The Impact of Teen Pregnancy Has on Society

Impact of Teen Pregnancy: Life after Birth

Shayne Young

May 28, 2014

Mrs. Peltier-Balog

AP US History

Thesis: Young mothers are more likely to rely on public assistance, making them poor adults; thus are likely to have children who have poor educational achievement, behavior and health problems.

Impact of Teen Pregnancy on Society

Adolescent pregnancy is not well looked at and has a negative financial effect to society, and is a serious problem. Each year one million teenagers in the United States become pregnant and about 7.5 percent are between the ages of 15 through 19 (Editorial Board, 2012). There were 442,000 births among teenagers in 2006 (Maynard, 2008); the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate than any other industrialized country in the world (Myers 482). Even though birth rates are much higher in the United States than in any other developed country, the teen birth rate is lower than it was forty years ago. The teenage birth rate in 1950 was 438,000 and by 1960 it increased nearly 36% and by 1970 it had increased another 11% (Solomon-Fears, 2013). Since then, the number of teenage births has declined, in 2011, the teenage birth rate was 333,771 which is 49% less than in 1970 and 40% from 1980 (cdc.gov). About a third of these teens abort their pregnancies, 14 percent suffer a miscarriage, and 52 percent take their pregnancy to a full term; 72 percent of these teenagers are out of wedlock (Myers 485). Many of these young women that become pregnant, wind up with disastrous results. “Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of high school than girls who delay childbearing. Only 40 percent of teenagers who have children before age 18 go on to graduate from high school…” (March, “High School, Alternative School, or GED?). Teen girls who become mothers leave school, thus graduating late.  With regards to receiving low grades or fail due to excessive absences related to health issues. Once the child is born, school work interferes with the duties of motherhood resulting in one of the reasons that teen mothers do not get a high school diploma. Young mothers are likely to rely on public assistance; making them poor adults and are likely to have children who have poor educational achievement, behavior and health problems.

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Becoming a mother at a young age, brings vast social issues as well as economical struggles. The majority of teenage mothers come from very low income families (DoSomething.org). The bulge of the young teen moms live in communities that have weak public school systems and dangerous environments such as drugs, delinquency and gang members (gang violence, drug trafficking and etc.). The environment is not suitable for children to develop and grow to achieve full potential. It could also be the same case for the mother, she cannot grow and achieve in this environment as well.

Teenage mothers are at a higher risk of having kids with health problems due to the age of the mother and her body being too weak to have a baby therefore the baby may be born in poor health conditions (Teen Pregnancy: Medical Risks and Realities, WebMD.com). Again, most of teen mothers drop out of school and do not receive a high school diploma and now a day most jobs require at least a high school diploma or GED therefore they have to settle for a minimum wage job and much of the tax revenue is lost (Urbanchildinstitute.org). The children of these teenage mothers are more likely to grow and commit deviance acts. According to Edwin H. Sutherland‘s differential association theory, individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with people who have are more favorable attitude toward deviance (Myers 142).

From the Great Depression of the 1930s, until 1996, welfare in the United States consisted of little more than guaranteed cash payments to the poor. Monthly benefits were paid to poor persons, mainly mothers and children regardless of their ability to work, assets on hand or other personal circumstances. There were no time limits on the payments, and it was not unusual for people to remain on welfare for their entire lives. By the 1990's, public opinion had turned strongly against the old welfare system. Offering no incentive for recipients to seek employment, the welfare rolls were exploding, and the system was viewed as rewarding and actually perpetuating, rather than reducing poverty in the United States.

        In 1994 teenage parents absorb a large share of all welfare dollars. Teenage childbearing was estimated to cost over $34 billion a year for the major income social support programs alone (Advocates for Youth, 1994). Indeed, nearly half of all welfare recipients are current or former teenage parents. In recent years, adolescent childbearing cost U.S taxpayers about $11 billion each year; $2.8 billion in child welfare benefits; $2.3 billion in public sector health care expenses and $3.2 billion in lost tax revenue due to the lower earnings of teen mothers (Solomon-Fears, 2013), more than 40% of teenage mothers report living in poverty (StayTeen.org). Finally, among those on welfare, there is a higher proportion of women who have never been married. These women on average, are registered in welfare programs and are very dependent on the programs provided (Dosomthing.org). Most of the costs of teenage pregnancy are associated with the negative consequences for the children of teen mothers.

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The Welfare Reform Act represents the federal government's attempt to reform the welfare system by "encouraging" recipients to leave welfare and go to work, and by turning over primary responsibility for administering the welfare system to the states. There are many rules under the reform act that most who need assistance need to follow, most of the time many take the assistance for granted. Most recipients are required to find jobs within two years of first receiving welfare payments. Recipients are allowed to receive welfare payments for a total of no more than five years. The states are allowed to establish "family caps" that prevent mothers of babies born while the mother is already on welfare from receiving additional benefits. Since enactment of the Welfare Reform Act, the role of the federal government in public assistance has become limited to overall goal-setting and setting performance rewards and penalties.