Teen pregnancy has been constructed as a social problem caused by poor decision-making on the part of adolescents. Evaluate and show why focusing on personal responsibility alone offers an incomplete or distorted picture of the causes of teen pregnancy. In your argument, identify and provide a rationale for one socializing influence that you feel deserves greater attention. The social influence you select may draw on ideas discussed in class: e.g., parent socialization, a school system that keeps adolescents socially young, the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage, or tv shows (mass media); however, you are free to reference a social factor we have not specifically discussed: e.g., teen pregnancy as gendered or racialized.

Creatively propose a solution that addresses the social influence you have identified above. Evaluate the extent to which your proposed solution might lead to changes in teen pregnancy. Finally, consider how your proposed solution might alter assumptions about adolescence more generally.