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Children spend over 1,500 hours watching television in the course of a year; this amount of time spent in front of the television is significant when compared to the amount of hours a child spends in school, which is on average about 900 hours (Herr, 2007). Television impacts the lives of children in today’s society with violence being the main message in the majority of shows. TV has become an ongoing controversial issue in which many researchers since the 1950s have conducted research studies. This paper will discuss Bandura’s social cognitive theory and research conducted within the last ten years in order to gain a better understanding of the effects of TV violence and children.

Keywords: TV, violence, Bandura, social learning theory

Introduction

In today’s ever evolving world of technology, television is at the top. While technology develops advancements and evolution, TV has maintained its popular presence. Postman (1985) states that television is our cultures way of knowing about itself and goes on to discuss how TV stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged (p. 92). When the picture doesn’t reflect reality, this is where issues arise. A child being brought up in this type of reality and never knowing life without a television makes them vulnerable to the negative effects of television.

A child’s cognitive development not being fully matured enough to understand violent messages that the media portrays becomes another issue that arises. Palmer, Hockett, and Dean (1983), found that for many children who watch TV programs geared for adults are not fully equipped emotionally or cognitively enough. Also it is to be noted that many of these children watch these types of program without adult supervision (p. 290). Difficulty to react emotionally to these types of TV messages is a lack of cognitive development (Potter, 2008, p. TV Violence 458).

Potter (2008) further notes that until a child has developed certain knowledge structures, they will lack certain perspectives of how to view the world around them (p. 61).

Television broadcasts many meaningful messages such as violence that not only entertains our children but has a huge impact on their lives. TVs popularity on violent programs has become an issue that many researchers have conducted research on since the 1950s. Gerbner states that being brought up around a violent culture develops aggressiveness, as well as, insecurity, anger, mistrust and desensitization in many (Stossel, 1997, p. 91). Many researchers attest that violent television viewing contributes to antisocial behaviors as well as other variable factors. Ongoing debates go on of whether long or short term effects of TV viewing occur, and children are the main focal group that needs special protection from the negative effects of violence on TV (Potter, 2008, p. 62).

The TV generations of children are bleak bunch when compared to earlier generations of children who seemed to be more outgoing and playful (McLuhan & Fiore, 1967, p. 126). Researchers today state that children who spend more time in front of the television are at a higher level of risk for developing antisocial effects.

Just about every household in the United States has at least one television if not more, and with that said many children are being exposed to violent images and programs at a very young age. Flavell and Ross (1981) state that 4 to 6 year olds have little reflective understanding of their moral knowledge and have an intuitive moral competence that they answer questions about moral rules and in how they excuse their transgressions and react to the transgressions of others. (p. 288)

The social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura in 1977 and states that everyday individuals observe the actions of others in ways of being rewarded, ignored, or punished (p. 46). This theory is most relevant theory in criminology. Social learning can take place at age; however, research has shown that social learning is most important during childhood years. With this has come the influential debate on the effects of children and TV violence. Bandura’s most famous research was based on his Bobo doll experiment that demonstrated social learning theory in that children are more likely to be violent towards a life size doll after watching an adult be violent to the doll on TV.

Theory Relevance

Bandura’s social learning theory emphasizes the importance as well as the modeling behaviors, attitudes and emotional reactions of others. Bandura (1977) further notes that “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own action to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behaviors is learned by observation through modeling; from observing others individuals tend to form ideas of how new behaviors are performed” (p.22).

Social learning theory further explains behavioral patterns as having been learned through operant conditioning and observation. Social learning theory extends its details by examining human behaviors through interactions within cognitive, behavioral and environmental influences. Components of social learning theory are:

Attention

Retention

Motor Reproduction

Motivation

The reason why I chose to discuss social learning theory is mainly because of my own research I conducted a few years ago. The results were comparable to many of the other research studies conducted. Further I chose to discuss the social learning theory because I find it fascinating how this ties into criminal justice and may be a factor in why criminals commit crime. It is possible that criminals who commit crime were exposed to negative activities and never were taught right from wrong, leading many of these offenders to commit crime.

It is up to the policy-makers to limit the amount of exposure of violence in the media from young children. It has been notes that violence contributes to 61% of TV programs that children view. Children aren’t the only ones affected by TV violence, adults are exposed to the same amount of violence as well and most aren’t even aware of it. In most recent technology, parents can restrict certain television shows from their children, and most recent laws now state that television rates must be present to rate the material being shown (e.g. amount of sexual content or violence).

