Causes for teen pregnancy

Teen pregnancy is a very broad topic which can only be comprehended by understanding the psychology of a teenager. Allow me to firmly elaborate. The youth undoubtedly rules the population. Whether it be sports, entertainment, or any other thing that the public enjoys doing or partaking in. The youth seems to have predominant control over it. With this type of influence and control, the youth can become susceptible and more prone to believe what others might tell them.

Being only 21 and still early in my adult years, the memories of a teenager are still very clear to me. Teenagers struggle to find out who they are in the world and that leads to them becoming susceptible or easily influenced. A good analogy would be if somebody was to offer a 9 year old boy various kinds of candy which he has never had, of course he will be more likely to try all of them to see if they fit his liking. You never truly know if something is authentic unless you have objectively witnessed a fake version of it. Right? Let us say a kid really enjoys eating fruity pebbles for breakfast every morning, and he has been eating it his whole life. Until one day the bills get really tight around the house so the kid’s mother can only afford to buy the much cheaper, alternative carbon copy of the cereal. Even though the texture and display may appear to look extremely identical, it won’t be until the little kid tastes the vagueness of the cereal, and the distinct nature of it, then he will come into fruition and realize that yes, this distinguishes itself greatly from what is normally given to me, being the kid. This fruition is not something that occurs to us once in our life time, it is something that occurs throughout our entire life period and occurs in the most random of places and time.

This type of thing occurs very abruptly in a teen’s early years. Most of the time teenagers become very confused as to why this is happening to them. Even though many ideas may seem very skeptical and iffy, they still most likely always follow the predominant idea, simply because everybody else is doing it, so they feel obligated to do the same. At this very gentle time of a teen’s life they are prone to follow anything that may seem acceptable to follow, not being aware of the susceptibility they are stationed in. The same way that religious leaders easily gather a bunch of young people to conform to their ideology or belief so easily, is the same way that a boy can get a young girl to have sexual intercourse with him because he promises to engage her in laws of endearment.

Now this young girl may have a bright future ahead of her. She is a straight A student and takes her studies very seriously. Her inhibitions though always get the best of her. What does she fear most? Without her even realizing it her worst fear is loneliness, She fears that she may not find her true soul mate and one that will truly love and care for her. That is what she fears the most. But there is also a chance that she could be wrong, and she knows that. What if she don’t have to go out looking for her soul mate, he is right here in front of her. She thinks maybe her soul mate could be the guy that promises to engage her in laws of endearment if she has sexual intercourse with him. So what does she do? She decides to have intercourse with the strange guy. Then what happens? The intercourse is over, now what? The girl is ecstatic because now the guy will be with him just like he promised. What the girl does not realize is that people are not trustworthy, people lie. The guy goes away and forsakes the promise he gave to the girl. Now the girl is heartbroken and embarrassed. She kept up her end of the bargain and the boy just leaves like that, that’s not right. Still though, the girl is optimistic. She is still young in her teenage years and she is hopeful that she will definitely find her true love.

Another boy comes around. This one is from her class. It’s a very popular boy throughout the whole school and she knows of girls that would give anything to get a chance to be with him. This boy left a note in her locker with his number and a brief message on the note telling of his name and instructing the girl to give him a call the following night. The girl is overpowered with joy. Not only would she find her true love, bur also she would be very renowned throughout the whole school because one of the most popular boys in the school wants to be with her. She gives the boy a call that same night, they talk for almost an hour. The boy claims that he definitely would like to go out with her and establish a certain type of relationship, she is overwhelmed. Then the boy says that he can only be with her if she agrees to have sex with him. The girl is confused, she asks the boy why can’t they just date first and then have sex later on in the future? The boy claims that he just wants to get emotionally close to the girl first before they date, and the only way that can be achieved is if they have sex. The girl is very skeptical, she already had an experience very similar which didn’t end well, and she does not want the same to happen again. She thinks it over. The boy seems to be morally stable and does not seem like the type of person to hurt her, so she decides to do it. She agrees to have sex with the boy if that would help him be with her. They have sex. It is now over. Then the boy switches schools and she never sees him again. The girl is heartbroken, she really thought that the boy was going to be the one, but again, she was wrong.

