Cause and Effect of African American Teen Pregnancy on Society
Going back to mother Africa, the sentiment has been that it takes a village to raise a child. This cliché actually displays a virtue that says more than the words that build up the sentence. It states that, one, more than the family is needed to help a teen grow, and, two, the outcome of that child’s upbringing has a positive/negative effect on more than just that child’s family.
I am a big believer in the concept that only men can raise men, and I also believe that there exists some things that only woman can give to young woman. In his speech at Fisk University “The Filed and Function of the Negro College” W.E.B Dubois clearly describes an African village in which an adolescent’s education continues to be the responsibility of the entire village as “the perfect education experience”. Accepting this premise as ideal (if not necessarily true), I decided to write this paper on the causes and unfortunate effects of teen pregnancy on African- American society. My assumptions are as follows: Until the family is strengthen once again and communities begin to play their natural role as the sub-family in raising a child, African American communities in middle and lower class places will constantly suffer from lower educational standards, violence, and less people functioning as key players in our American society.
African American teens as well as American society as a whole (African and non-African) are responsible for the problem of African American Teen pregnancy. African American teens like all humans are natural beings and if put in the situation will feel the same natural desire to do the same things. Poor sex education and lack of comprehensive sex education leaves the African American teen ill-
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equipped to deal with this natural urge. Combine that with an extremely oversexed society that is not that well educated on the matter themselves, and the absence of moral and spiritual authority in a teenagers life and you get disasters results almost every time.
You have young children basically trying to raise other young children. In this, the parent child respectful relationship is often replaced by a peer to peer antagonistic relationship. A “teen” parent has less responsibility put on their shoulders leaving an undue burden on the teen’s parents or the government. The effect can also be felt very strongly on the teen if they decide to take on the responsibility of being a parent. While 94 % of teens believe if they were to be involved in a pregnancy they would stay in school, only 70% of teens actually do. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42) The most important and obvious effect of teen pregnancy on African- American society is unbroken cycle of poverty and lost dreams. Over a quarter of African American youth that were born as result of a teen pregnancies end up being involved in a pregnancy themselves before they reach the age of 20. That number is higher than other races in the same situation. (Weiss)
Take a brief break from the obvious and imagine for a moment. Does this scenario seem possible you? For some reason (maybe a few I have already outlined) a teen between the age of 15 and 18 has a child. This teen decides not to abort, but rather keep the child and raise him/her as their own. Thirty two percent of teens say they would consider an abortion, but half of unmarried teen pregnancies end in abortion. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42) The teen gets little help from parents and eventually has to go on state sponsored welfare. Only 26 % of teens believe that they will need welfare to support a child if they were to have one. However, over half of teens receive some form of public assistance to cover just the cost of delivery and a quarter of teen mothers receive some sort of further public assistance by their early twenties. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42)This teen a few years later wants to go back to school and finish or at least get a steady paying job. The child has no
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father figure (or has a father and no mother to care for it). Fifty one percent of teens believe that if they were involved in a pregnancy they would marry the mother/father. Not the case, 81 % of teen age births are to unmarried teens. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42)The child slowly becomes a “latch- key kid”, and is raised by friends as young as the child, society, and television. Is it hard to see that this child is now a product of his/her environment, not a family? The child becomes a teen in this manner. He/she is not educated about sex because of the lack of a parent at home, and the lack of comprehensive sex education in his/her inner city school. The child, now a teen, has come into adolescence without the tools (emotional, educational, and spiritual) necessary to combat his/her natural urge to mate. The teen’s body is ready to reproduce but the teens mind and spirit was not given an honest chance to get to the same place. The Teen (like all teens) is tempted, lacks the skill to combat the temptation, and becomes involved in a teen pregnancy as a result of unprotected sex. This is the cycle that plagues African American society today.