It is up to the government to put restrictions on certain types of shows in order to help restrict young views such as children from watching, which in tale can lead these children into an increased life of crime, thinking it is ok do what they see on TV. It is also up to the government to reduce the amount of violence portrayed on TV.

Research Support

The following will discuss previous studies conducted on television violence and its impact on children.

Gerbner’s research called The Cultural Indicators Project has been noted to be one of the most widely referenced content analysis dealing with TV violence. In 1976, Gerbner and Gross conducted research with the use of a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Their research entailed television programming and its concepts of social reality through a violent profile; which is a set of indicators along with the aspects of the TV world and the concepts of reality that are developed by viewers.

In 1995, the Cultural Indicators Project had viewed over 25 years worth of TV programs, their observations consisted of over 3000 programs and 35,000 types of characters from thematic to action heroes (Signorielli, Gerbner, & Morgan, 1995). Gerbner’s study focused mainly on physical, obvious violence, which was the most consistent within the data measuring TV violence (Signorielli, et al., 1995).

Other types of research conducted were from the Berkeley Media Studies Group, which focused on new stations that showed real life violence on TV. The Berkeley Media Studies Group focused their research on TV news stations and how they structure the public and policy issue on violence in children (Dorfman, Woodruff, Chavez, & Wallack, 1997).

Here, researchers conducted over 214 hours worth of local news media in California. The media collected in this study was 1,791 stories related to children, violence, or both. It is to be noted that the research study was done around Halloween in hopes of having a higher rate of news related stories involving children and violence, as well as, any story involving anyone younger than 24 involved in a gang.

The results of this study showed that the most frequent topic discussed on the news was in fact violence related (Dorfman, et al., p. 1312); with over 55% of the news stories shown were about children involved in violent acts and about 68% of the violence shown on the news worried children (p. 1314).

In today’s society, children don’t know what it is like to not have a television or TV violence for that matter. Almost every household in the United States 99% has at least one TV in their household, whereas majority owns two or more (Herr, 2007). Bandura (2006) further states that more than half of households in the United States have three or more TVs (as cited in Potter, 2008, p. 5).

The Kaiser Family Foundation (2010) conducted a study that found children ranging from ages 8 to 18 watch about 4 ? hours of TV every day. It is also to be noted that this research found that 71% of these children had TVs in their bedrooms. With high saturation of TV programs, it is evident that there is also high presence of violent programming being watched by these young children.

Further, Signorielli (2003) conducted analysis based on a 13 week television program that builds off of research from the Cultural Indicators Project. The results showed no change in level of violence from spring 1993 to fall 2001, where six of the television programs had violence (p. 53). In her study, Signorielli also found that the same amount of violence was being shown but within fewer characters in the TV programs. Therefore, violence on TV in the past 30 years has been found in 60% of TV programs, which breaks down to 4.5 acts per program (p. 54).

Glascock (2008) also conducted analysis on children and TV violence, however Glascock’s study was based on aggressive behavior (e.g. verbal, physical, and indirect acts of aggressiveness) and TV programs. With 6,599 aggressive acts analyzed, he found that TV programs air approximately 68 acts of aggression every hour (p. 274).

Wilson, Smith, Potter, Kunkel, Linz, Colvin, and Donnerstein (2002) conducted a study on the nature as well as the extent of violence on television that mainly targeted children 12 years and younger (p. 5). Their results found that TV programs that targets children had more overall content of violence than non-children related TV shows (p. 29). Further, the results displayed over ? of violent scenes in children shows had some type of humor, whereas ? had aggression displayed in a humorous context (p. 22).

With the results of this research Wilson, Colvin, and Smith (2002) wanted to further their research to offenders committing violence. With that said, they discovered that many of the violent offenders (89%) were adults, and children accounted for 4 to 7% based on age. When combined with the 2,500 hours of violent TV programs involved in this study, they discovered that younger offenders view TV violence once every hour and a half, were as adults are engaged 5 times an hour (p. 45). So the research result show that younger offender have a higher chance of being seen as attractive, having less punishment and are more involved in violence that have fewer end result to the victim (p. 53).

Christakis and Zimmerman (2007) conducted a five-year observational, longitudinal study that discovered preschoolers; especially boys who view violence on TV do develop subsequent aggressive behavior (p. 996).

Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, and Eron (2003) conducted a 15 year longitudinal study that found high significance in both young boys and girls in relations to aggressive behavior after watch violent TV programs. (p. 203). They note that child ranging in ages from 6 to 9 who watch violent programs on TV that displayed aggressive same-sex characters, and had perceptions of TV violence being real had higher rates of aggression as adults (p. 215).

In 1960, a man named Leonard Eron surveyed every eight year old in Columbus County, New York. He stated “I want to measure child-rearing practices as they relates to aggression”. The parents asked such questions as:

Had they read Dr. Spock?

How often did their child watch TV?

What was their child’s favorite show?

The results of this survey showed that the more aggressive children watched higher amounts of violent TV programs. However, did watching TV make these children more aggressive or were aggressive children watching violent TV programs?

The U.S. Surgeon General formed a committee on TV and social behavior and asked Eron to survey the Columbia County children from 1960 (The Education Digest, October 1994).

In 1971, Eron found about 500 of the now 19 year olds from the original sample of 875 children. The Correlation between viewing violence at age 8 and how aggressive the individual was at age 19 was higher than the correlation between watching violence at age 8 and behaving aggressively at age 8. Further, Eron once again was asked to further conduct his study in 1981, using 400 of the subjects being studied again, along with 80 of their offspring’s (The Education Digest, October 1994).

30 year old men who had been the most aggressive when they were 8 had more arrests for drunk driving and violent crime and were more abusive to their spouses. Of the 600 subjects whose criminal records were reviewed; those who watched violent TV programs when they were 8 had been arrested more often for violent crimes and self reported fights when consuming alcohol. (The Education Digest, October 1994).

In 1973, Tannis McBeth Williams studied children in a Canadian town before and after the town got TV; the results found that creativity dropped and that within two years after the town received the arrival of TV the rates of hitting, shoving, and biting among first and second graders had increased by 160%. Further studies discovered, 10 to 15 years after the TV was introduced, murder rates doubled (Newsweek, December, 1995).

Bandura (1960) conducted a study on preschoolers and let them watch TV footage of a man hitting a “bobo” or clown doll. Afterwards, the children who saw the violent footage were more likely to mimic the same motions the adult did to the doll. Further studies have shown that these child also spontaneously would act out towards a man dressed as a clown as well, indicating that TV violence might spill easily into the real world. In another twist, a group of children saw a similar piece of footage of a man hitting a doll but being spanked for the actions. The children who watched this footage were less likely to attack the doll themselves (Newsweek, December, 1995).

Discussion

Current and past research has shown that many of the children who view violent content on TV at a young age do grow up to be violent. Bandura’s research with the Bobo doll clearly shows the effects of violence on children. In a study covering from 1982 to 1992, researchers found that for every 10 prime-time male characters who commit violence, 11 were victims. For every 10 female offenders, there were 17 female victims and for every 10 women of color given power, 22 were victimized (Newsweek, December 1995).

Research also shows that 10% of violence comes from what we learn as children. Numerous years of research on this subject has proven that the more violence children are brought up around the more they think it is ok.

It is also to be noted that this type of research establishes causation, which can determine cause and effect between variable.

Not all research on this violence and children are accurate, not all children grow up to be violent offenders either. This is where most of the research becomes weak. There is no evidence or other factors that are tested to prove that TV violence is in fact the only contributor to offenders committing violent acts of crime.

Much of these studies have been controlled type studies, and with this, controlled studies can be artificial, or done in a lab type setting which tends to eliminate real life effects on this type of study.

It also should be noted that much of the research conducted on this subject have been done in previous years where exposure to TV violence was mild compared to current TV programs. Also, studies conducted in past years had fewer channels to choose from limiting the amount of available violent content.

Studies suggest a high correlation between exposure to TV violence and violent behavior. Results of studies should be used to educate the public, parents, children, and programmers. Further, making suggestions on what can be utilized from parents, and criminologist may also help understand better the correlation between the two. Awareness on TV violence needs to be utilized in order to see who is at higher risks of violence.

With the use of TV ratings on shows, parents are able to decide what shows there children are allowed to watch and in return reduce the amount of violence young children watch, reducing the effects of young children committing crime.

Summary and Conclusions

In today’s society not many individuals can say they can pass the day without engaging in some sort of use of the television; whether it is used for entertainment or background noise. Signorielli (2006) notes that the television is the most all-encompassing mass medium in the United States and with this Postman (1992) stresses the need for American culture to change its concepts on reality expressed through TV (p. 19).

