Expert answer:Assignment
Expert answer:Teen Pregnancy: Human Services Ethics and InterventionsFor this assignment you will be reading a case scenario in your text and responding to some questions related to the impact of the environment on behavior and choices, the impact of the client-human services professional relationship, and how identifying potential ethical issues and the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) Ethical Standards can help guide you in working with clients.Teen pregnancy affects millions of adolescent clients and their families every year. As a human service professional working with adolescents and families you will build reciprocal relationships that make a lasting impact on both the client and yourself. Understanding how the environment is impacting the client and their family helps build the trust required to better understand what interventions and resources may be available to empower the client and their family. In the field of human services you will be interacting with individuals with a variety of needs within many systems, especially when working with families. Due to the span of diversity among individuals it is important for you to become familiar with the ethical standards as set forth for human service professionals. The following Assignment will require you to find and discuss the importance of the ethical standards as developed by the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS). A code of ethics is “an explicit statement of the values, principles, and rules of a profession, regulating the conduct of its members” (Barker, 2001, p. 84). Understanding how to consider ethical issues and how we may resolve them using ethical standards is critical to successful and ethical client outcomes and ensuring both the human service professional and the client are protected from potential conflicts.Go to page 290 in your text and read the case study in Spotlight 6.2 titled Portrait of a Single Father. Next go to www.nationalhumanservices.org website and review the NOHS Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals.After reading the case study and NOHS Ethical Standards, reflect on the situation Gary finds himself in, his environment, and possible ethical considerations in the case and that the worker may need to consider as part of a ethical approach to the client and his family. Answer the following:Discuss how Gary’s environment has influenced his behavior and decision-making during his adolescence.Discuss how working with a Human Service Professional (HSP) in a reciprocal relationship may help Gary change his behavior and decision-making to address his current life challenges.Considering the case study details and the NOHS Ethical Standards, identify one ethical concern you would have when working with Gary and/or his family. Provide one NOHS Ethical Standard that you believe would be important to apply in this case to ensure this ethical issue is addressed within the client and HSP relationship. Refer to the specific NOHS Ethical Standard in your response.Discuss one specific way using ethical standards impacts the behavior of a HSP when working with clients such as Gary.Provide the name and contact information for one human service agency you believe a HSP could refer Gary to in order to provide assistance with his current issues. Explain how you believe this agency could specifically assist Gary.Considering your responses to the assignment questions, explain how Gary’s case outcome might change from the ending offered in the case study epilogue. Discuss how familiarity with ethical standards and available resources strengthened the relationship between the Human Service Professional and Gary in your response.Your paper should be 6 complete paragraphs, resulting in approximately 2 pages of text in addition to the cover page and the final reference page. It also should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Your Assignment should be double-spaced, using a 12 point Times New Roman font.Your Assignment should include a cover page and a final reference page where you cite your course text and any other sources you choose to include in the paper. The only required sources are your text and NOHS Ethical Standards of Human Service Professionals.You can explore the Kaplan Library or credible Internet sites for additional sources, but the text and NOHS Ethical Standards are your primary sources of support. Your opinions also are valued, but it is important to keep in mind that your main objective in completing this project is to illustrate your knowledge of the course material.Citing SourcesIt is important to always attribute credit to the proper sources when relying on the text, articles, websites, or other sources. You must credit your work when you:Summarize concepts and theories that you learned in the text, articles, or internet sources.Use others’ ideas, theories, and concepts in constructing Discussion topic responses or completing Assignments.Use direct quotes in the context of your paper (when quoting directly, you must use quotation marks).Your Assignment must be your original work; plagiarism will not be tolerated. Be sure to review the Syllabus in terms of what constitutes plagiarism.I copied the information from the book and put it on a word document. Let me know if you have any questions. I need a good grade on this 🙂
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Teenage Fathers Variables making a person more likely to become a teen father include living in an
inner city, doing poorly in school, being poor, and being involved in delinquent acts (Klein and the
Committee on Adolescence, 2005; Yarber et al., 2011). Yarber and his colleagues (2011) comment
on the situation facing adolescent fathers: Adolescent fathers typically remain physically or
psychologically involved throughout the pregnancy and for at least some time after the birth. It is
usually difficult for teenage fathers to contribute much to the support of their children, although
most express the intention of doing so during the pregnancy. Most have a lower income, less
education, and more children than men who postpone having children until age 20 or older. They
may feel overwhelmed by the responsibility and may doubt their ability to be good providers.
