Theoretical Paper
Teenage Pregnancy in America
Lindsey Schroeder
Salt Lake Community College
Sociology-1010-15
April 14, 2011
Theoretical Paper
Teenage Pregnancy in America
Teenage pregnancy is an under educated problem in society. Although the rates of teen
pregnancy are annually declining, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of the
Western Industrialized world. Rates of pregnant American teens are higher than those of
Canada, Germany, France, and Japan. One of the major problems of teen pregnancy is not
educating the teenagers in society, what they do not see they do not believe can happen. Lack
of education is not the only reason teens are not taking proper precautions to avoiding
pregnancy, there are many factors that play into an adolescent’s life that causes them to
prematurely have sex without thinking of the consequences such as: family/friend
relationships, social status, self-esteem, and school involvement. The best way to understand
the causes of teen pregnancy in an entirety are to look at it in the three social perspectives;
symbolic interactionist, functionalist, and conflict theorist.
When viewing a topic based on the symbolic interactionist theory you must first
realized it is based on a micro level analysis, meaning what people do when they are in one
another’s presence (Essentials of Sociology.) In sociology humans follow patterns as to what
they have seen done. In many cases young women want to feel older and more mature, in
order to do so they engage in sexual activities. These women believe that if they do what adults
do (having sexual intercourses with each other) it will make them seem more mature. Not only
do these women follow symbolic actions to make them feel more mature but society views
these particular girls different due to symbols in society.
Many people will look at these girls and see that they are pregnant and take on the view
that they are irresponsible. Not only will people in society view such a young girl to be
irresponsible but they will question her morality. It does not matter how kind-hearted, smart,
and responsible this girl might actually be those traits will be over ruled by the one night she
made a mistake that shows as a daily mark on her body. When people in society see a young
girl pregnant they tend to give dirty looks or whisper horrible things about what kind of person
they portray her to be such as promiscuous. The sad fact of this theory is that the father holds
no mark symbolizing him as a irresponsible teen so he gets treated no differently once the girl
gets pregnant.
The symbolic interactionist perspective is beneficial for us to see society through
because it allows us to see how people judge and evaluate those girls who end up getting
themselves in this predicament whether they want to call it a mistake or not. Because the rest
of society sees a pregnant adolescent as a menace or a huge mistake made by the young girl
does not mean it is. Many girls do a wonderful job raising their child and finishing school and
following through life as planned. However a negative side to this perspective is that is labels
only based on the symbol that particular person holds (such as a pregnant belly) as opposed to
their situation.
Unlike the Symbolic interactionist theory the functional analysis is based on a macro
scale, meaning they examine large-scale patterns of society (Essential of Society.) Functions can
either be manifest (intended) or latent (unintended). Even though having a child at such a
young age usually is not intended, on a manifest level, some teens feel empty and feel that
having a child will help fill that void, give them some sort of goal to fulfill. In a latent sense many
teens find themselves pregnant due to lack of use of birth control and abusing sex without the
birth control. A latent function would be the increase of sales on diapers, baby food, formula,
etc. It also helps build careers such as day-cares and healthcare programs. It has also been
turned into educational entertainment in shows like “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom.”
Not only does this theory have manifest and latent functions to take into consideration
but we also must analyze whether it is functional or dysfunctional. Even though it is unintended
for these jobs to be needed and for the up sales of baby products it is still a positive outcome.
Many of the times latent functions lead to more functional, whereas many of the manifest
functions show to be more dysfunctional. For example, these girls that are trying to “fill a void”
or hold on to the guy they love leads to the disruption of schooling; poor obstetric
outcomes; inadequate mothering; poor child outcomes; relationship difficulties with relatives,
partners and peers; and demographic concerns about increasing population numbers (Macleod
& Durrheim, 2003).
It is positive to look at this situation through a functionalist perspective because it
shows us how it is beneficial to society and how it is harmful to society. This allows us to see
whether there needs to be more or less of teen pregnancy occurring in America. It is not always
great though because in society we tend to focus on the bad and we will always turn to the
symbolic theory and see teen pregnancy not as a way to create more jobs but as a poor
decision made by a young, promiscuous, and irresponsible girl.
The conflict theory, like the functionalist perspective, is on a macro level. But unlike the
functionalist conflict theorist stress that society is composed of groups that are competing for
scarce resources as opposed to being a harmonious whole (Essentials of Society.) These scarce
resources would include structural inequality in power and reward, and social change. Teens
living in poorer communities are more likely to become pregnant because of the lack of
opportunities they have. They are unable to be involved in sports because of lack of money,
they do not have access to all the education and information that people with higher incomes
have access to, and because the family needs more money the parent/parents of the household
usually have more than one job to make ends meet giving their child more time to be home
unsupervised giving them more of a chance to engage in sexual activity (teen-pregnancy info.)
Because most teen pregnancies usually come from families below the poverty line it gives the
rich more control over population (Marxist train of thought.) Not only are these people
competing for power but many are hoping for a chance at welfare. Welfare is not given to
anyone so these girls hope that having a baby will help them get what they need.
Not only is there a conflict between rich and poor but there is a conflict amongst
different generations. For example many teens use sex and getting pregnant as a tactic to
either rebel or get attention that they are not getting at home. When a teen gets pregnant for
these reasons it leads to terrible conflict between a daughter and her parents. Teens will often
use pregnancy as a way to keep their “lovers” in their life; they believe getting pregnant with a
particular guy will tie him to her for life (in a positive way.) The girls that think these ways are
wrong. It leads to a large amount of conflict between the mother and the father, especially if he
wants out of the relationship. Conflict between all people in society when it comes to teen
pregnancy is quite intense because it is very likely that nobody can agree on anything about the
matter.
A positive way of looking at this topic through a conflict perspective is getting a good
understanding of the problem. But even though we understand the problem it is often
misinterpreted. People who look down upon and feel they have higher power over those in
poverty getting themselves in the situation of young pregnancies do not understand the full
situation and will not accept that person may not really be any lower in status than the richer
person.
All of these perspectives are needed in understanding this topic as a whole. But we must
understand the difference between seeing it through them all separately as well as together. It
is best to view it from a functionalist perspective because it teaches us all the outcomes of teen
pregnancy. We see the cons and the pros of teen pregnancy which helps educate America in
telling us it is not something we need to occur often, there are more cons than pros so we need
to know how to avoid it when growing up. The conflict theory is the second best way to view
this topic because it shows us what causes teen pregnancies to happen and who it happens to
which helps us prevent it from happening in the future. It is not very beneficial to use the
symbolic theory on this particular topic mainly because we judge to quickly off bases that we do
not even know. Society judges too quickly without knowing the background stories off the
pregnant girls that society looks down on. Teen pregnancy is a very serious situation that needs
to be taught to adolescents, the three perspectives; symbolic interactionist, functional analysis,
and conflict theory helps us understand teen pregnancy better so we can prevent negative
outcomes in the future.
Citations
http://www.shvoong.com/social-sciences/sociology/1860367-discourse-literature-teenagepregnancy/#ixzz1JqHYb5fx
http://www.shvoong.com/social-sciences/sociology/1860367-discourse-literature-teenagepregnancy/#ixzz1Jq86fbs2
“Teen Pregnancy Facts.” Teen-Pregnancy Info. N.p., 03/11/2009.
Web. 17 Apr 2011.h t t p : / / w w w . t e e n - p r e g n a n c y . i n f o / i n d e x . h t m .
Henslin, James. Essentials of Sociology. eight. Boston, NY: Pearson, 2009. Print