Teenagers and Pregnancy: A Social Issue

Dworsky examined the relationship between care status and the risk of teenage pregnancy. Foster youth are more likely to experience teenage pregnancy than their peers in the general population, but staying in care seems to mitigate their risk of becoming pregnant even after the effects of other factors are taken into account. The findings of the study was to provide additional evidence of the need for a more concerted effort by child welfare agencies to help youth in foster homes avoid becoming pregnant. It would suggest that allowing young people to remain in foster care beyond age 18 may be one way to reduce teenage pregnancy among this population. .
             Even the federal government has found teenage pregnancy to be a social issue in which lack of parental guidance, sex education, and positive media has been recognized. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), teenage pregnancy has been rising steadily from 1987 to 1991; the birthrate for teens aged 15-19 declined for 10 straight years, from a high of 62.1 per 1,000 teens aged 15-19 in 1991 to a record low of 45.9 in 2001, according to preliminary figures. The birthrate for young teenagers aged 15-17 fell 8 percent from 2000 to 2001, reaching 25.3 births per 1,000 teenagers. All 50 states had a decline in their teen birthrates between 1991 and 2000, with 10 states recording declines of more than 20 percent during this period. Recent declines in both birth and abortion rates indicate that teen pregnancy rates are continuing to fall. Overall teen pregnancy rates have dropped 19 percent since 1991. About 900,000 pregnancies occur each year among American teenagers aged 15-19. Most of these pregnancies are unintended. Almost 190,000 teens aged 17 and younger have children are not in school, have no parents around, and are overtaken by the imagery of mass media. .
             After seeing those statistics, if makes one wonder if there are any more studies which will create a solution.