Journal of Adolescent Health, 56(2), 223-230.
Taffa, N., & Obare, F. (2017). Pregnancy and child health outcomes among adolescents in
Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development (EJHD), 18(2).
Teen Pregnancy statistics (2009) Reasons for Teen Pregnancies. [online] available from <
>Accessed on [26th March 2018]
United National Population Fund (2018) Adolescent Pregnancy.[online] available
from<https://www.unfpa.org/adolescent-pregnancy >Accessed on [26th March 2018]
United Nations, Sustainable development knowledge platform (2018). Teenage pregnancies
[online]. Available from< >Accessed on [26th March 2018]

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World Health organization (2018) Adolescent Pregnancy.[online] available
from<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/en/ >Accessed on [26th March
2018]
World Health Organization (2018). Preventing early pregnancy through appropriate legal,
social and economic measures. [online] available
from<http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/adolescence/laws/en/ >Accessed
on [26th March 2018]