Biological and Psychological/Social Influences in Teenage Pregnancies

Biological and Psychological/Social Influences in Teenage Pregnancies
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November 19, 2019
Unplanned pregnancy is a universal issue that affects women, their families and the society at large. It could happen for any person regardless of their social and economic status in life. Nonetheless, current estimates show that the number of teenage pregnancies is still on the rise. As of 2017, a “total of 194,377 babies were born from women aged 15-19 years old” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). Although this number presents another dip in the number of teenage pregnancies over the whole decade, there are still a lot of women who experience this phenomenon. This causes a lot of adverse impacts (physical, psychological, emotional, and social) especially to those who do not have access to sufficient insufficient infrastructures and support systems. In line with this, this study aims to understand the biological and psychological/social factors that influence teenage pregnancies in the United States. All in all, the author of this article believes that by having a deeper understanding of these factors, changes could then happen, not only at the societal level but most importantly in the personal perceptions of individuals. 
Factors Affecting Teenage Pregnancy
In their seminal study about teenage pregnancy, Brown and Eisenberg (1995) noted that the number of unplanned pregnancies becomes higher in the extremes of the ‘reproductive age span’ (i.e., adolescence) as compared to any other age brackets. While there are a lot of different factors that could affect sexual preferences, a person’s biological makeup and external influences from the environment are the most dominant factors that lead to this phenomenon. 
Biological Factors 
           Simply put, biological factors affecting sexuality are those that come from the physiological makeup of an individual. With regard to teenage pregnancy, the most influential biological factors include (1) genetics and (2) neuro-endocrinal changes. 
On the one hand, an individual’s genetic makeup is predisposed to increase a teenager’s desire for sexual intercourse. This is because similar to other animals, humans have been exposed to evolutionary changes. In the early times, the ability to reproduce is a very important characteristic in order to survive. To increase the reproduction and survival of the human species, the human body is created to experience pleasure as they engage in sexual intercourse with one another. This is also known as the concept of Charles Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest. Thus, since human’s genetic makeup was shaped by the early days, then teenagers are prone to be more sexually active as they enter the ‘reproductive age’ since their genetic makeup still views reproduction as a ‘favorable trait’ (Goleman, 1991). 
On the other hand, neuro-endocrinal changes that are happening inside a teenager’s brain also affects his sexual activity significantly as he/she enters the reproductive age. In line with human evolution, it could be seen that these changes ar...