Bandura’s (1986) social learning theory discussed that individuals are not driven by the inner forces nor are automatically shaped and controlled by external stimuli. However, he further states that human functioning is utilized in a way of modeling a triadic reciprocality, where behavior, personal and cognitive factors as well as environment interact with one another and are the determinates of one another (p. 18).

Limitations of the studies discussed throughout this paper have demonstrated both past and present research and has been noted that it is impossible to control the factors such as environment, cognitive, and personal factors. With limitations within the data sets it is to be known that any analysis used from this data can be flawed.

Further research needs to include factors such as social class, family communications and issues, parental monitoring, aggression within the family, viewing habits of television from both parents and children and many more.

Recommendations for Further Study

As television, programming, and audience evolves, research that is conducted also needs to evolve, as well as the types of questions being asked. For example, content analysis cannot focus mainly on certain prime-time TV shows on cable, for there are many more different types and channels on satellite, digital video recording (DVR) as well as live streaming off the internet, which have all changed the individuals viewing habits. With the popularity of news programs and reality shows Glascock (2008) states these types of programs need to be added to the analysis as well.

Music television, advertising, public broadcast and even sports have been forgotten as well within this research. It is also to be noted that very little attention has been put on violent vs. nonviolent content on TV.

Another factor that is an important variable for this research is how nonviolent programs affect and assist in better understand modeling behaviors in children.

Much of Banduras evidence from his social learning theory is highly supported those individuals who view and enjoy TV more than others tend to like or relate to certain characters. Therefore, when these individuals see their character that they relate to act out with use of violence, that individual becomes excepting to that type of violence, leading them to have higher risks of committing crimes themselves.

Research studies from the year 2000 to the present need to be investigated and address future research with questions such as:

What types of progress and/or new conclusions can be used to identify certain effects that impact children who view violence on television?

Has any new understandings or developments emerged within the last ten years that relate to TV violence and aggressive behavior in children and adults?

However, many media effects researchers have began to look into studies on prevention and interventions. These types of studies use the social learning approach used in TV violence research and are examining process of comprehension, interpretation, and evaluating types of aggressive acts. Murray (2008) suggests that further researcher needs to involve neurological correlations of viewing TV violence (p. 1223). Many researchers are beginning to worry about addictions and dependency on TV.

Researchers such as Anderson, Berkowitz, Donnerstein, Huesmann, Johnson, Linz, Malamuth, &Wartella (2003) suggest that more parental monitoring as well as better guidance need to be put in place. Walma van der Molen (2004) go further to discuss the important of families, schools, and children doctors in helping to promote awareness on TV violence and its effects to children, more so on topics of real life violence and its effects (p. 1771).

It is to be noted that no one kid is immune to the effects of TV violence, many children who are exposed to violent TV at a young age are at higher risk of committing crimes as young adults as well as adults. Further evidence has shown that any child from any family, city or any other type of background has the risk of learning and behaving more aggressively when exposed to violence on TV.

Conclusions

Almost everything on television can now be categorized as reality yet all of it is seen as entertainment. With the television making its presence in homes long ago, it has since moved its way into where we work, our schools, on our phones and even in our cars. Leading more of today’s children demanding more time spent watching it.

Much of the research in this paper supports the notion that constant viewing of violence on TV leads to more acceptance aggression and violent behaviors. Bandura’s social learning theory further discusses that if individuals have a strong link to a certain character and the character receives rewards, punishments or uses violence, the individual is more likely to act like the character and display the same type of behavior (Nabi & Clark, 2008, p. 407).

Research has shown time and time again that the lack of punishments and remorse that is displayed leads to a false reality and decreased sensitivity; leading more children to think it is ok to be aggressive and commit crimes and with no guidance from parents children will grow up to think this type of behavior is ok, which will lead many of children to grow up and end up in jail (Caputo, 1993; American Association of Pediatrics Committee on Communications, 1995; Signorielli, Gerbner, & Morgan, 1995; Federman, 1996-1998; Peters & Blumberg, 2002; Wilson, Colvin & Smith, 2002; Potter, 2008; Richmond & Wilson, 2008).

Decrease sensitivity is desensitization. Many children model and react the same way they see things on TV, leading many children to grow up being insensitive, lazy, and having a lack of concern in emotional situations and these types of attitudes are seen in many of the criminals today. Desensitization can range differently for many individuals, however, the results are the both negative; for an individual will have a decreased amount of emotional reactions from the violent views or will have no regards to the consequences of violent acts they commit.

