Advantages and disadvantage of teenage pregnancy?

Answer 1

There are no advantages to teenage pregnancy which lie in the realm of greater cultural agreement.

To gauge the disadvantages we must illustrate the parties involved. The teen father and mother are considered the direct party. Anyone else who comes into some form of contact or obligement to the child is then the indirect party.

In most casese the direct party (being teenagers) are still in high school and cannot financially support a child on their own. This leads to a dual dependency of indirect party members which we shall explain later. The ideal of economics circles around the management of time/money. If the direct party is to spend time at work and make money, then they must sacrifice time with the child or vice versa. In addition what we shall consider Child Investment (any work or time spent with the child, or doing anything which would have otherwise been unneccessary had there been no child) versus Normal Teenage activity (any work or time spent with friends, family, or etc which would have happened were the baby not conceived). Most single parents miss hanging out with friends, being able to go to restaurants or the mall, being free to do as they choose, and other such activities readily available to most teens.

Now other disadvantages are not even suffered by the direct party. People who had nothing to do with the child's conception also must be involved. The parents of the direct party are usually relied upon for finances or babysitting. The government (American) also will usually provide food stamps, bridge cards, or financial assistance to single teenage mothers. This provides a burden on the tax payer who must fund this benevolent gift.

The person who is most affected is actually the child. By being born to a single mother, under the age of 20 the child is already put at a drastic disadvantage. According to the US Department of Health these such children are rendered at greater risk for drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.

The truth is that the decision for two teenagers to please themselves sexually can, and does, affect more than just themselves. Its not just an implication of "It's my body, I'm not hurting anyone." According to Guttmacher, 7.5% of teenage girls are pregnant before they turn 20. The rate is actually declining since the mid 90's when they were up to almost 15%.