Though many teenage fathers are the sons of absent fathers, most do want to learn to be fathers.
Teen fathers are a seriously neglected group who face many hardships. Policies and interventions
directed at reducing teen fatherhood will have to take into consideration the many factors that
influence it and focus efforts throughout the life cycle. (pp. 177–178) Highlight 6.2 illustrates the
potential effects of teenage fatherhood. HIGHLIGHT 6.2: Portrait of a Single Father Gary didn’t know
what to do. Linda had just ruined his day and probably his life. She had just told him that she was
pregnant. How could this happen? What could he do? Gary, a 17-year-old high school sophomore,
had never done very well in school and had even flunked sixth grade once. Ever since then, he’d
been taking special ed classes and was just barely squeaking by. He had always considered
himself a freak. He liked to do a lot of drugs—that is, whenever he had the money to get them. He
also liked to listen to booming hip-hop and was intimately familiar with radio station WROK’s topten hits. His uniform included well-patched blue jeans, construction-worker boots, and 18-inchlong, somewhat scraggly, greasy hair. Beneath this exterior, Gary was an extremely sensitive
person. He really cared about other people, although sometimes he had trouble showing it. This
thing about Linda and a baby had really shaken him up. He really loved Linda. In fact, she was the
best thing that had ever happened to him. She actually cared about him. It seemed like nobody had
ever done that before. Gary really didn’t have much self-confidence. The fact that Linda cared
simply amazed him. Gary lived in Chicago with his mother and younger sister, Hillary, age 11. He
cared about Hillary, but they really didn’t have much in common. There was too much of an age
difference. Sometimes they stuck up for each other, though, when their mother went out with some
new boyfriend and came home drunk. That happened pretty often. His mother was really something
else. It seemed like she loved him, but she had always had a horrible problem accepting
responsibility. A lot of times he felt like he had to take care of her, instead of vice versa. No, she
wasn’t one to depend on much. Another problem was that they were dirt poor. He could never
remember having a lot of things. For years he had wanted to learn how to play the guitar. He picked
one up two years ago at a sleazy neighborhood auction, but it never really sounded like much. The
other problem, of course, was that he felt he had absolutely no talent. He often thought the guitar
looked good, though, sitting on an old peach crate in his basement room, his place of retreat.
Sometimes Gary thought about his father out in Utah. Although he had only seen him once in the
last 10 years, he talked to him sometimes on the phone on holidays. His big dream was to go out
and live with his dad and his dad’s new family. Gary liked nature and camping. He thought that
Utah would be the perfect place to go to and get away. In his more somber moments, he realized
this was only a dream. His dad was pleasant enough on the phone, but he knew he really didn’t
care. It was fun to think about sometimes though. Sometimes when he got a better batch of drugs,
he’d just sit in his room and think. He dreamed of all the wonderful things he’d do in Utah. That’s
what it was, though, just a dream. Gary dreamed a lot. He didn’t have much hope for the future. He
thought that was pretty hopeless. One of his teachers asked him once if he ever thought about
going to college. College, hah! How could he ever afford to go to college. He couldn’t even afford a
Super Big Kmart guitar. The other problem was how poorly he always did in school. He stopped
really studying years ago. Now he was so far behind he knew he’d never catch up. He didn’t like to
think much about the future. There was no future in it. But now Gary’s problem was Linda—Linda
and the baby. It’s funny how he already thought of it as a baby even though it wasn’t born yet. He
liked the thought of having something that was really his. He liked Linda, too, and he didn’t want to
lose her. She was crying when she told him she was pregnant. He bet she’d like it if they lived
together, or maybe even got married. Then he could move out of his mother’s apartment. He could
be free and on his own. He could drop out of school. School wasn’t much anyhow. Maybe he could
get that second-shift job slinging burgers at the local hamburger shack. That wouldn’t be too bad.
