Disheka Butler
April 18, 2014
BEHS 343
Topic# 17 (Teen Pregnancy)
The parenting theory I choose to identify is “Consumption and the Crisis of Teen Pregnancy” (Wright, 2005). Teen pregnancy has been called an "epidemic" and a national emergency. Stereotypes of teen parents abound: they are said to be uneducated, irresponsible, abusive, immoral, and destined to a life of poverty (Buchholz, 1993). When teens get pregnant a lot of them are prejudged by their peers, school mates, parent’s friends and sometimes strangers. Most, if not all, teen mothers are stereotyped as young girls in the community who drop out of school to raise their baby and work at a dead-end job for the rest of their lives. Most people believe these teen mothers do not have any further education from high school or their General Education Diploma (GED).
In today’s society, it is thought that if you become a teen mother your life is basically ruined and over. You serve no purpose to the community and only pose as a failure. Typically, when people look at a young teen mother they automatically assume she is not a good mother, and that she most likely has no education because she probably didn’t or doesn’t go to college, yet alone graduated from high school. Nobody believes these young girls can handle parenthood with learning. They believe if you have a child at a young age your only choice is to drop out.
The concrete and practical theory focused on how teen mothers prepare for their children and parent life given that they lacked the economic and social support from society. These births cost the federal government over $21 billion annually in Food Stamps, Aid to Dependent Children, Medicaid, and other social service offerings (Wright, 2005). One in six children of teenage mothers has a low birth weight and is more likely to experience physical and cognitive problems (Barnett 1987). It is really not healthy for young women under the age 16 carry a child since the body is still growing and developing itself, and can cause some serious complications and problems or even mental problems for the baby.
I selected this topic because I come from a family of teen pregnancy or parents weren’t ready to be a parent so the children got stuck with the grandparents or foster homes. My younger brother had 3 kids before he was 21; I also worked at a foster home where a lot of the young ladies were looking for love in all the wrong places. They assume getting pregnant and having multiple babies were their only options. This theory applies to my topic from several aspects as in: when becoming a teen mom you go through stages of being pre-judge, there are a lot of assumptions made that your life is now over, as a teenage no one will see your point or the big picture, 9/10 you will need help from your parents or other outside sources in order to raise your baby.
References
Wright, Newell D. (2005), "The Role of Consumption in the Rite of Passage into Adulthood
Buchholz, E. S., & Korn-Bursztyn, C. (1993). Children of adolescent mothers: Are they at risk for abuse? Adolescence, 28 (110), 361-382.
Barnett, Alva P. (1987), "Consumer Perceptions of Black Adolescent Mothers," Child and Youth Services, Vol 9, No. 1, 53-73