All humans are born with the natural desire to mate. It is what keeps us a live as a species and is as essential as it is taboo in Modern American society. For American women, 31% become pregnant before the age of 20 as of 2006. (Weiss) America has the developed world’s highest birth rate. (Weiss) In fact, the UNICEF report “Teenage births in Rich Nations” shows that the number of teen age births in the United States is 8 times the number in the United Kingdom. It also shows that the United Kingdom has the highest birthrate in Europe. So are Americans more over sexed then Britons? No, in fact 80 % of young Britons reported having sex while still in their teens. (Global incidence of teenage pregnancy) However, teenagers in America are more likely to have shorter and more sporadic relationships and are also less likely to use contraception. (“Sexuality Education”) Meaning while we may be as sexually active, American teens are a having more babies as a result of the same rate of sex that is going on among other countries teens.
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The fact is remain, one cause of African American Teen pregnancy is that most adolescences want to and are tempted to have sex. Current data suggest that more than half of females and nearly two-thirds of males in America have had intercourse by their 18th birthday. (“Sexuality Education”) Society does not help either. Exposing teens to sex in movies, books, plays, newspapers, television shows and any other type of media you can think of. Introducing sex at an early age stretches an African American teen’s natural desire to mate before its time. Early sexual interaction is said to be a good indicator of teen pregnancy. Nearly half of teenage girls and about a fifth of teenage boys who lost their virginity before the age of 15 are eventually involved in a teen pregnancy. For teens that lose their virginity at 15 the number involved in teenage pregnancies is only 25% and the number goes down to nine when considering those that lost the virginity after 15. (Weiss) Sex leads to pregnancy at any age, and it is no different in African American teens.
African American teens are not educated enough about sex. The lack of comprehensive sex education is shooting the legs out from under African American teens. In public school districts in the United States that have a policy to teach sex education, only 13% don’t require that abstinence be promoted. A third of public school districts require abstinence to be taught as the only option. (“Sexuality Education”) Although I agree that abstinence is the only real 100 % way to prevent underage sex and pregnancy, I believe teaching it as the only option or as an option “better” than others is a waste of time. I have already stated that believe one of the causes of African American teen pregnancy is the human desire to have sex. We should not be regulating hormones or legislating arousal. Morality needs to begin at home , once we get into the school we should assume that a teen is being taught to be moral, remind them of it, but then proceed to do what it takes to protect society from the possibility that a mistake or lack of good judgment may happen. Rejecting the possibility or education that puts eliminating the possibility of that mistake or bad judgment as a goal is misguided. In
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fact, it may be doing more harm than good. As young people are feeling the pressure of abstinence promotion and are resorting to anal and oral sex to avoid pregnancy and keep their “technical virginity.” Twenty four percent of teem males and 22% of teen girls who reported not having vaginal intercourse reported having oral sex. The number goes up if you count anal sex. (Dailard 2) Educators agree with me, 1 in every 5 teachers in America believe that restrictions imposed on sex education are preventing them from meeting their students needs. (“Sexuality Education”) African American teens are not getting the sex education they need. Of the top 25 African American Populated cities combined, 56% of public school districts with at least 5 junior and 10 high schools reported being unable to guarantee sex education because of lack of funding. (Morial 170) In the United States, 90% of teachers believe students should be taught about contraception, yet a quarter of them are forbidden to do so. (“Sexuality Education”) If an African American Teen can get no sex education because of a lack of funding or cannot learn about contraception as a lack of compressive sex education, the result is teen pregnancy.
Although the urge to have sexual intercourse is natural, society plays a hand in tempting African American teens to have sex. However, it goes far behind sultry rap videos, Sista Soulja novels and the chimera of the young, stupid, muscular, well-endowed, African American male after the former master’s whit women. No, it has to do with society we live in, poverty and the Victim-Client relationship between African American teens and society at large.
