http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/?q=node/131
Since lately we have been talking a lot about contraceptive uses and the difference in race, gender, and all that, I decided to do some further research and see what else is said.
Western European countries have about the same average of teens having sex as the United States but because either the United States teenagers do not think about the future as much as the Europeans or we seriously are just mindless, the United States of course has a higher pregnancy rate. The United States doesn't just have a little higher rate of pregnancy its a large jump from what the Europeans have, all because contraceptive use is not used consistently. Contraception is very easily accessed throughout the United States there really isn't much excuse for teenagers to not be using it. Another great fact I read about in this article is that females and their partners don't always communicate whether they're using a type of birth control. That is a serious problem, if your having sex you should be able to have the big kid talk and be responsible enough to communicate whether or not birth control is being used from both partners. Guys generally think that all girls are on birth control of some sort because it makes life just great for them.
I do think it is great that they are trying to set a national goal to educate and increase contraceptive uses for the sexually active teens between 15 and 19. Teens clearly don't always think things through or need more information about where and how they can get birth controls and what kind of forms they can get. Teen pregnancy in the United States will hopefully go down eventually.
I have to agree, it's very interesting that the teen pregnancy rate in the US is so high considering we have fairly easy access to contraceptives. I think many different factors contribute to this. However, based on my own opinion and from what I have learned so far in this class, I think the situation could be helped if sex education was approached differently.
ReplyDeleteIn my experiences, sex education took place in probably sixth or seventh grade, and it focused more on how pregnancy took place. It focused a lot on the anatomy and science of the process, so it didn't feel like something that could really happen. Also, we were taught about the STIs and different diseases that we could catch through sex, so abstinence was encouraged. This was especially due to the fact that I have always attended religious schools. Instead of teaching us how to protect ourselves from pregnancies and infections, we were told to abstain from sex until marriage basically. I still think this is probably the idea situation for multiple reasons, but the reality is that teens are not waiting until marriage. For this reason, school (and parents) need to approach the subject differently.
I also think that many teens feel a stigma or feel embarrassed to buy contraceptives or access them, let alone use them. So, it makes sense; if a teen is too embarrassed to obtain condoms or other forms of birth control, they are much more likely to just sort of hope for the best and have sex anyways. It's also very easy to assume that a teen pregnancy would never happen to you, so I think that makes it easier for teens to ignore the risks. All in all, I think the teen pregnancy rate would decrease at least a little if sex was less taboo in our society because then teens and parents would probably have more open communication about the subject.
I agree, When I was growing up there was a bad stigma put on the teenage girls that were on birth control at a young age. They were automatically looked at as slutty, even though half the time girls were on birth control for totally different reasons. For example, I was put on it when I was 15 because of my period but I remember being so secretive and embarrassed because I didn't want anyone to think that I was already sexually active and looked as a slut.
ReplyDeleteI also think that condom use for teens gets kinda tricky because you have to hide them from your parents and stuff, being a teen living at home doesn't leave a lot of privacy from risking your parents or someone seeing condoms in your possession. So I think half the time if it isn't convenient and a chance to get caught or in trouble teens just opt not to use them to protect their secret sex lives.
As for sex ed, I definitely think we should go about it completely different, at my school I felt like it was pretty much like the scene from mean girls when they are told if you have sex you will die. haha I think their whole goal was to scare us to death to the point that sex wouldn't even be a thought in your head, which is dumb because its no secret that teens are going to do what they want.
I believe more parents, teachers and other significant role models in teens lives should face the facts and make contraceptives accessible to teens and help with the stigma against birth control.
It's an interesting idea to know that even among less developed countries with less access to contraceptives that the US still has pregnancy rates. Unfortunately, this is due to the fact that all the readily available contraceptive use isn't being taken advantage of by the youth that is sexually active. As already states there are many possible factors that play into this problem. At a young age, many youth are just told to abstain for sexual activities. However, if kids want to have sex, then they are going to. Unfortunately, they dont have the knowledge of contraceptives or the dangers that come from unprotected/protected sex. Parents more often than not do not have "the talk" with their kids, a problem that also contributes to the lack of feasible education an adolescent can take advantage of. Then, there is the social stigma of having sex as an adolescent along with the different laws and regulations that keep adolescents from comfortably obtaining these contraceptives. But, even if all these things were not preventing adolescents from having sex and contraceptives were warily available to them, others simply do not think contraceptives are really necessary. Maybe because of being Ina trusted relationship or for whatever reason, contraceptives are simply not talks danout either the relationship. And that is a problem. There is not one thing that can be fixed to lower the pregnancy rate. However, changing the approach to sex education and increasing pregnancy rate problems and issues directly to youth may bring a larger decrease in teen pregnancies.
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