He could see his friends there. They could have a good time. Yeah, that’s what he’d do. He’d do a
good thing for once in his life. He’d marry Linda and be a father. Maybe everything would be all right
then. Maybe they’d all live happily ever after. Epilogue Gary and Linda did get married 10 months
later. By then, Linda had given birth to a 6-pound, 8-ounce baby boy whom they named Billy. The
problem was that things really didn’t get any better. They didn’t change much at all. Gary was still
poor. Now, however, he was poor but with adult responsibilities. He still couldn’t afford a guitar. He
had to go to work at the hamburger shack every day at 5:00 P.M. just like he used to have to go to
school every morning. There wasn’t much money for him and Linda to have any fun with. As a
matter of fact, there wasn’t much money to do anything much at all. Their small apartment was
pretty cramped. Sometimes the baby’s crying drove him almost crazy. He and Linda weren’t doing
too well either. When they weren’t fighting, they weren’t talking. Things hadn’t changed much at all;
he still didn’t have much hope for the future. Commentary This case example isn’t meant to portray
the thoughts of a typical teenage father. For example, Gary was very poor. In reality teenage
parents originate in all socioeconomic levels. However, this example is intended to illustrate the
lack of experience and information adolescents often have available to them. Without information,
it’s difficult to make insightful, well-founded decisions. A major job of a social worker is to help
young people in a situation like this rationally think through the alternatives available to them.
Potential services need to be talked about, and plans need to be made. Young people often need
both support and suggestions regarding how to proceed. They need to examine their expectations
about the future and make certain that they’re being realistic. Why Do Teens Get Pregnant? An
adolescent who is sexually active has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant in one year of
unprotected intercourse (Guttmacher Institute, 2011). Adolescents often do not use contraception
conscientiously and frequently don’t use it at all (Crooks & Baur, 2011; Manlove & Terry-Humen,
2007; Rathus et al., 2011). Many adolescents fail to use contraception the first few times they have
sex (Crooks & Baur, 2011; Guttmacher Institute, 2011). This is especially true for younger
adolescents (O’Donnel et al., 2003; Rathus et al., 2011). Note that contraceptive use by adolescents
has improved over the past decades. In 1985, only 56 percent of adolescents used contraception
during their first sexual intercourse experience; this rose to 76 percent in 2000 to 2004, and to 84
percent in 2005 to 2008 (Guttmacher Institute, 2011). Still, 19 percent of female adolescents use no
contraceptive method during sexual intercourse (Guttmacher Institute, 2011). Why do many teens
fail to use adequate contraception? Some teens are embarrassed to find and purchase
contraceptive apparatus or are concerned about confidentiality (Crooks & Baur, 2011). Others may
feel uncomfortable talking to partners about sexual matters or lack assertiveness to do so. For
instance, a young woman may find it difficult to talk to a partner about such intimate issues as
putting on a condom or placing a diaphragm in her vagina. Depending on the information to which
they’ve had access, adolescents may not have adequate knowledge about contraceptive
methodology and its effectiveness (Crooks & Baur, 2011). Other adolescents adhere to erroneous
myths (Crooks & Baur, 2011; Rathus et al., 2011). For instance, many teens inaccurately believe that
they are not old enough to conceive, that “the first time” doesn’t count, that they must have
intercourse much more frequently than they do in order to conceive, that it is perfectly safe to have
sex during certain times of the month, and that withdrawal before ejaculation is an effective birth
control method. Some young women may illogically feel that if they ignore the issue of potential
pregnancy, it will cease to exist. If they don’t think about their own sexual activity, then they don’t
have to worry about it. There are yet other reasons why teens may not use birth control. They might
not like the bother of using contraception. They might feel sexual activity is more pleasurable
without it. They may worry that parents will find out. They may feel invulnerable to pregnancy, that
it’s something that only happens to other people. Finally, they may simply think that they want to
get pregnant. Sex Education and Empowerment A heated controversy often develops over the issue
of providing teens with information about sex. The fear is that giving adolescents information
about sexuality will encourage them to start experimenting sexually. An underlying assumption is
that adolescents won’t think about sex or be interested in it unless someone around them brings up
the subject. Two fallacies can be pointed out in this approach. First, it assumes that adolescents
have little or no access to sexual information other than that which adults choose to give. In reality,
most teenagers say they’ve learned the most about sex from TV, magazines, and their friends
(Hyde & DeLamater, 2011). Obviously, adolescents are functioning within a complex environment
that exposes them to many new ideas. They are not locked up in a sterile cage. The media place
