Final Project Proposal - Antonio

Teen Pregnancy in the United States

        Teen pregnancy is a socioeconomic issue dealt with mostly in developing countries. The rate of teen pregnancy is significantly lower throughout the developed world. However, teen pregnancy is still an important issue in United States, in particular. The United States, like other developed nations, attempts to minimize the rate of teen pregnancy by implementing school programs (health classes) to teach students about contraceptives. Despite the effort, the national rate of teen pregnancies remains high when it is compared to the rest of the developed world. Even though the United States is the wealthiest nation economically, in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), it also has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world. Based on my research, there's a fascinating negative correlation between teen pregnancy and educational attainment. However, do social backgrounds have an effect on the educational attainment of  pregnant teenage girls? In this project, I will investigate the educational attainment of girls that get pregnant during their teenage years. Then, I will compare the educational attainment of girls from advantageous backgrounds that get pregnant as teenagers to that of girls from disadvantageous backgrounds.

Methodology

        First, I will gather evidence from published research articles on teen pregnancy and its effect on the educational attainment of those teens. Second, I will interview a few former high school mates of mine who were pregnant during their teen years. I will ask them a series of questions and, then, I will compare the results I get to the data I will collect from the research articles.

I will ask them the following questions:

1. Was your pregnancy planned or not planned?
2. Did you drop out of high school? Did you graduate high school on time? Did you need extra time to graduate?
3. Did you attend college after high school? If not, explain why.
4. Are you planning on attending college at any point in your life? What type of degree are you planning to acquire? How far are you planning to pursue your education?

Relevance and Contribution

        This topic is relevant to me because I attended a minority-based high school in which teen pregnancy was a common occurrence. Learning to what extent the academic goals of those girls were altered by their pregnancies is interesting to me. Also, it will contribute to the knowledge of my peers and the general public by introducing a new perspective on teen pregnancy and all the variables affecting it. I will create a presentation (in the form of a power point or a YouTube video) that can be accessed by anyone. It is important to understand why the wealthiest economy of the world has the highest rate of teen pregnancies among developed nations, and how it is affecting the educational attainment of girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds. In the end, I will suggest methods that the United States can use to decrease the rate of teen pregnancy across girls of different backgrounds.  

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.

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.

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.