Introduction
Teenage pregnancy is a problem that has been experienced for quite a long time, and it cuts across all countries. While teenage pregnancies have been severe in underdeveloped and developing nations due to forced marriages, developed countries have also had a fair share of this problem. Teenage pregnancies have been experienced in the United States of America since history, but it is only recently that the problem attracted attention due to increased cases of nonmarital childbearing (Domenico & Jones, 2007). Some of the factors attributed to early pregnancies include higher rates of dropping out of school, poverty, inadequate sexual education as well as lack of motivation to advance desirable careers (Griffin,1998). Even though the cases of teenage pregnancies in the U.S have been steadily decreasing, the prevalence of teenage pregnancies has become alarming (Domenico & Jones, 2007). To raise female teen's self-efficacy and reduce the cases of teenage pregnancies, schools must incorporate a curriculum that cultivates self-worthiness and productivity through community programs, career guidance activities, and classroom exercises.
Most girls get pregnant in their teens due to low self-efficacy, and educating them would restore self-worthiness in them. The sense of self-worthiness will then reduce the prevalence of teenage pregnancies since the girls will learn the virtue of patience and respect (Kappeler, 2015). Among the western countries, the adolescents' pregnancy rate in the U.S remains higher with four in every ten pregnancies happening in females below 20 years (Kearney & Levine, 2012). Teenage pregnancy and childbearing affect both the community as well as the larger society. Teenage mothers are economically dependent because they have low education attainment, higher fertility rates, and higher occurrences of single parenthood (Griffin, 1998). Teenage pregnancies also affect adolescent mothers socially as they have been quoted to be the major cause of dropping out of school. Most of the teenagers who get pregnant while in school rarely graduate from secondary school. Training these girls on how to remain focused on education and wait until marriage to bear children will cut the rate of adolescent childbearing.
The majority of teenage mothers conceive due to a lack of future aspirations and role models, and community programs and career guidance restores their urge to be successful. According to Domenico and Jones (2007), around 25% of teenage mothers get a second child within one year of their initial child, and therefore, lowers the chances of graduating from secondary school. Nonetheless, those who delay conceiving their second pregnancy are highly probable to complete high school education (Kappeler, 2015). Most teenagers who get pregnant earlier do so because they lack future aspirations. Pestered by wanting academic performance and low confidence, the girls lack any realistic anticipation both education- and career-wise (Kearney & Levine, 2012). The girls resort to getting pregnant to seek economic independence and early adulthood. However, guiding these children career-wise would show them a bright future ahead if they advance with their education. Career guidance restores hope in the girls and challenges them to remain focused on having great academic achievements. Moreover, if those ladies who get their first pregnancy are guided well and encouraged to advance their education, they would not conceive the second time. This will increase their likelihood of finishing their high school and tertiary education and later have successful careers.
It has been seen that some girls drop out of school due to poor academic performance. The poor performance reduces self-esteem in the females, who decide to leave school to evade embarrassment. Women are very sensitive beings and will do anything to avoid situations that bring the worst out of them. In this regard, when young girls attending school get poor grades in school, they get discouraged about education. These girls turn to early pregnancy as a means of dropping out of school (Griffin, 1998). Additionally, girls who grow in poverty resort to getting pregnant as a source of economic uplifting (Kappeler, 2012). They believe that pregnancy would make those that impregnate them to give them financial support. However, taking the girls through career guidance and community programs encourages them to better themselves. Classroom exercises help the girls grab classroom concepts easily. Additionally, young females with special needs are at greater risk of being young mothers and should be attended to accordingly. Restoring hope in these two groups of people reduces cases of early pregnancies since they start pushing each time to improve (Domenico & Jones, 2007). The moment the pregnant and lowly motivated adolescents begin to have high self-efficacy with reality, they start working hard to attain their goals. Programs that link conduct to results and promote the importance of higher education learning incite girls to remain focused and establish approaches to meet such kind of goals.
Conclusion
Raising self-efficacy in females through schools incorporating a curriculum that cultivates productivity and self-worthiness will reduce cases of teenage pregnancies. It has been observed that many girls who get pregnant at younger ages do so because of a lack of role models to guide them. The girls, therefore, lack the motivation to work hard to achieve various goals. However, clear career guidance and education would enable these girls to regain track of their path. The guidance reestablishes self-efficacy and self-worthiness among the girls which discourages them from conceiving in their teen ages. Therefore, increasing self-efficacy would be the right approach to curb the problem of adolescent pregnancies.
