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Paulina Kolanko
04.23.2010
Assignment #6
1. The social problem is teenage pregnancy. The subjects of this social problem are young teenage parents or single teenage mothers. This problem is very hard to control because it is not something you can outlaw or forbid. Even though we are living in a technologically advanced world we cannot get the teenage pregnancy rate to go down. We have to start taking this problem more seriously because it is harming our youth in many different ways.
2. The reason why we should care about this particular problem because it deals with the youth which is the future of our country. Young teenagers are becoming parents and caring to babies even when they do not have appropriate means to do so. Many of these young parents do not have money, jobs, or even schools finished. They are changing their own lives drastically as well as the lives of their children. Young girls are dying in teenage pregnancies because their bodies cannot handle the pressure that the pregnancy brings. Young parents are in shock and sometimes cannot handle the pressure of parenthood. This can result in various behaviors, most of which do not lead to anything good. These are the reasons why this is a social problem.
3. I think the program Parents Too Soon is a very good program with many great policies. The program has three goals: to reduce the teenage pregnancy rate, to reduce the health risks with early child bearing, and to help young parents learn and adapt to their new responsibilities. There are programs developed within the PTS that promote abstinence and safe sex. There are also clinics and programs that teach young parents about responsibly raising a child and health education for the child and mother. (Winner 1987) The program also receives funding from Public Aid, Public Health, and Children and Family Services. Parents Too Soon is a funding source that works with smaller individual programs. Most programs are community based focusing on the issues in the given area. What I would change about this program would be to enforce it more. The program has many resources available to the youth but I have a feeling that the youth is not using them up like they should. When you are a teenager and if someone tells you to do something like join a group or go to a meeting most likely you will not go or join. If greater rewards were offered for those who go maybe more people would attend. I also think that such organizations, programs, and classes should be made more public. I did not know about these organizations and programs until I did some research. Most teenage mothers do not think to research things like that or they do not have money because many pregnancies come from economically struggling families.
4. When it comes to the issue of teenage pregnancy I do not think it gets enough media coverage or support. When you watch television or listen to the radio you are not presented with much information about this problem. There is a show on MTV called 16 and Pregnant. This show follows girls that are sixteen and pregnant throughout their pregnancy and after the birth of the child. The show presents all the issues incorporated with a teenage pregnancy. I think this is the only media support I have seen when it comes to teenage pregnancy. I also think the show raises awareness about this problem and makes more people want to practice safe sex. I think that talking about teenagers being pregnant is an uncomfortable issue. When you think about it a young pregnancy is not something to be proud of so many people would rather not talk about it. I work at a clinic and I see a lot of pregnant girls that are many years younger than me and I cannot help to think poor girl. I think the public opinion on this issue is that it is something we need to take care of but is being swept under the rug for now. We all know its there but no body wants to deal with it. It truly is a shame; we should try our best to fix this social problem. There are many policies and programs that try to resolve this issue. Many of these programs work under the Parents Too Soon program to achieve a common goal. To decrease the teen pregnancy rate and educate the teens when they become parents (Winner 1987). I believe that this social policy is both instrumental and symbolic. In my opinion creating programs to prevent teenage pregnancies is the symbolic part of the social policy. As a society we would like to think that our children will not go out into the world and engage in sexual behaviors. But if they must do so we hope that the children will not become parents. That is my thought behind the prevention programs and programs that promote abstinence. Most teenagers will engage in sexual behaviors even if as a society we hope they do not. I think the instrumental part of the social policy is the part that educates and helps the young parents. We do not want children to come into this world to parents that have no idea how to care for them and how to raise them. So it is practical to set up programs that will help educate and help the young parents deal with the stress and responsibilities of having a baby. In my opinion it is a mixed policy because it carriers both ideology (programs for abstinence and pregnancy prevention) and practicality (educating the youth on parenting so their babies are cared for).
5. In my opinion what would be most effective at getting at the root of this problem is more medical attention. Since the country does not have universal healthcare many teenagers do not go to the doctor vey often. Doctor visits are expensive. So what I would propose is to be more thorough when examining the youth for school physicals. Every year you are required to provide the school with a physical stating you are healthy and have all your immunizations. After the age of thirteen doctors should question the girls more and more on their sexual life. This sounds a little crazy that youth that young should be questioned, but the earlier the better. Once the doctors start paying attention to the female patients more they can propose various methods to avoid being pregnant. I am not proposing that girls that are thirteen years old should be on birth control, but the doctor could discuss other less drastic methods to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Maybe this is not the most logical proposal but I think more medical attention at an earlier stage of life would be more helpful.
6. I would use the inadvertent casual frame for this problem. Many teenagers that become pregnant do not want the pregnancy and were not planning on it; they did not know that their actions are going to lead to some very complicated consequences. The subjects are categorized as teen parents or teen mothers by the social program. The program is designed for the subjects to fit all their needs. The programs range in various directions. The program also cares for the health risks associated with young pregnancies. They work with hospitals to ensure their member the best medical care possible. Coping with a child is hard at any age and when you are barely old enough to drive the stress and coping must be twice as hard. These programs offer special classes and advising help to young parents on how to deal with the stress and keep it together. The media does not put much emphasis on this issue but there are some shows and ads that help raise awareness. The public opinion on this issue is out of sight out of mind. And many scholarly journals stress the medical risks of pregnancies. An example of this is an article that I read titled “Relationship between maternal growth, infant birthweight and nutrient partitioning in teenage pregnancies” is all about the medical disadvantages and advantages of a teenage pregnancy. The claims that the article makes is that teenage bodies are still growing when they are pregnant, and that might cause the babies to be born with low birthweights and fragile bodies. An adult woman does not grow in the same way that a teenage girl does. The teenage girl is going through puberty so her body is not only using energy to grow the baby but also using energy to grow itself.
7. Teen pregnancy is a problem that the society needs to learn to control, but I do not know if I would say it is a political problem. It needs government funding and good leaders to run programs like the PTS. I think that the politics behind the problem comes in when we look at the lifestyle the young mother has lived, what education level she has, how much money her family makes, and what area did she grew up in. Factors like these would add more of a political and economical connotation to the problem. My main focus is what should be done to help the young mothers and fathers after they find out what is coming their way. Most of teenage mothers come from broken families and families that struggle economically. The issue also depends on the area the mother and father of the child grew up in. The rich areas of town do not have as much pregnancies as the poorer areas of towns. The better areas of town have more resources to protect themselves and avoid unwanted pregnancies. Such parents do not only have the stress of a newborn being brought into the world but also the stresses of the family and neighborhood of which they came out of.

Works Cited
1. Jones R, Cederberg H, Wheeler S, Poston L, Hutchinson C, Seed P, Oliver R, Baker P. 2010. “Relationship between maternal growth, infant birthweight and nutrient partitioning in teenage pregnancies.” BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 117, 2:200–211.

2.Winner. 1987. “Parents Too Soon” Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
WEBSITE accessed March 29, 2010. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards .html?id=3473

Cited: 1. Jones R, Cederberg H, Wheeler S, Poston L, Hutchinson C, Seed P, Oliver R, Baker P. 2010. “Relationship between maternal growth, infant birthweight and nutrient partitioning in teenage pregnancies.” BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 117, 2:200–211. 2.Winner. 1987. “Parents Too Soon” Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. WEBSITE accessed March 29, 2010. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards .html?id=3473