5,958 young children ages 10 to 24 were murdered in 2006 from gunfire, this is on average a total of 16 children being murdered every day (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). These murder rates are higher than children deaths due to cancer, AIDS/HIV, asthma, influenza, and pneumonia combined (Children’s Defense Fund, 2004, as cited by AAFP.org, 2010). With no proof leading to the reasons why children use guns and kill can only lead to possibilities that violence on TV is in fact a key factor.

With many young children in today’s society growing up having more antisocial behaviors leads many to believe that the majority of these children will in fact grow up and become criminals or will commit more crimes as a young adult. When paired with the amount of time children are exposed to violence on TV it is easy to see the correlation linked to antisocial behaviors which leads many individuals to commit crime.

According to the Encyclopedia of Psychology (2001), social learning theory is based on the psychology concept that the learning processes within our environment establish human behavior. Aspects of reinforcement in either rewards or punishment meant to develop desirable behavior most specifically determine it. Trait theories on the other hand identify personality as a set of characteristics that are based on our consistent desires, attitudes and behavior that form a stable and consistent part of who we are. Julian B. Rotter is one of the earliest psychologists who developed the theory that besides the earlier research done on behaviorism by the likes of Ian Pavlov, cognition also played a huge role in social learning. His argument was based on the theory that a person’s behavior is determined by expectancy. As a result, an individual behaves in a certain way based on the expected outcome of their behavior as well as the value that individual places on that outcome.

Rotter’s personality theory based on social learning had two variables; internals and externals (Mearns, 2000). People have different beliefs on their ability to control whether or not their various behaviors in life are reinforced. Internals believe that they have control over the kind of behaviors they portray while externals are of the view that their behavior is because of external factors, which they have no control over. These two variables do not however apply exclusively in individuals so that people are classified as either internals or externals. Generally, an internal individual can portray external traits in various situations. Personality in general is because of one’s interaction with their environment. Another popular social learning theorist Albert Bandura argued that cognition, behavior, and one’s environment have a reciprocal relationship. This, he justified by explaining that one’s understanding and interpretation of a situation such as hostility causes them to portray hostile behavior. This in turn often affects their environment as it may cause similar hostile thoughts and behavior in other people.

Bandura is the same theorist who introduced the concept of observational learning (Kreitner, & Luthans, n.d.). People learn certain behavior by observing the consequences of such behavior on other people. As a result, we will take up the behaviors that get positive reinforcement and stay away from those that are punished. This kind of learning is especially typical of children, who imitate behavior that is rewarded in other children or even adults within their environment. Understanding the concept of social learning and trait theories has enabled me to interpret the behaviors and personalities of people within my environment such as my home, school and the work place. We are all unique in the different traits that define each of us, and there are variables that determine our unique behavior (The Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2001). One such variable is our individual perceptions of our environment. Though people may share an environment such as in school and the work place, they may have different perceptions of it, which would translate into their different behaviors.

Expectations are another variable that determine our unique behaviors. Everyone has their individual expectations that drive them to behave in a certain way. If for example, attending school in time may be because a student expects to qualify to join a reputable college once they attain good grades, another student who does not plan to join college will not display the same behavior of diligently attending school. Personal values also contribute to individual behavior, which is driven by one’s personal goals and ideals, which make them, behave in a certain way. Self-regulation and plans in relation to achieving our goals and living by our ideals determines individual behavior. Therefore, to understand people’s personalities and behaviors in society, I have learned to analyze the determinants that contribute to both within their environment as opposed to making generalizations and assumptions on the causes of their behaviors and the formation of their traits.

According to Jones (2005), an individual’s environment plays a major role in the formation of their personality and behavior. Aspects of the environment such as one’s family, peers, and neighborhood contribute to the social learning that shapes behavior and personality. Having learned this, I have been able to understand people’s behavior better by first looking at the environment in which they live or were brought up. Criminal behavior such as robbery and burglary in an individual for example, may be quickly interpreted as a cause of poverty that drives them to earn a living in this way. However, research has shown that individuals who are brought up in an abusive environment have a high chance of turning to such criminal behavior (Jones, 2005). They may be living comfortable lives but still turn to criminal behavior as a way of punishing other people in a similar manner that they feel they were treated growing up.

