TEENAGE PREGNANCY
...otected sex because of substance abuse. Fifty-five percent of teenagers say that having sex while drinking or on drugs is often a reason for unplanned pregnancies (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004). Family Single-Parent Households Teenagers who grow up in single-parent households are at a much greater risk for teenage pregnancy, as well as drug and alcohol abuse. The proportion of families headed by a lone parent increased from 8% in 1971 to 22% in 1993. The biggest increase was in single, unmarried mother, households (1% in 1971 to 8% in 1993); over the same period households headed by a divorced mother increased from 2% to 7% (Gillham, 1997). Large proportions of single-parent families directly reduce the availability of adults who would normally serve monitoring roles in neighborhoods (Furstenberg, 1993). Single-parent households are normally headed by single mothers. If these mothers work outside the household, there are less parental resources available for supervision than in comparable two-parent households (Hogan and Kitagawa, 1985). Thus, as neighborhood proportions of single-parent households increase so do the number of households with relatively little or no parental supervision. This increases the neighborhood risk of sexual behavior not only for the adolescents from these households but also, by increasing neighborhood opportunities for sexual behavior, for adolescents whose own households may be adequately supervised. High proportions of single-parent families also reduce the number of mainstream role models, especially male role models, available to neighborhood adolescents. With few positive role models, children and adolescents in these neighborhoods may have little reason to believe that working hard and behaving prudently will lead to success (Mayer and Jencks, 1989). In place of responsible mainstream role models, children and adolescents are presented with examples of single moms, noncustodial fathers, and welfare receipt (Vartanian, 1999). Children in single-parent homes are also more likely to have their own marriages end in separation or divorce, and are at higher risk for unmarried parenthood. Working mothers, receive lower salaries, work longer hours at combined job and home responsibilities, and experience greater job-family role strain and lower levels of physical and emotional well-being. Family level relationships, in particular mother-adolescent relationships, have been found to exert powerful influences on adolescent behavior (Gilson, 2004). Adolescents who view their parents as warm and supportive and who feel that they communicate well with their parents are significantly less likely to be sexually experienced. Communication In today’s society, most parents do not talk about sexuality. Today's mothers and fathers are struggling to reconcile new realities and new attitudes with the messages about sexuality they themselves received while growing up. They are often also struggling to reconcile their own behavior with their beliefs and their hopes for their children's future. As a result, parents seem confused and uncertain about sexuality, and regardless of their educational or social backgrounds, the vast majority retreat into silence and do not discuss sexual issues with their children at all. Many take refuge by saying they are "waiting for their child to ask questions," an attitude having a number of unfortunate consequences serving as obstacles to the child's sexual teaching (Roberts, 2004). As a result, it places the responsibility for initiating conversations about sexuality on the child. For those who do ask questions (usually younger boys and girls), the information obtained is limited by their ability to ask the right questions, and these limits can be considerable. One study found that when a parent-child conversation did occur, it was usually about pregnancy and birth, marriage and divorce, or the differences between men and women--all topics a young child is likely to ask questions about (Roberts,2004). However, even in those homes where parents did talk about these topics, answers were as concise and basic as to diminish further questions. For example, most parents who discussed pregnancy and birth with their child did so in terms of animal or plant life, only a third doing so in human terms. And although about 60% of parents said they had discussed the physical differences between males and females, many reported telling their child something as brief as "boys and girls should use different bathrooms" or "boys have a penis and girls a vagina” (Roberts, 2004). In the mainstream of families, it seemed that many essential topics of sexuality and of human life went undiscussed. Children today are left to make sense of isolated, disconnected, and often random bits of information. They are required to try to understand a complex set of issues without all the necessary data, support and help of their parents (Roberts, 2004). These unanswered questions may cause the child to seek other sources which may or may not provide correct information. Too many children today are required to find their way to responsible sexual satisfaction without ever talking about responsibility, sexuality, or satisfaction. As children grow, and their bodies develop, they obtain new information from outside the home, changing their needs for an explanation, and they have new social attitudes and feelings to discuss. Most parents, however, do not seem to realize that for the growing child communication is necessary, and that incomplete answers or waiting for the child to ask "the next question" may cause a child to actively engage in sexual activities. Community Peer Pressure Adolescents come across various risks in their daily lives. Publicly, peers are often blamed for the onset of risk behaviors ranging from substance use to teen pregnancy (Harris, 1998). Recent work has supported and extended this position, showing that friends play an important role in both harmful and positive activities (Berndt, 1999). This work implie...