Sexual Behavior: Teen Pregnancy

Sexual behavior is a cause for concern and the basis for certain social problems. Sexual behavior plays a key role in all lives, but as well as many social problems and opinions. The act of sex and sexual behavior is often criminalized; however, it is a natural behavior that occurs in everyday life (unknown author, pg. 384). However, one social problem that can occur with sexual behavior is teen pregnancy. Teenagers are more sexually active today than any time before the sexual revolution. With that, there comes increased chances of teenage pregnancy, which, itself is a social problem with many stereotypes put on it.

To back up and explain why teen pregnancy is a social problem, I would like to integrate the Conflict Theory. Conflict Theory is society characterized by pervasive inequality based on social class, race, gender, and other factors. Far-reaching social change is needed to reduce or eliminate social inequality and to create and equalitarian society (unknown author, pg. 12). In this theory different groups in society have different social positions and to equalize that, solving conflict theory would require equalizing all resources to everyone, such as money, education, etc. (unknown author, pg. 386). Everyone has different cultures and beliefs; they are rarely ever shared unless it is among a community who share those same beliefs. Sexual behavior is not solely biological, it is learned. With teen pregnancy, it plays into conflict theory because there are two sides to this subject, there are the parents that want their kids educated on this topic because they do not want them to end up pregnant very young, and then there are parents who do not want their kids educated because they feel it is not right and sex education should not be taught because they do not want their kids knowing about it. However, if sex education is not taught, they are going to not be knowledgeable and will not know how to be safe and end up pregnant. Whether parents want to believe it or not, many teenagers are having sex without them knowing.

In the textbook there was a news article that stated that in the early 2010’s, across Texas many public schools were beginning to integrate sex education into their health requirements (unknown author, pg. 384). Many parents were upset about this decision, but the school board stuck their ground and kept their decision in place. In the Texas town of Midland, school officials thought it was necessary to provide sexual education to their middle schoolers. In 2010, 172 students in the midland school system were pregnant, some as low as sixth grade (unknown author, pg. 384). Teen pregnancy is a social problem because it is extremely common, but it is not discussed enough, nor is it solved. There are contraceptives out there for teenagers, however, many teens do not want to get the pill or shot because they do not want their parents knowing they are sexually active. Parents should be happy their kids are asking because they want to be safe, rather than going through the horrendous pain of childbirth and being a mom at 13-years-old.

The approach to solving teen pregnancies is teaching the “abstinence-plus” method, where they not only discuss methods on how to practice safe sex but push the idea that the best way to practice safe sex is to practice abstinence (unknown author, pg. 384). Many of parents agreed with this approach, but there were still many that were against the idea of even teaching sexual education. They believe the children are too young to be learning about it and knowing about, however, it is a common thing that occurs daily without parents even knowing. Informing these kids about safe sex will not necessarily change the percentage of teen pregnancies, but it is a hope to slow it down and reduce the numbers (unknown author, pg. 384).

Social problems caused by sexual behavior are going to be ever present, but there are ideas and education in place to help neutralize situations, like teen pregnancies. Implementing safe sex education in the school system may help lower the numbers of teen pregnancies, but it will be an ever-growing problem if the parents do not like the idea or they do not teach their kids themselves. There are two sides to teen pregnancy using the conflict theory that I mentioned above, the parents who are with the education, and the parents who are against it. Using functionalism, implementing ideas and strategies to help solve social problems dealing with sexual behavior will slow down teen pregnancies in the long run (unknown author, pg. 26).

References:

Unknown Author. “Social Problems: Continuity and Change”. Libraries Publishing, 2015.