tremendous emphasis on sexuality and sexual behavior. Television, the Internet, magazines,
newspapers, and books are filled with sexual episodes and anecdotes. Adolescents indeed have
numerous exposures to the concept of sex. A second fallacy is that adolescents will automatically
try anything they hear about. If a parent tells a young person that some people are murderers, will
the young person go out and try murdering someone? Of course not. Although adults, especially
parents, might wish they had such control over adolescents, they do not. Perhaps an analogy
concerning sex education could be made to the situation of buying a used Ford SUV. An analogous
assumption would be that it would be better to have no information about how the van works
before buying it and hope for the best. This is ludicrous. In this situation, you would want as much
information as possible to make the best decision about whether or not to buy the van. It would be
wise to take the van to a mechanic to have it thoroughly evaluated. You would both need and want
information. People, including adolescents, need as much information as possible in order to make
responsible decisions about their own sexual behavior and avoid ignorant mistakes. It is illogical to
deprive them of information and have them act on the basis of hearsay and chance. One primary
source of information about sex is friends; yet friends probably don’t know much more about sex
than they do. Information that is available from friends is likely to be vague and inaccurate. Just
because adolescents use sexual terms does not mean they are very knowledgeable about
sexuality. Sex Education by Parents Another aspect of the sex education controversy is the idea
that sex education should be provided by parents in the home. This is a good idea; however, most
children receive no sex education in the home (Hyde & DeLamater, 2011). There may be several
reasons for this. Adolescents may feel uncomfortable talking about such intimacy with parents,
and vice versa. Many young people have extreme difficulty envisioning their parents and
grandparents being involved in sexual scenarios. Similarly, parents often don’t relish the picture of
their children involved in such acts either. Parents may fear that by talking about it, they will
encourage children to have sex, a fallacy we have already discussed. Parents may also fear their
own ignorance. What if their children ask them questions they can’t answer? An implication of
these concerns is that it is probably easier to avoid the issue altogether. Public surveys in the
United States and Canada consistently find that parents support sex education in the schools
(Hyde & DeLamater, 2011). For example, one opinion poll conducted in the United States and
Canada found that 93 percent of parents of junior high–age students and 91 percent of parents of
high school–age students indicate that “it is very or somewhat important to have sexuality
education as part of the school curriculum” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004; SIECUS, 2007a;
Weaver et al., 2002). This contrasts starkly with the 4 percent of parents of junior high students and
the 6 percent of parents of high school students who think sexuality education should not be part
of the school curriculum (Sex Education in America, 2004; SIECUS, 2007a). It is interesting to note
that when parents were asked about the sexual behavior of their own teenager, 83 percent believed
that the teen had gone no further sexually than kissing (SIECUS, 2005i). To what extent do you think
this is accurate? Sex educators do not want to take the parents’ place in this sphere. Rather, they
want to ensure that children have adequate and accurate information about sex. Many times
parents are uncomfortable or embarrassed talking about sex with their children. One student
shared her 8-year-old son’s reaction to her own discomfort in talking to him about sex. As she was
trying to explain to him some of the basics of human reproduction, he put his hand on her arm and
said, “It’s okay, Mom, I get the general idea.” Current Policy and Sex Education Programs The major
focus of the current sex education debate is on the type of program that should be offered in
schools. Most sex educators promote a comprehensive program providing a wide range of
information to students. The opposite approach involves abstinence-only-until-marriage
programs. Abstinence-Only-Before-Marriage Sex Education Programs “Abstinence-only programs
emphasize abstinence from all sexual behaviors, and they typically do not provide information
about contraception or disease prevention” (Carroll, 2010, p. 212). The Bush administration
strongly supported the development and operation of such programs (Stein, 2010). Getting
significant increases in federal funding since 1996 (Carroll, 2010), abstinence-only programs have
received $150 billion in federal money over the past decades (Bohm, 2010; SIECUS, 2007b). As of
February 2011, 36 states require that information about abstinence be included; 27 states require
that abstinence be emphasized (Guttmacher Institute, 2011). (Note that here we will use the terms
“abstinence-only” and “abstinence-only-before-marriage” interchangeably.) Do abstinence-only
programs work? The answer depends on whom you ask. Supporters say that this approach drives
home the point to young people that there is no choice when it comes to nonmarital sexuality.
