Rise in Teen Pregnancy Rates

According to a study printed in USA Today conducted the National Center for Health Statistics, there has been an increase in the rate of teen births across 26 states in the United States. This rise has been correlated to an overall increase of three percent in the rate of teen births, which has been the first rise that the country has seen in fifteen years. However, this article does not include abortion rates and whether those have increased or decreased for teenage pregnancies.

However, according to data from Child Trends Data Bank, teenage abortion rates have declined by 45% since 1990. This could point to the fact that perhaps there has not been an increase in the rate of teenagers getting pregnant but perhaps a shift from abortions to births.

And for some reason, this increase in the rate of teen births has been portrayed across all facets of the media. With young pregnant celebrities gracing the covers of magazines and TV shows portraying the situation it is hard not to notice it. However, it seems that this could be more of a cultural phenomenon rather than an actual shift in the increase of teenage pregnancies. People seem to be interested in every aspect of teen's pregnancies and therefore it is getting more media coverage than ever before.

Pregnancy Pact at Gloucester High School?

Gloucester High School in Massachusetts began its 2008 school year with seventeen pregnant girls, all under the age of sixteen. The nurse, Kim Daly, claims that over 150 girls went into her school clinic to receive pregnancy tests the previous spring. The media outlets from all over the world claimed that this was a "pregnancy pact" and that the girls all got pregnant to raise their children together. One girl was even so desperate to get pregnant that she was impregnated by a 24-year-old homeless man.
However, these claims have never been substantiated and the girls either refused to comment on the situation or denied the pregnancy pact. It could never be proven how the rumor started that a pregnancy pact was formed and it was never proven.

For more reading on Gloucester High School:

• Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High School
• Gloucester Pregnancy Plot Thickens
• Inside the Gloucester Pregnancy Pact

TV Shows and Movies

Movies and TV shows have recently been fixating on the entertainment aspects of teenage pregnancy and have been piggy-backing on the country-wide rise of teenage births. This has been portrayed by TV shows such as 16 and Pregnant and The Secret Life of the American Teenager and movies such as Saved! and Juno. Juno's movie poster even prominently displays the pregnant teenager:
Apart from the fictional aspects of the movies, 16 and Pregnant was a TV show on MTV that shot documentaries about sixteen year old girls going through their pregnancies. These girls had to balance their school work, social life, and pregnancy. The show received such great success that MTV released a followup show entitled Teen Mom which focuses on the same girls and them coping with raising a child. The first episode was aired last Tuesday. The full first episode of Teen Mom is shown here. Other full episodes of 16 and Pregnant can be found on their portion of the MTV site.

Published Media

Celebrity news and drama has always graced the covers of magazines but now there has been a greater tendency to cover their pregnancies. Teenage celebrities also tend to get a lot more media coverage when they become pregnant, for example Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears. These young girls and many more have had their entire pregnancy displayed for the entire world to see. The media has covered every aspect of their stories, not just paying them thousands of dollars for a magazine cover. Even a pregnant model graced the 2009 cover of Teen Vogue!

Technology and Sex

TRU, a global leader of researchers of teenagers and young adults, conducted a study about their technology use for provocative purposes. Some interesting findings were such that 20% of teens overall have say that they have sent/posted nude pictures of themselves to others. With the increase of technology use and prevalence in our society, younger and younger teens are using this technology for other purposes than communication. They are using it to send risque pictures to their significant others or crushes. These messages and pictures often end up in the wrong hands; over 38% of teenage girls and 39& of teenage boys have said that they have been shown or sent a provocative message or picture originally sent for someone else. These young teenagers are unable to recognize the potential impacts these pictures and messages could have later in their life. The majority of these teenage girls sending messages credit their behavior to pressures from their male counterparts.

TRU conducts surveys and gathers information on teenagers and young adults in order to better understand their actions. They have many retail clients that they provide information to based on the teen market. This technology and sex survey was compiled on behalf of The National Campaign.

To read the entire survey: Sex and Tech