In: Psychology
Teen Pregnancy & Poverty Levels: Please Relate to Sociological Terms and Concepts .
I think teen pregnancies and teenage motherhood are
a cause for concern worldwide
. For much of human
history, it was absolutely common that girls married during their
late adolescence and experienced first birth during their second
decade of life. This kind of reproductive behavior was socially
desired and considered as normal. Nowadays, however, the prevention
of teenage pregnancies and teenage motherhood is a priority for
public health in nearly all developed and increasingly in
developing countries. For a long time, teenage pregnancies were
associated with severe medical problems; however, most of data
supporting this viewpoint have been collected some decades ago and
reflect mainly the situation of per se socially disadvantaged
teenage mothers. According to more recent studies, teenage
pregnancies are not per se risky ones. A clear risk group are
extremely young teenage mothers (younger than 15 years) who are
confronted with various medical risks, such as preeclampsia,
preterm labor, and small for gestational age newborns but also
marked social disadvantage, such as poverty, unemployment, low
educational level, and single parenting.