Parents impact on teen pregnancy [Blog #10]
Submitted by Milana Lewis-Zakuto on Sat, 04/05/2008 - 03:18.
Everyone learns things a different way. For some people, it’s by listening to a lecture with visuals. For others it’s by talking to people. It’s said that teens that have strong emotional attachments to their parents are less likely to become sexually active at a young age1. When you talk to your parents about certain sensitive topics like pregnancy or even just about what’s going on with your life, it’s easier for you to be open with them and more trustworthy. The problem these days though is that teens don’t usually talk to their parents about topics like that. They keep to themselves with the computer, television and the media becoming their best friends. All of those things have such a big influence in a child’s life and if there were more family-time than teens would feel that there was a sense of security and a safe place for them. The website Family for First Aid states “When surveyed, one in two teens said they trusted their parents most for reliable and viable information on birth control, over a friend.”.
Okay, so just because you talk to your parents about personal subjects doesn’t automatically mean you’re not going to ever get pregnant. But it’s a better chance of not getting pregnant. Statistics show that at age 16, 22 percent of girls from intact families and 44 percent of other girls have had sex at least once. Similarly, teens from intact, two-parent families are less likely to give birth in their teens than girls from other family backgrounds. Those are some good numbers when you think in-depth about it. If teens had more natural conversations to their parents about topics like this, there might not be such a huge epidemic.