In the same token, I have learned that observational learning is a powerful tool that leads to the formation of personality and behavior. Jones (2005) further cites the development of aggressive behavior in children as a product of observing the same in their parents, peers, or siblings. This has alerted me to realize that how we behave within our social setting plays a big role in the development of either desirable or bad behavior in others within our environment, and especially children. It is therefore important for society to portray positive behavior in all aspects of our lives consciously in order to aid in developing positive behavior, attitudes, and personalities in children as they grow up. This would help in ridding society of such undesirable behavior as abuse, aggression, violence and antisocial behavior.

One of the major roles of each individual in society is to create a favorable environment for themselves and for other people either in school, in the family or at the work place. Having learned the concepts of social learning and traits theories in the development of behavior and personality, my role is reinforced with helpful knowledge on how I can help individual’s develop desirable behavior through providing adequate learning experiences. When an individual’s expected outcome of certain behavior is not reinforced, they develop low expectancies so that they are no longer motivated to repeat the behavior. Raising the expectancy for reinforcement especially in children will help them develop and sustain desirable behavior. This can be done through helping them develop rational expectancies and encouraging them to behaving in ways that they have been avoiding for the fear that they will fail.

In my interactions with others, the knowledge on social learning and traits theories gives me the ability to understand all kinds of people that I meet. They may be introverted, extroverted, hostile, or lacking in confidence but I will be in a position to reach out to them since I am able to understand their different traits. This is as opposed to dismissing people for example on the grounds of being hostile and therefore seemingly unapproachable. It is thus possible for me to approach such an individual and teach them how to take control of their anger and hostility. I can do this by helping them shift their personal ideals and educating them on how negatively they affect their environment, like their children or siblings with such behavior.

Conclusion

Social learning plays a huge role in the formation of traits and personality in individuals in society (Kreitner and Luthans, n.d.). Once behavior is formed in childhood, based on the conditions of our environment, it is very hard to change that behavior in future. As a result, it is imperative that society creates conducive environment for children to develop healthy personalities and desirable behavior. Development of self-evaluative ideals is also important as it helps individuals create standards for themselves that are at par with positive behavior.

Kreitner and Luthans (n.d.) insist that promoting healthy cognitive processes is another handy tool in promoting desirable behavior in social learning. Such processes would enable individuals within the society to reason logically when interpreting different aspects of their environment. This would in turn change such bad behavior as violence and aggression when peoples’ reasoning powers are increased. This is generally shaping peoples’ perceptions in ways that enables them to interpret their environment positively in order to develop healthy personalities and positive behavior.

The five social influences that are being chosen are the media (news), new technology such as (television, computers, video games, and cell phones), punishments and/or the lack of, poverty, and divorces. All of these affect the way children are being influenced, raised, and how they deal with their daily lives and futures to some extent. Some of these affect more than others and they can affect on different levels, some on a positive note and others on a negative.

Over the last generation a lot of things have changed in the way parenting and households work, how technology has sky rocketed, and they way media is being portrayed. All of these changes have dramatically changed the way our society deals with numerous things, how children are being brought up, and how our children are being influenced.

Our technology has increased to the extreme, now we have television, cell phones, and video games of all sorts. Children spend more time doing these things than playing with other kids or going outside to play. Their lives are based on what they play, have, and do. Our news is more in depth; we look at reality and try to make a story out of it no matter what it is. The way families and schools handle punishments has changed too. We are more lax on kids now; we use different forms of punishments that do not always work. More parents choose to divorce or do not even get married in the first place. The binds that once were, are really not there anymore, which can have affects on a child being raised. The last one is poverty; this is an important factor too. Believe it or not poverty is at an all time high affecting more children than adults in the United States. (Knapp, 1995)

Analysis of Social Influence
New Technology:

Technology can be very beneficial in a society. We use it in America every day. It has helped business grow, add different types of communication, stay in touch with others. It helps cut down on some environmental factors such as paper waste. But even with all of these benefits it can have very negative effects on children and adults. These negative effects are the lack of personal attachment, personal communication, kids and adults get sucked into it too deep, they are used as escape goats. It is being used more and more to raise kids than an actual parent.

Based on studies, computers prevent children from interacting with each other and with adults. While these children need stronger interpersonal ties with supportive adults, the use of the computer technology only serves to keep children and adults apart. (Slavin, 1998) On the other side of the study it indicates that children who engaged in adult-mediated computer activity improved the level of their cognitive performance on measures of abstract thinking, planning ability, vocabulary, and visual-motor coordination, as well as on measures of response style including reflectivity.