Eight million African Americans live in poverty. (Morial 171) The median weekly wage earned by African Americans in 2004 was $532 a week, compared to $677 a week for the white worker. (Morial 170) Of the Top 10 poorest cites in America, six have a majority African American population. Three, Newark, New Orleans, and Detroit are over 50% black. (“Richest and Poorest Cities”) Sixty seven percent of white teenagers listed as dependents on Tax returns had a job at or above minimum wage for
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at least three weeks in 2004; in 2002 that number was 56%. In comparison, the same statistics report that only 34% black teenagers listed as dependents on Tax returns had a job at or above minimum wage for at least three weeks in 2004; down from 39% in 2002. (Morial 170) If you want some straight talk, the average cost of a one condom in the U.S is only $ .50, but with less than half of African American teens in 2004 without a job where is the money going to come from? (“Teenage births in Rich Nations”) Maybe more parents need buy their children condoms at a certain age, but my parents did not and I don’t think the times are ready for that. As long as blacks continue to be poor and play into the role that society wants them to play we will have teen pregnancy. The lowest rates of vaginal teen sex are among white adolescents and teens from high income households. (Dailard 3) Consequently, white adolescents and teens from high income households are the most likely subgroup to report having oral sex. (Dailard 3) However, 36% of male teens and 23% of females who have oral sex and abstain from vaginal sex say they do it to avoid pregnancy. (Dailard 4) This can reflect simple better education, or a “more to lose” attitude. When the question was asked to black teens who report to having engaged in oral or anal sex, only 21% of males and 13% of females said they did it to avoid pregnancy. Of all black teens that admit to having engaged in oral or anal sex only 45% had not also engaged in vaginal intercourse. This number is far lower than white American teens at 56%, but even lower than Hispanics at 49%, and way lower than Asian American teens 72%. (Dailard 4, Weiss) What this means is African American teens somehow are ignoring or being left behind in even the adolescent American trend of “sex substitution” (“Sexuality Education”) to prevent pregnancy. The cause of this is poverty, lack of education, but also society victimizes African American teens like no other group. Because the African American family is so impoverished and depleted society and environment affects our teens like no other. This is a society that is both uninformed about sex and oversexed at the same time. Both extreme ends of the spectrum are to blame. The free sex end that thinks because some of our closet genetic cousins are natural prone
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to promiscuity it excuses it for or should be accepted by us. (Lehrman) And the staunch conservative wing of society that thinks abstinence is the only answer, and teens (or any unmarried individuals) should abstain from all and any sexual acts. (Dailard 2) The more society excuse promiscuity the more it will happen. The more society makes sex infamous by closing it off completely the more unsafe sex will be had. It is a fact that in countries that a more accepting of adolescent sex and in turn make comprehensive sex education a priority, teenagers have longer relationships and fewer sexual partners. Furthermore, because sex is emphasized as something that is acceptable (if not automatically compulsory) and childbearing is understood and educated as something to be delayed until adulthood teens in these other countries are keener on protecting themselves and their partners. (Dailard 2, Weiss) If American society wants to lower the rate of African American Teen pregnancy and Teen pregnancy in general it should take notice.
Another societal cause of teen pregnancy is the lack of a truly universal social moral norm. If you want to use the bible as the source for spiritual inspiration, it says that man dies for his lack of discipline and because of his great folly he is led astray. (New International Version, Proverbs 23) That means that a man who is not patient, discipline, and wise will come into to some sort of wrong in his future. The problem today is simple verses like this are being debated as generational differences. Sex has not changed in the three centuries that that African Americans have been in the Western Hemisphere. If you accept the fact that America is based on Judeo-Christian values, the bible has not changed. So where are the true generational differences? I believe the battle is really over freedom. My generation does not want to be told what to do. I know personally, of some girls that lost their virginity because they fathers sat down and told them not to ha e any sex until they left the house. They did not educate them, not have a conversation, apparently the fathers just said no and reported the punishment if caught. The problem with the generation before us is that they don’t like getting ignored.
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This is why although most Americans and educators favor comprehensive sex education we do not have it nationally. For the teen pregnancy problem to end in African American community teens and the society playing a part raising them must be educated. Natural temptation and access temptation cause by society must be acknowledged and the tools to make the right decision must be provided. Finally, an acceptable realistic moral standard just be put in place. Parents must be parents, and the government needs to allow teachers to be teachers. In schools students need to be taught sex education, not whether to have sex. In the home parents need to have a decision not a lecture about sex. A healthy African American teen is not the smartest, bravest, or the most righteous. It is the one that makes the best possible decision with the tools and information given to him or her.
