The Consequences Of Teenage Pregnancy

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Teenage pregnancy is one of the significant reasons for high school dropouts according to the CDC, with only 50% of all teenage mothers going onto receive their high school diploma by the age of 22. Not only are teenage mothers at risk for lower school achievements, but so are their children who face a higher rate of dropping out of high school, being a teenage parent in the future, and having health problems (About Teen Pregnancy, 2016). The teenage pregnancy rates in the state of Florida are presently at an all-time low according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The rate reported in 2013 was 24.6 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 (Florida Adolescent Reproductive Health Facts, 2015). While teenage pregnancy rates have …show more content…
Department of Health and Human Services has made a searchable database that is compiled of programs that have shown to be effective. These programs have been designed with the above mentioned population in mind to ensure the most effective outcome occurs. Programs such as All4You!, FOCUS, and Families Talking Together, have been used in order to better educate this population when it comes to sexuality. They have been able to demonstrate better choices being made by this population when it comes to their sexual encounters by helping to promote the practice of safe …show more content…
The first study was by Guilamo‐Ramos, Jaccard, Dittus, Bouris, Gonzalez, Casillas, & Banspach titled, A comparative study of interventions for delaying the initiation of sexual intercourse among Latino and black youth. While the second study was by Guilamo-Ramos, Bouris, Jaccard, Gonzalez, McCoy, & Aranda titled, A parent-based intervention to reduce sexual risk behavior in early adolescence: Building alliances between physicians, social workers, and parents. Participants for this program under the first research setting were from 2,016 mothers and their children from five middle schools in New York City. While, participants for this program under the second research setting 264 African American and Latino mothers and their children were recruited from a pediatric health clinic waiting room in the Bronx borough of New York City. Of these two research studies, only the second study proved to be effective in lowering or reducing sexual activity among the group of adolescents. Based upon the findings of this second study, the original group that participated in the study showed no change remaining at the baseline of 6%. Whereas, after the nine-month follow up with the control condition this 6% baseline had increased to 22%. These percentages take into account sexual activity among study participants for a 30-day period prior to the nine-month follow up. The first study was unable to show any

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