The Effects Of Teen Pregnancy On Children

Essay, Research Paper

Children from homes run by teenage mothers

have to face almost insurmountable obstacles in life. The incidents of

depression and mental health problems, the lack of father figures, and

the high rate of poverty often connected to children in homes run by teenage

mothers put them at serious disadvantages when compared to children raised

in nuclear families. Many people believe that the implementation of sex

education in schools and the addition of more federal aid for single parents

are major causes for the country’s high rate of teen pregnancies. When

the true purpose of sex education and federal aid is to help strengthen

the mother and her child so that they can eventually lead productive lives.

The absence of a father figure in the home

brings about a chain reaction of dilemmas. The emotional problems that

children suffer because there is no father in their life can be potentially

hazardous to their future. Many children tend to be effected mentally because

these powerful emotions have the potential to do permanent damage in a

child’s life. Children may experience sadness and depression, aggressive

behavior, frequent illness, difficulty in school, eating problems, and

sleeping disorders.

Many children also suffer from various

social difficulties and self-esteem problems that come along with living

in a one-parent household. The pressure that children raised by teenage

parents go through is tremendous. Children who don’t have fathers present

in the home often feel unloved. There is no trauma as excruciatingly painful

as parental rejection and there is probably no worse of a way to wreck

a person’s life.

Males are affected differently by the absence

of a father than females are. A boy needs a male role model in his life

so that he can learn how to become a man. Children who don’t have good

role models often choose negative, unsavory characters to mold themselves

after. These children become susceptible to many of the dangerous risks

associated with children who are raised by teenage parents. “Males that

grow up in one-parent homes may gain negative personality traits like immaturity,

laziness, and disrespect for women (Meurer, Meurer, & Holloway,1996).”

Females who grow up without fathers in

the home usually end up having pre-marital sex (Hinckely, 1998). ” They

subconsciously want to make up for the affection that they didn’t receive

from their fathers. They become too dependent on men because they want

someone who can replace their father. These women usually don’t know how

to relate to other males and they have the wrong idea about what a relationship

should be like.

Girls may even grow up to hate men because

of an unconscious resentment toward absent fathers. The shift from the

traditional nuclear family to one-parent homes has been dramatic in the

United States. “In many Western industrialized societies, the one-parent

family is becoming more common and tolerated (Encyclopedia Britannica,

1999).” However they often have not proven to be successful.

“Since 1970, the percentage of children

living with single parents has doubled, from 12 to 27 percent, because

of the increases in the divorce rate and the number of unmarried parents.

Single parent families now include more than 18 million children and comprise

the most common non-nuclear family (Meurer, Meurer, & Holloway,1996).”

This is a startling statistic considering

the fact that crime and poverty is directly related to children who are

raised by teenage parents. People who are faced with the harsh reality

of raising children are usually not prepared to handle the responsibility.

A lot of men try to run away from the problem. They then reject their children

and neglect to provide any kind of financial assistance for them. The mother

is ultimately left alone to juggle the task of raising the children and

earning all or most of the family income needed to support them. “Forty-one

percent of these mothers have never been married (Hinckely, 1998). ”

Most teen mothers have to rely on government

aid like Welfare, W.I.C, Focus Hope, project housing, and Medicaid as relief.

These mothers are only able to give their children the bare minimum for

survival. I see this first hand because a lot of people I know currently

have Medicaid insurance or at least receive a generous amount of financial

aid from the government to attend college here at Aquinas. There are a

lot of people who attend colleges all over the country thanks to financial

aid and grants. Government aid is good and people who are in need deserve

to receive it. After all it is the governments’ duty to ensure its people

the right to pursue happiness. People should not be denied the chance to

get health insurance, financial aid for tuition, decent housing and suit

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать