Communications strategies and teenage pregnancy Essay

Communications strategies and teenage pregnancy - Essay Example The purpose of this evaluation was created with the goal to look at methods in which teenagers are warned about the cautions of preventing teenage pregnancy. Many organizations and even high school education programs attempt to curb teenage pregnancy to try to bring it to a halt There are numerous young parents added to the statistics on a daily basis. In order to try to halt the exponential increase of teenage pregnancy, it is thought that maybe it is not only in how the message is received but also how it is delivered. If the communications method was altered to not just discuss abstinence only methods but to educate about the real life components of being a parent of a young age, it could otherwise change the minds of young teenagers that take the risk of becoming pregnant and then face parenting decisions when they are barely emerging childhood themselves. Communication Strategies and Teenage Pregnancy Sex education has received a lot of support over the last few years among teac hers and paretns as a method to combat the ever increasing cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and teenage pregnancies. According to McKay (2000), sex education has a place ever day in homes, schools, churches, and in the media. In schools, the sex education curriculum includes, but is not limited to, sexual development, sexual health, interpersonal relationships , as well as romance, intimacy, sex, body image and gender roles. Sex education programs teach knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, morals and skills that promote strong and healthy relationships, good character and healthy sexuality. Sex education takes place in many schools, organizations and churches to create awareness about the effects of early and misinformed sexual relationships. The sex education that teenagers receive is questionable in regards to how effective it is and if it has made any impact on teenage pregnancy rates. The goal is to evaluate potential communication strategies that can be used to teach sexual education. This project also examines how the government and the media play a role and can help spread the message using methods to curb teenage pregnancy. When looking at sex education, one in four American teenagers received abstomence education. Of teens ages 18-19 years old, 41 percent claim to know very little or nothing at all about condoms or birth control pills. In middle schools in the United States, nearly 75 percent of students received information about abstinence in order to prevent pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV compared to just over 30 percent of middle schoolers whom learned about contraception. In high school, the rates are not much better. Approximately 85 percent of high school students learned more about abstinence while less than 60 percent of students learned anything about contraception. It looks like abstinence practices continues to be the focus of these sex education programs ("Guttemacher Institute," 2012). When evaluating longitu dinal studies that occur from the point a teenager gets pregnant and following them through the course of their life, the outlook is bleak. Children born to teenagers are approximately three times more likely to become a teenage parent themselves (Teasdale, 2006). When comparing this to a society where young women wait until their late twenties or early thirties, become educated and start establishing a future for themselves, this means that they will likely be more responsible parents as they are finally adults. Generally when the young mom has reached the age of 30 and has been a teenage mom, she is 22 percent more likely to be living a life stricken by poverty, less likely to have a partner or to be employed (Teasdale, 2006). This is in comparison to mothers that gave birth to children when they instead became mothers at the age of 24 years old or older (Teasdale, 2006). While some of these strategic methods of communication may be working such as