In Vygotskyaa‚¬a„?s theory of development, he states that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. When you compare using technology to not using technology, then the usage of technology would make it to where cognitive development would not be developing properly because of the lack of social interaction. It would alter the development because the type of interaction is virtual rather than face to face.

Punishments:

The lack of discipline in a child’s life during the early years often promotes insecurity, dependence, and uncontrolled behavior. The way children are punished today is through a non physical punishment. Timeouts are a very big trend. Putting a child in a place to sit for a minute every year their age is. So an example of this would be an eight year old who gets sent to time out and sits for eight minutes; this approach takes the hands off the children. Another trend is redirection; this is where you redirect a child from the negative behavior to a different task. You are basically redirecting what they are doing at that present time.

Using time out can be effective; it underscores the relationship between behavior and consequences. Discipline is about guiding children into acceptable and desirable behavior. Time outs give them an opportunity to make the connection between the behavior and the negative consequence (Reese, 1997). Time out also can be problematic. One of the problems with time out and redirection is the lack of fear. Most children feel time out is fun; they tend to misbehave even more than the start. Another problem is it takes more from a parent to do time out than corporal punishment. Corporal punishment has been a long debate; many advocate it and many are against it.

With timeout and redirection you would be using Vygotskyaa‚¬a„?s theory of development, since you are socially interacting with the child. This can help them focus and grow in a positive way. Since each interaction is considered a learning experience, when timeout is being used they are learning that if they do a behavior that is not wanted then they will sit for so much time (Zhang, 2010).

Media:

The media is a very important aspect in our lives today. We broadcast anything and everything that can make a story. A lot of the media is altered for ratings. There is more displayed than ever before. Reality television is very big in the world today. This can have a very negative impact on children today. They see other kids doing wrong but then getting a show out of it. These types of media can be overwhelming for a child. Their brains are not fully developed and they do not understand what exactly is going on. These types of negative behaviors can rub off on the child.

A research study that was done showed the more exposure six month old infants have to media, particularly media directed toward older children and adults, the less developed their cognitive and language skills may be at fourteen months, according to research published in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (2010). In Vygotskyaa‚¬a„?s theory, children imitate their surroundings and peers.

Poverty:

Unfortunately this happens everywhere and it is happening more and more in the United States than ever before. Children are going without food. A long-term study of cognitive development in lower- and middle-class students found strong links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory. Compared to well-off kids, poor children tend to go to ill-equipped and ill-taught schools, have fewer educational resources at home, eat low-nutrition food, and have less access to health care (Knapp, 2005).

Cultural/Regional Differences

Social exposure to various cultures expands a child’s pool of knowledge. The more experiences that a child has, the richer their world becomes. Developmental advancements, dependent upon the people and the cultural tools provided to the child, will help him to form his perceptions of the world.

Not all places around the world are up to date on all of the new technology. Some of these places really have no need for all of it either. Arranged marriages is very common in the Middle East, India and Africa, while in some Asian and most Western cultures, the romantic marriage is idealized and one has a right to choose their marriage partner and thus an arranged marriages is perceived as an infringement on this right and viewed unfavorably.

Generational Differences

In older generations there was some technology but nothing compared to what we have now. Children would play outside from sunrise to sunset, they were rarely ever in the house. They would go to school and come home just to play with friends. Families were more family orientated, dinners would be served and all would gather to eat. School was a very important aspect in the children lives and so was music. Children would develop more of a personal bond with their family and friends. Marriage was an important factor as well; it was against moral values to have a child out of wedlock. Children grew up in a two parent home front. The biggest difference is the direction we are heading. A great example of this is older generations were preparing their children to work on farms and now we are preparing our children to work on computers.

Conclusion

In society today, we are using social interaction through various forms. It is no longer just a parent and a child. Many of the technological advances take the place of this; which in turn can result a hindrance on cognitive behavior. Even at an early age televisions, games, media, and other exposures are coming into the picture. In Vygotskyaa‚¬a„?s theory, imitative learning is the first, where the child simply copies another person. Second is instructed learning, where a child recalls direction given by a teacher and then puts it into play, and the third is collaborative learning. Collaborative learning happens when a peer group cooperates to learn or achieve a specific goal while working to understand one another (Eckhoff, 2008).