Examples of abstinence-only-before-marriage curricula are Sex Respect; Choosing the Best; Me,
My World, My Future; Facing Reality; WAIT (Why Am I Tempted?); and Why kNOw. (SIECUS, 2005f,
2008). Recent research indicates that abstinence-only-before-marriage programs failed to fulfill
their sole purpose—namely, increasing the rates of sexual abstinence (Carroll, 2010; Kirby, 2007;
SIECUS, 2007b, 2008; Week, 2008). When compared with students in other programs, students in
abstinence-only-before-marriage programs had their first sexual experiences at similar ages, had a
similar number of sexual partners, and used condoms with similar frequency (SIECUS, 2008).
Additionally, participants in abstinence-only-before-marriage programs had the same rate of STIs
(sexually transmitted infections), or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as their peers who did
not participate in these programs (Bearman & Bruckner, 2005; SIECUS, 2005m, 2007b). Studies
found that communities in which more than 20 percent of youth had taken virginity pledges (a
primary part of abstinence programs) had an STI rate of 8.9 percent, compared with 5.5 percent in
communities with fewer pledgers (SIECUS, 2005m). Numerous “sexuality education experts”
believe “that strictly abstinence-only programs may do more harm than good. They often fail to
provide necessary factual information, and they support many myths and stereotypes about
various topics in human sexuality such as sexual assault, gender differences, sexual orientation,
pregnancy options, and STIs” (Carroll, 2007, p. 246). Researchers have also found that, among
young people who have not had vaginal intercourse, pledgers are more likely to have engaged in
both oral and anal sex than their non-pledging peers. In fact, among virgins, male and female
pledgers are six times more likely to have had oral sex than non-pledgers, and male pledgers are
four times more likely to have had anal sex than those who had not pledged. (SIECUS, 2007b)
Following is an example of a virginity pledge: I, _____, promise to abstain from sex until my wedding
night. I want to reserve my sexual powers to give life and love for my future spouse and marriage. I
will respect my gift of sexuality by keeping my mind and thoughts pure as I prepare for my true
love. (Sex Respect, Parent Guide, p. 13, cited in SIECUS, 2005d) According to a report sponsored by
the U.S. House of Representatives, there are at least five criticisms of abstinence-only programs
(Waxman, 2004): 1. Abstinence-only curricula contain false information about the effectiveness of
contraceptives. Many curricula misrepresent the effectiveness of condoms in preventing sexually
transmitted diseases and pregnancy. One curriculum says that “the popular claim that ‘condoms
help prevent the spread of STDs,’ is not supported by the data”; another states that “in heterosexual
sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31% of the time”; and another teaches that a
pregnancy occurs one out of every seven times that couples use condoms. These erroneous
statements are presented as proven scientific facts. (p. i) 2. Abstinence-only curricula contain false
information about the risks of abortion. One curriculum states that 5% to 10% of women who have
legal abortions will become sterile; that “premature birth, a major cause of mental retardation, is
increased following the abortion of a first pregnancy”; and that “tubal and cervical pregnancies are
increased following abortions.” In fact, these risks do not rise after the procedu …
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