Essay on Media and Teenage Pregnancy

Adolescents in the United States have an unlimited amount of access to a multitude of different types of mass media, including television, music, movies, and the Internet practically social media sites. The majority of these adolescents tend to utilize their time focusing on the media rather than the education they receive in school or their parents. The majority of this content idealizes being sexually active, including different types of sex messages with dialogue and content. Few of these diverse messages and content in the media include any type of information about being safe by using contraceptives and being mindful of sexual health. These articles review discuss the effects of sex education and the media on teen pregnancy and adolescents being sexually active (Manduley, A., Mertens). It also discusses different ways that being sexually active is taught in the education system and how the different types of media play an effect and influence adolescents in their day-to-day lives.

The media may glamorize and portray teenage pregnancy but it plays a significant role in sex education because television shows are giving young women fame for being teenage mothers and they are being paid to be a part of this. Negative sexual health messages are shown because the girls on these shows are asked if they were trying to be safe by using contraceptives and they explain that they were not doing anything to engage in protected sex (Manduley, A., Mertens). Teenage pregnancy may be correlated with the nature of sex education and the media. This is a significant issue because adolescent women do not comprehend the cost of hospital bills, clothes, food, diapers, and doctor appointments. More than half of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate high school.

There is not a federal mandate to teach sex education in public schools and less than half of all public schools in this country offer information on how to obtain birth control. Part of it may also be that society has not come to the reality that adolescents are sexually active. This type of attitude may endanger many young teens who could possibly become pregnant, and be at risk for STDs, HIV, or AIDS.

Former President George W. Bush spent $135 million to encourage adolescents to “abstain from sex as their only form of birth control”. These types of programs often restrict students’ access to information on sexuality and contraception. These types of programs also often exclude a lot of basic information like puberty and sexual reproduction and also contain little to no information about pregnancy and disease prevention other than abstinence (Chris Trenholm).

The American Economic Association is, “the study of labor, land, and investments, of money, income, and production, and of taxes and government expenditures” (aeaweb.org). Economics is a relevant discipline it is a significant part of how much money sexual education is allotted for public schools, but also how funds are used to determine what kind of education children will receive. This also raises the question, of who provides the funding and who decides what information to teach or omit. The article reviewed, “Impacts of Abstinence Education on Teen Sexual Activity, Risk of Pregnancy, and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases” by Dr. Christopher Trenholm. Dr. Trenholm has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Government from the College of William and Mary and a PhD in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, Dr. Trenholm works as a senior economist and associate director for health research at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (NASHP.ORG).

The article begins with facts and figures of how much federal funding is used towards sexual education. Trenholm states that abstinence-only programs have grown rapidly over the last few years, gaining financial support and being forcefully matched by states at seventy-five percent. States receiving funds upwards of fifty million dollars will then be combined with state-matched funding resulting in eighty-seven and a half million dollars to teach abstinence-only to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy and unwanted STD transmission (Trenholm et al. 255). The article compares and contrasts 4 different sexual education programs with an emphasis on abstinence. This is just a sampling of different federally and state-funded programs that are being offered in public schools around the nation to children of different races, ages, and financial backgrounds (Trenholm et al. 255-277).

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Economics is specifically relevant to teen sexuality and sexual education in schools because it is the basis of how we develop within society and how we behave as a part of it. The internet and social media platforms have negative health consequences due to a false belief in privacy leading to more provocative behavior and discussion around drinking, sex, and violence. Social media may also provide increased access to partners who are more experienced, leading to increased communication about sex because of the perceived privacy of social media. Those who are more active on social media could partake in more risky behaviors because of a larger peer network influencing their attitudes and social norms. Although these findings indicate a decrease in high-frequency SMS and Facebook use between baseline and follow-up, this does not necessarily imply a reduction in overall use.

Humans spend an excessive deal of their evolving life inside social institutions learning how to build and nurture relationships with little knowledge of how healthy relationships are formed or maintain a significant counterpart to that law has been an increase in private sector teen pregnancy prevention work, led by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The National Campaign has spearheaded a trend of utilizing new media technologies, such as social networking websites, mobile and smartphone capabilities, and online gaming in teen pregnancy prevention. This article examines the social-media-based work of the National Campaign, showing the heavily disciplinary and moralizing functions of these strategies and their role within a new construction of social welfare. It argues that these tactics form a redefined notion of the social safety net based on a vision of citizens distributing vital, attractively packaged information among themselves via a privatized cybernetwork in order to maintain social well-being through the cultivation of proper sexual and reproductive behavior. Within this framework, teen sexuality emerges as the most urgent target for discipline and management. Viewed as impulsive, naive, media savvy, and trend-obsessed, teenagers appear to require provocative market-based interventions in their most intimate moments. Grounded in the neoliberal discourses of multiculturalism, market rationality, and intimate citizenship, this teen pregnancy prevention work ultimately serves to obscure and undergird the punitive work of welfare reform and its deepening of inequalities based on race, class, gender, and sexuality ed.

“Effective approaches to reducing adolescent unprotected sex, pregnancy, and childbearing” by Dr. Douglas Kirby. “Dr. Kirby received his PhD in Sociology from UCLA in 1975. For the past 25 years he served as Senior Research Scientist at ETR Associates in California, USA”. He has written numerous articles on the sexual and reproductive health of young people. Dr. Kirby, “is widely recognized as the leading world expert on sex, relationships and HIV education curriculum standards” (UNESCO.org). Dr. Kirby’s article focuses on comprehensive sexual education programs that meet a specific criterion. The programs must include,

(a) the study was published in 1980 or later, (b) the study was conducted in the United States or Canada, (c) the program targeted adolescents of middle school or high school age (roughly 12 to 18), (d) the study used an appropriate experimental or quasi-experimental design, (e) the sample size was at least 100 in the combined treatment and control group, and (f) the study measured impact on sexual or contraceptive behavior or pregnancy or childbearing (Kirby 51).

Of the many studies conducted and researched by Dr. Kirby, he found that comprehensive programs that covered both abstinence and contraceptive use/ STD awareness did not show an increase in teen sexuality. The onset of sexual exploration was also not found to begin at an earlier age when introduced to a comprehensive sexual education program (Kirby 51-52). Comprehensive programs were found to decrease the number of sexual partners, lengthen the time teens waited until they had sex, and increase contraceptive use (Kirby 52-55). Dr. Kirby found programs that also included community volunteer work and involvement along with clinical visits to learn about how to identify STDs were among the most effective (Kirby 54-55). Implementing comprehensive programs also showed significant financial impacts. “That study found that for every dollar invested in the Safer Choices program, $2.65 in total medical and social costs were saved. The savings were produced by preventing pregnancy and STDs, including HIV (Kirby 53). The research conducted in Dr. Kirby’s article showed that educating teens leads to better decision-making and more knowledgeable teens when they do decide to become sexually active.

It is important to the awareness of young adolescents who are sexually active and do not know or understand the precautions that need to be taken if they choose to do so. Many of the research articles showed that the educational system is not doing justice to its students because for the majority the only sexual education the adolescents receive are abstinent-based approaches. Many young adolescents are receiving their information from different forms of mass media like television, movies, magazines, video games, and the Internet (Harris, A. L). A lot of the popular media tends to glorify being sexually active and does not look at how to be safe like using contraceptives and the different types that can be used. This is imperative because numerous adolescents are being influenced by the media.