Generational Shift

Introduction

With each successive generation, Americans have become less and less connected to the Puritan values that the country was founded on and increasingly less religious. With religion as a less prominent factor, people are more open about sex. As a result of this openness, steady relationships are becoming less of a requirement for sexual relations, thus making casual sex and one-night-stands more acceptable. According to the New York Times, "The median marrying age for women in the late 1950s was about 19, according to David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University and an emeritus professor of sociology there. But a marriage between 19-year-olds — or even 17- or 18-year-olds — then would not have been described as a 'teenage marriage,' he said. It was too routine to be given a special label." As a society, teenage pregnancy which used to be viewed as a 'blessing', is now viewed as a 'curse'. In the 1950's teenage pregnancy was solved by a shot gun wedding but the generations have had a cultural shift and presently there are more options available for teenage pregnancies i.e. out of wedlock, abortion, or marriage. This change in America's perception is due to the rise in age for what is socially acceptable and the increase in life expectancy, there is less of a need to start a family when hormones begin kicking in. As a society it is expected that middle to upper class teenagers graduate high school by age 18. Directly following that is a college education from the ages of 18 to 22 and preferably after that from the ages of 22 to 26 students pursue their graduate degree. After their education, they will hopefully begin their life as an adult and find financial security in obtaining a job, purchasing a house and finally, settling down. Therefore, marriage is not expected to come into the picture until the late 20's. If there are any interruptions within these 28 years, such as an unexpected pregnancy, society frowns upon the individual and their families. However, there is a division between the classes and less is expected of the lower class. Therefore, when teenagers that come from a lower class upbringing it is not as surprising to the general public when they announce a teenage pregnancy.

Religion

A nationwide study conducted a survey on Americans Religious Affiliations in 2007, in which they interviewed 35,000 Americans 18 years and older in age. Even though the survey was only conducted on adults, their beliefs and actions have the possibility of reflecting on the generation below because psychologists say that teenagers and children have an innate ability to emulate the actions of their elders. According to the study, there are presently fewer religious adults in America. “More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.” Therefore, the diminishing population of religious adults leaves less of an opportunity for future generations to be brought up with a strong foundation of "traditional" morals and beliefs.

According to O. R. Adams Jr. writer for Liberal Revisionists, “There are a number of groups and their writers at work today trying to revise our history and our culture. This movement began its insidious work in earnest back in the 1960s. There were a number of elements involved, and in time different groups with different interests worked together to facilitate changes, generally.” With the combination of the decline in morality and religion, there is a direct correlation to the rise in sexuality, which concludes to the real issue at hand, a factoring component of the rise in teenage pregnancy.

Politically

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told the New York Times that rates of teenage pregnancy declined during the Clinton administration due to their focus on "family planning" and with the Clinton's strong focus of family life, there was less room for unwanted pregnancies.

Following the Clinton administration was the rise in teenage pregnancy, which occurred in 2006. When President Bush was in office, in his 2006, state of the union address, and noted by the New York Times he said, "Wise policies such as welfare reform, drug education and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country." While President Bush may have believed that his policies influenced and improved American "character", America's inefficient welfare system, poor public education and abstinence only sexual education merely contributed to the rise in teenage pregnancy. President Bush's "family values" ideology, using abstinence based doctrine, failed to have any significant impact on the at risk teenager audience that it was intended for.

According to the New York Times, "Unmarried childbearing reached a record high in 2006, according to the disease control centers, with unmarried mothers now accounting for 38.5 percent of all births. Births among teenagers and unmarried women tend to lead poor outcomes for their children." The 38.5 percentage of unwed teenage pregnancies reflects a current epidemic, which if not effectively addressed, threatens to become a norm instead of a shocking "high water mark". Such actions in turn will lead to lower cognitively developed children, dysfunctional families and more violence in the united states, as statistically proven by economists Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, authors of Freakonomics.

Change In Ethics

Government

In order to prevent teenage pregnancies according to the New York Times, “the federal government spends $176 million annually on such programs. But a landmark study recently failed to demonstrate that they have any effect on delaying sexual activity among teenagers, and some studies suggest that they may actually increase pregnancy rates.” The consequences found from another study about the correlation between hugging and adolescent sex resulted in the government mandating a law on what they perceive as inappropriate behavior. Since the programs they have began instilling were ineffective, the government has began making a law that in public lower and middle schools “no hugging” is allowed. By not allowing the children to hug, the government feels that they will be able to control the stimulation of the children.