Another boy comes around. Now this girl is in her later teen years and she has agreed to not have any more sex with any boy until she is sure that the boy would not leave or forsake her. But this one boy she secretly observes in her school is very courteous and scrupulous, even though he was a year older then her she slowly begins to admire his benevolence and a crush slowly develops. The girl suspects that the boy never notices her and he already has a girlfriend, but still, she enjoys staring at him from afar. Then one day at lunch, one of the girl’s closer friends tells her she needs to go talk to the boy, since they had the same lunch period. She consistently nags her and tells her that if she don’t go over there and talk to him then the boy will never notice her. The girls thinks it over and puts her inhibitions aside, and sure enough, she does it. Though she was very skittish. She swallows up all of her nervous energy and walks over to the boy to say a warm hello. As she is walking over to him, she trips over another person’s foot and she lands heavily on the floor, the first thing she thinks about is “everybody in the whole cafeteria is staring at me, I look like a fool, and I’ve ruined my chances completely”. Immediately the boy rushes over to her and asks if she’s okay. As she laid there on the naked floor she then gazes up at the boy’s eyes and she believed him to be a perfect creation and immediately, she was in love. Her and the boy slowly begin to build a relationship. She learned that the boy and her shared the same past times, they both enjoy reading and skateboarding. Months go by and her and the boy begin to talk more and more, and slowly they begin to build a connection, not once though do the boy ask her to have sex with him. He just always calls her to discuss skateboarding and check how everything was going with her. She falls more and more in love with the boy, he seemed too good to be true. One night the boy calls the girl very late at night, and they talk and talk. Then, the boy asks the girl to go out with him. The girl is speechless. She is already so deep in love with the boy but she was scared to tell him, now here he was, asking her to be his girlfriend. She screamed YES, and jumped up and down repeatedly. The boy is also very ecstatic. Now the boy and girl are boyfriend and girlfriend and they’re both madly in love with each other. They do everything together, skateboard, eat, watch movies, and walk to school. Not once though, do they engage in intercourse. Until one day, the boy is over the girl’s house, and they are watching television togerther. The girl feels an urge to passionately kiss the boy, but she doesn’t want to seem too abrupt. Then, a scene on the television comes on in which two lovers are kissing, the boy and the girl stare at each other diligently. Then the girl reaches her head over and the boy reaches his head back. Then they lock lips and begin to kiss passionately. Then, kissing turns into clothes being removed and before they knew it, they had sex. As the months and weeks go by and it approaches summer, the boy and girl find themselves having sex a lot. The boy and girl decide to discuss it over the phone and they both agree that it’s okay if they’re having sex a lot as long as they stay protected and agree to be with each other forever. Three days later, the boy gets into a fatal car crash and dies. The girl finds out and she is in tears, she is completely devastated. Two weeks later the girl finds out she is pregnant.

Teen pregnancy is not something that should be taken lightly, nor should it be ignored. More and more teens are getting pregnant every day and they seem to be oblivious to the repercussions. Let’s use the analogy I gave in the above paragraph. The boy is now dead, now the girl would have to raise that baby alone. Most likely she would have to give up plenty of her time, now all the past times she used to enjoy she cannot partake in anymore, like reading and skateboarding, because now she has to give all her time towards that baby. School becomes very hard for her as she no longer has time to study. She barely graduates high-school, and she is unable to go off to college because she fears leaving her baby alone. So now she is stuck with a job as a waitress and she is immediately sunk down to the lower economic class. Getting by only with the help of her family and the weekly checks given to her from her job as a waitress.

Many times teens let their friends influence their decision to have sex even when they do not fully understand the consequences associated with the act. (Langham)

This statement by R.Y. Langham is true in most cases. Human beings like to copy one another, we like to follow. It’s been scientifically proven that we like to do what others do if they are successful in it. So if we see that other people are happy in love, we also fiend for that and desire that same kind of happiness, not knowing of all the trouble and hardships that they had to go through to acquire that love and happiness.

“Children who are not shown love and affection from parents will seek it out with their peer group.” (Cummins)

This statement by Jackie Cummins is true in most cases. There are many kids out there who have been mistreated by parental figure or someone much older than them. Every kid needs proper love and affection in order for them to grow satisfactorily. If they don’t receive that, they go out and look for it their own, which can lead to teenage pregnancy.

REFERENCES

Langham, R.Y. "What Are the Causes of Teenage Pregnancy?"Livestrong.com. Livestrong.com, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 5 June 2016. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/146681-what-are-the-causes-of-teenage-pregnancy/>.

Cummins, Jackie. "What to Expect." Whattoexpect. Whattoexpect, n.d. Web. 06 June 2016. <http://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/pregnancy/causes-of-teenage-pregnancy-and-ways-to-prevent-it.aspx>.