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Pregnancy

Each year, almost 750,000 teenage women in USA aged 15–19 become pregnant (U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics, 2006). Worldwide, rates of teenage pregnancy range from 143 per 1000 in sub-Saharan Africa to 2.9 per 1000 in South Korea (UNICEF, 2001).
The reasons of this problem are various in different countries, but most common are lower educational levels, higher rates of poverty, and other poorer life outcomes. These reasons of teenage pregnancy are understood today quite one-sidedly. It is not only an unsafe sexual act, it is in some cases the inability or unwillingness to practice safe sex that leads to unplanned conception and undesirable pregnancy. A fact of great importance is that early pregnancy is a result of simple ignorance of their own body (i.e. the anatomy of genitals, the concept of "menstrual cycle", the process of conception, and the factors influencing this process), and it concerns both girls, and boys. A huge role, besides physiological, is played by psychological factors.

The researches have shown, that girls who have problem relations with their mothers, more often become pregnant at a juvenile age (Ponton, 2000). The latest National Campaign Survey (2007) shows that parents most influence teenagers' decisions about sex, but parents of teenagers often underestimate their influence in this area. Teens say that parents (47%) influence their decisions about sex more than friends (18%), religious leaders (7%), siblings (5%), teachers and sex educators (4%), or the media (3%). But, as stated in this survey, for the first time since the National Campaign has conducted surveys, adults in general now say that parents hold more influence (40%) than other sources, including friends (37%), the media (10%), or teachers and sex educators (3%). Parents of teens, however, continue to underestimate their own influence (only 34% believe that parents most influence teens' decisions about sex), and overestimate the influence of such sources as friends...