The government also feels that there is a need to stop the ‘teen sex crisis’. However, the media often misleads the public with confusing and inaccurate statistics and stories. According to the New York Times, “Today, fewer than half of all high school students have had sex: 47.8 percent as of 2007, according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, down from 54.1 percent in 1991.” Additionally, influences like Bristol Palin, Jamie-Lynn Spears and the movie Juno create an idealization that the life of a teenage parent is "glamorous".

Education

The public education systems by Bush's laws teach the aforementioned “abstinence only” classes, which enforce only the negative qualities of premarital sex and skip over the uses of birth control. This form of eduction is less about education and more about indoctrination. According to the New York Times, In 2004 a survey sponsored by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, 65 percent of parents of high school students said that federal money “should be used to fund more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives.”

As an Industrial Nation...

Among Industrialized Nations, America perceives itself to be progressive, civilized and advanced. In many areas this is true but not concerning a real dialog among many families pertaining to sexuality. Adults preach that abstinence is the answer, if they say anything at all. Many leave their children to find information from the media or from their friends. England has taken a more mature approach. According to London’s Daily Telegraphic, “one in three secondary schools in England now has a sexual health clinic to give condoms, pregnancy tests and even morning-after pills to children as young as 11.”

Change In Birth Control

Birth control is more accessible to the general public than it has ever been before. There are 21 different types of birth control available, either by prescription or over the counter. Obtaining protection is now easier especially for teenagers using these items and is more socially acceptable than it was forty years ago. Unfortunately, birth control gives a false sense of security that many teenagers rely on, as seen in the graph below.

It is common that birth control can be an awkward conversational topic for teenagers when confronted by authority figures like parents or teachers and even when confronted by their partners. However, if teenagers have not reached an appropriate level in their maturity to comfortably talk about birth control or use birth control when put in sexual situations, then they should not be sexually active in the first place. One of the major problems with birth control stems from a lack of maturity, confidence and life experience.

Change in Abortion

Since the U.S. Supreme Court hearing of Row vs. Wade in 1973, from the book Freakonomics “abortion in the twentieth century was often dangerous and usually expensive. Fewer poor women, therefore, had abortions. They also had less access to birth control.” With more access to birth control, teenagers have began to use the accessibility and options of abortions or the morning after pill without considering the hazards they are enduring on their body. The positive side of women not being denied the choice is “maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the women a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it.” According to the book Freakonomics written by economists Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt.

Change In The Media

What is really going on?

“There’s no doubt that the public perception is that things are getting worse, and that kids are having sex younger and are much wilder than they ever were,” said Kathleen A. Bogle, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University. “But when you look at the data, that’s not the case.” The media is over publicizing and they are using this media frenzy to make teenage pregnancy appear glamorized and as a scare tactic.

Glamorized. 

The media has glamorized pregnancies with the movies like Juno and Knocked Up and the extreme about of publicity that Jamie-Lynn Spears received was beyond ridiculous. MSNBC made the situation appear as if everything will be perfectly normal from here on out as “Jamie Lynn plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana — ‘so it can have a normal family life.’” The media is making the viewers ignorant to the truth and making it seem as if there are hardly any problems. Jamie Lynn even told OK! Magazine, "I can’t say it was something I was planning to do right now," the 16-year-old confesses to OK!. "But now that it’s in my lap and that it’s something I have to deal with, I’m looking forward to being the best mom I can be.”

Scare Tactic.

However, another highly publicized teenage pregnancy of Bristol Palin was used more as a scare tactic as the couple was described by NY Daily News as “Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and ruggedly handsome Levi Johnston, an 18-year-old self-described "f---in' redneck," and they referred to Johnston as, "Levi has got huge potential," Jennie Johnston said. "He's a smart kid." Implying that the pregnancy was the biggest mistake and could potentially ruin everything. And on his MySpace page he wrote, “On the part where it asks about children, he wrote, ‘I don't want kids.’” Which is creating a recipe for disaster as the two have had their child and plan to get married.

Think.

Allison Banegas, teenage mother at age 15 told the New York Times, “Some girls think it’s cool to have a baby. I want them thinking straight,” she said. “I want them to really know the consequences from somebody who’s living with it every day.” So, what are the repercussions of this media frenzy? The answer is at Gloucester High where “17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies — more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year” according to TIME.