Some causes of teenage pregnancy

So, some of you may want to know what is causing teenage pregnancy rates in the United States to increase……


The first cause I want to present is sexual content in the media. It seems like an obvious cause, but for some reason I never thought of it! I found a study that was done that observed the effects of sexual content in the media on teens. The researchers in this study actually found that teens who were exposed to sexual content in the media were up to 2 times more likely to become pregnant in high school (Chandra et al. 1053). This is STUNNING to me… 2 times more likely to become pregnant?? Wow…I mean today sex is used to sell pretty much everything! Teenagers are exposed to it every day through the music they listen to and the shows they watch. So, this study was shocking to say the least.

A study performed by the Alan Guttmacher Institute states that, "American teen-agers have inherited the worst of all possible worlds regarding their exposure to messages about sex. (The media) tell them that sex is romantic, exciting, titillating, yet at the same time (they) get the message that good girls should say no. Almost nothing they see or hear about sex informs them about contraception or the importance of avoiding pregnancy (Raspberry 3)." I believe that most of us can relate to this quote. We have seen sex through movies and TV shows, and it is almost never informative about contraception and avoiding pregnancy. The characters never stop and say, “Wait…I don’t want to get pregnant” or anything of the sort. They just act like nothing wrong could happen, and like it is all just fun.

So basically, large amounts of sexual content in the media and how sex is portrayed through the media are some of the contributing causes to teenage pregnancy. This issue is pretty easy to notice---just flip through your TV channels now & you’ll see what I am explaining.

Well, I gotta get going for now! More on the causes of teenage pregnancy next time!

References:

Chandra, Anita, Steven Martino, Rebecca Collins, Mark Elliot, Sandra Berry, David Kanouse, and Angela Miu. "Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings From a National Longitudinal of Survey of Youth." Pediatrics 122.5 (2008): 1047-054. Pediatrics-The official journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics. 31 Oct. 2008. EBSCO. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. .

Raspberry, William. "U.S. Teen-Agers and Sex." The Washington Post 15 Mar. 1985, Final ed., First sec. LexisNexis. Web. 27 Feb. 2010. .