Over a quarter of African American youth that were born as result of a teen pregnancies end up being involved in a pregnancy themselves before they reach the age of 20. (Weiss) One effect of teen pregnancy on African American society is that we have African American children trying to produce African American adults and it just does not work. Only someone who knows what being a man or a woman is can teach a boy or a girl to turn into one. This responsibility is directly the parents, not extended family, teachers, mentors, or the government. No matter what someone else teaches who, the word of those that produce you remember. I have no facts to prove that, it is just what my heart tells me. Eighty percent of teen pregnancies are unintended. (Weiss) Well over half of all teens that are involved in a teen pregnancy do not think they are emotionally, economically, or mentally prepared to raise a child. The result when (if) these teens decided to give birth and raise their child is a unprepared, adolescent life that know has to try and prepare another life.
Less responsibility is put on a teen that has a child, when compared to an adult that has a child. In 2005, only 10 % of all births were teen pregnancies in the U.S, yet those births represented 45% of mothers requesting some sort of state assistance, and 70% receiving some sort of partial or full state
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assistance. (Weiss, Dailard 2, “Teenage births in Rich Nations”) State assistance is taxpayer money, meaning right now you could be reading this paper knowing your son or daughter is educated and practicing safe or no sex and at the same time you are paying for someone’s son/daughter who did not practice safe sex. It is one of the reasons fiscal conservatives preach abstinence along with social conservatives, it’s the one sure fired way they can keep poor people out of their wallets. An effect of African American teen pregnancy is the lower expectation and less responsibility given to that teen parent.
Another effect is the emergence of the latch-key child. A “latch key kids” are children that come home from school, afterschool, or work to an empty house and use the key to get in at a young age, and put the latch on before they go to bed because no one is coming in after them. They are more prevalent in the vastly populated urban inner cities. Teen pregnancy produces latch key children because at a time when mothers who had their children after 25 are settled and established in life, a teen parent is just going through the process of establishing a career etc. (Weiss) As these kids grow up under these circumstances, they spend a very big chuck of their time unsupervised and alone or with friends. Many may be “adopted” by a friend’s family who is their afterschool, but my guess is most will not. Twelve percent of African American teens are at one point in time “latch key kids”. When limited to cities who’s median income is lower than 35,000 and population over 3 million, 49% of African American teens ages 14-17 considered themselves at one time “latch key kids”, as compared to 13% of white in the same exact environment. (Weiss, Morial 169) These black teens are not only unsupervised, but the lure of an empty house just adds to societal temptation as the child grows older. The pressure is to do less then have sex; peer pressure includes drugs, or simply not doing homework. A serious growing effect of teen pregnancy in the African American community is the immergence of the “latch key kids”.

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The effects can be felt on the one or two teens involved in the pregnancy also. What a teen pregnancy takes away from the teens involved is the saddest effect it can have. About 3 out of every 4 teenagers who give birth between the ages of 18 and 19 graduate from high school or eventually get a GED. Thant number drops to 63% for those who gave birth before 18. (Weiss) These numbers are not extremely bad, but keep in mind that we live in a society in which post-secondary education is becoming a norm. By age 30, only 5% of young teen mothers and 10% of older teen mothers complete at least 2 years of college, even community level. Less than 2% of young teen mothers and 3% of older teen mothers ever obtain a college degree. In comparison, 21% of women who delay childbirth complete at least two years of college. (Weiss) The loss of dream and opportunity is a sad but real effect of teenage pregnancy. The more African American woman that do not or think they cannot go to college the worse it is for the African American community.
In Conclusion, the cause and effects of African American teen pregnancy are as follows. It is caused by temptation. As it naturally exists in the individual and is produced artificially by society. Lack sex education in the inner city schools and lack of comprehensive sex education nationally as a result of the over emphasis of abstinence only education is another cause. Also, the lack of a generationally and nationally accept moral and/or logical stand adolescent sex, is another cause. This all leads to the cycle of African American teen pregnancy. It leads to children trying unsuccessfully to raise children and the emergence of the “latch key black child”. Finally, it leads to many damaged lives and/or delayed dreams as the teen or teens are most affected by the pregnancy they are involved in.
By D.W