Teen Pregnancy and Educational Attainment
Teen pregnancy has been one of the
largest national conflicts in the United States, in recent decades. Its
significance as an issue lies within its positive correlation with the low
educational attainment of teenage mothers. Even though the rate of teen
pregnancy has significantly been reduced within the nation in the last forty
years, the United States still maintains the record for the highest rate of
teen pregnancy among developed countries (Kearney, Levine 141). Post World War
II economic theories correlated teen pregnancy with poverty, and labeled it as
a feature of Third-World Countries. However, the United States has established
itself as the most dominant economy in the world, since the turn of the twentieth
century. How can the most dominant economic power have the highest rate of a
characteristic of poverty, such as teen pregnancy, among other world powers? My
research explains the reasons the United States still maintains a high rate of
teen pregnancy today, how pregnancy and childbearing impact the educational
attainment of teenagers, and how the educational attainment of teenagers from
different social, racial, and economic backgrounds is affected by teen
pregnancy.
I began my research by keeping in mind the question
"why does the U.S. have such a high rate of teen pregnancy compared to
other developed countries?" America does a good job explaining to high
school students the health risks of sexual activity, the negative impact of
teen pregnancy on the lives on young parents, and the benefits of
contraceptives. Every student is required to take a health class during high
school, in order to graduate. Health classes are usually taken early on,
usually during freshman year (Coyne, D'Onofrio 1). It seems like the U.S. is
following correct procedures towards eliminating teen pregnancy, however, it
still maintains a high rate and remains an issue. How could this be? All the
scholarly articles I found on the internet led me in the same direction: teen
pregnancy is an outcome of poverty, rather than a direct cause of it (Landsburg
1). Therefore, the United States has a high rate of teen pregnancy because it
also has poverty, or an income inequality issue. The majority of teens keep
getting pregnant not because they lack information about its risks and negative
effects, but because they live in poverty and lack motivation to pursue their
goals (Singh, Darroch, Frost 1).
The reason a high rate of teen pregnancy is considered a
problem is because of its negative effect on the educational attainment of
those teens. There is a negative correlation between teen pregnancy and
educational attainment (Marteleto, Lam, Ranchhod 1). Teens who get pregnant
during high school are less likely to graduate than those who delay pregnancy
until their late twenties (Dopkins Broecker, Hillard, DOI 10.3843/GLOWM.10414).
Also, they are even less likely to attend college right after high school.
I interviewed a high school mate of mine, Marilyn, who was pregnant during
sophomore year, and gave birth in the beginning of junior year. She stated that
she was currently not attending college because she does not have enough time
to dedicate to her studies. Education requires a lot of time and effort.
Evidently, teenage mothers do not have enough time to dedicate to their
education, because they have to devote time to household duties and to provide
for their children.
After concluding that teen pregnancy correlates
negatively with educational attainment, I examined how teen pregnancy affects
students from different social, racial, and economic backgrounds. My research
suggests that socio-economic status of a teenage girl determines the effect
teen pregnancy will have on her educational attainment. Within the framework of
the household production theory it can be argued that disadvantaged youth will
not have received as much education as more advantaged youth due to resource
constraints. The opportunity cost of having a baby in terms of foregone
education will probably be quite low for the disadvantaged youth. In contrast,
teenage mothers from a more upscale background may end up sacrificing more
years of schooling (Seeborg, Kumazawa 102). Therefore, the impact that teen
pregnancy has on educational attainment depends on the person’s background.
Births per 1,000 Females Aged 15–19 Years, by Race and Hispanic Ethnicity, 2007-2015
https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/young-teen-pregnancy/index.html |
Overall, the United States maintains the highest rate of
teen pregnancy among developed countries. The U.S. tries to reduce teen
pregnancy just like other nations, however, the methods used have proven to be
ineffective. Implementing health classes in schools and informing students
about contraceptives is not enough to prevent adolescents from getting pregnant.
These current methods of reducing teen pregnancy have a significant positive
effect on the educational attainment of those with the most favorable
background characteristics but very little effect on those with the least
favorable characteristics. It is important to understand that teen pregnancy is
a result of poverty, rather than a direct cause of it. Hence, teen pregnancy is
more common in underprivileged areas of the country. Since the most
disadvantaged teen mothers would have dropped out of school at about the same
time even if they had not gotten pregnant, preventing the pregnancy would have
little effect on their educational attainment. To decrease
the rate of teen pregnancy, poverty needs to be eliminated first. If the U.S. aims
to encourage the educational attainment of economically disadvantaged teenage
mothers, discouraging them from having babies will not help much. What may
help, however, is to create programs to help them to increase their academic
ability and to make educational resources available within the home.
I spent a lot of time researching teen pregnancy in the United States and its effect on the educational attainment of teenage girls. For that reason, I wanted to find the best way for this information to reach as many people as possible. Being only weeks away from receiving my teaching certification in Adolescent Education in Social Studies, I have realized that I can put my research into good use by sharing it with my future students. Thus, I created a lesson plan that will share the results of my research with my students. Also, students will be expected to design their own social programs that will make educational resources available within the home for disadvantaged students. It is not only important for everyone to understand this issue that is affecting American communities, but to also help come up with a solution. I have made the lesson plan public. Anyone can access it. I encourage all teachers out there to teach it to as many students as possible. I have also uploaded the lesson on a lesson-plan sharing website to increase its availability.
Works Cited
Coyne,
Claire A., and Brian M. D'onofrio. "Some (But Not Much) Progress Toward Understanding Teenage
Childbearing." Advances in Child Development and Behavior 43 (2012): 113-52. Print.
DelRosario,
Marilyn. "Teen Pregnancy, Educational Attainment, and Future Goals."
Online interview. 1 Dec. 2015.
Dopkins Broecker,
J, Hillard, P, Glob. libr.
women's med., (ISSN: 1756-2228) 2009; DOI 10.3843/GLOWM.10414
Kearney,
Melissa, and Phillip Levine. "Why Is the Teen Birth Rate in the United
States So High and Why Does It
Matter?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 26.2 (2012): 141-66.
Print.
Kumazawa,
Risa, and Michael Seeborg. "Teen Mothers and Their Educational Attainment:
Some Evidence from the
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth." The Journal Of Economics 22.1 (1996): 95-104. Print.
Landsburg,
Steve. "The Economics of Teenage Pregnancy." Http://www.thebigquestions.com.
Empirical Puzzle, 14 May 2012. Web.
Marteleto,
Leticia, David Lam, and Vimal Ranchhod. "Sexual Behavior, Pregnancy, and Schooling among Young People in Urban South
Africa." Http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Stud Fam Plann,
1 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Dec. 2015. <http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.26.2.141>.
Singh,
Susheela, Jacqueline E. Darroch, and Jennifer J. Frost. "Socioeconomic
Disadvantage and Adolescent Women's
Sexual and Reproductive Behavior: The Case of Five Developed Countries." Family Planning
Perspectives 33.6 (2001). Print.