If you believe in Vygotsky’s theories you would want to advise parents to expose their children to a variety of social situations, since each interaction is considered a learning experience. It is especially important to introduce children to people and ideas that operate above their current knowledge level, giving them access to new ideas and concepts. Guiding children to look for answers by imitating what they see in others, listening to instruction and working as part of a group all provide opportunities for them to expand their current base of knowledge (Zhang, 2010).

This report looks at Risk and Uncertainty as variables affecting a firm(s) in or entering foreign markets. From the onset it sets out to give an overview of the topic through a summary of risk that comes with the quest for expansion and further highlighting the motives for expansion which could be Market-lead, Capability-lead or Economics-lead.

Risk refers to the likelihood and consequences of an undesirable occurrence(s). Uncertainty refers to doubt or indecision, and is inherent in company strategy as the future is never certain. Uncertainty Avoidance refers to the extent to which people can tolerate risk and uncertainty in their lives.

This report then goes on to tackle the different Topic-related subjects as outlined by the contents page.

It is my sincere hope that as you study this report it will prove to be a comprehensive framework for the subject matter at hand, of Risk and Uncertainty in relation to entering foreign markets. It also draws a distinction between the two variables that should be notable by the end of your study of this report.

Yours Sincerely

Jotham Mwale

BA (HONS), BS STUDENT.
METHODOLOGY

The information used to compile this report is research-based and derived from a combination of learned knowledge, references from various updated management texts and windows internet explorer.

INTRODUCTION

Companies, in this day and Age, are on a quest to expand market share and profitability to achieve and maintain a position of competitive advantage. Globalization, as such, has been a strategy that many companies have adopted towards this end.

Globalization refers to the linkages between markets that exist across national borders. This implies that what happens in one country has an impact on occurrences in other countries (Henry, p.260).

However, the concepts of risk and uncertainty cannot be ignored even as we refer to globalization and companies’ urge to venture into it.

There are many unknowns in the world of business, more so for international business. Organizations in international business or those seeking to venture into such or any other business are prone to face risk and uncertainty. Thus when a firm is entering a foreign market or internationally expanding for the first time there are many potential risks.

This report tackles the question of the unknowns that firms are faced with when entering foreign markets, distinguishing between the concepts of “risk” and “uncertainty”.

MOTIVES FOR EXPANSION INTO FOREIGN MARKETS

A firm has various motives for expansion into foreign markets that would make it prone to risk. These motives may be Market-lead, Capability-lead or Economics-lead;

Some Market-Lead motives are as follows;

Globalization of markets and competition- this exerts pressure on the firm to adopt internationalizing strategies, and not just larger businesses.

Internationalization of the Value Network.

Exploiting differences between countries.

Some Capability-Lead motives are as follows;

Leveraging Capabilities- by doing this across its businesses in a number of countries, the firm is able to achieve competitive advantage.

Enhancing Capabilities- through international acquisitions and strategic alliances the firm may acquire new capabilities.

Enhancing Learning- entry into some markets, foreign inclusive, may enhance organizational learning.

Some Economics-Lead motives (reducing costs) are as follows;

Economies of Scale- the firm can derive economies by increasing the scale of its operations.

Economies of Scope- by spreading costs over a larger output per unit costs may be reduced.

RISK

Assuming a firm is trying to enter the American market for the first time, it is bound to face a lot of challenges and risk, especially since it is one of the world’s biggest and active markets.

Risk refers to the likelihood and consequences of an undesirable occurrence(s). A firm entering a foreign market like the American market for the first time will face risk. There are many potential risks that are posed on a firm on the verge/with the motive of venturing into a foreign market for the first time.

Types of Risk

POLITICAL RISK- there is potential threat to a company’s operations in America due to the ineffectiveness and inefficiencies of the different political systems. For example, a change in governments from the republicans to the democrats would lead to a significant change in policies.

Other laws and regulations that can affect a business in a foreign market are as follows;

Revenue and tax laws as concerns remissions and what percentage of revenue is required to be ploughed back into the local economy of the foreign state.

Laws on pollution limits.

Tariffs, trade embargos and sanctions will also affect whether a business operate in a foreign market or not.

Labor laws as concerns wages and pension.

Health and safety laws.

Laws as regards use of local material in production

ECONOMIC RISK

This is the potential threat to the firm’s operations in a country due to the economic policies and conditions in that country. In America, for example, interest rates may prove to be too high for a business that is coming from sub-Saharan Africa.

Government economic policies such as; Monetary and Fiscal Policies will affect a business and can either be beneficial or a threat to them.

CURRENCY RISK

This is the potential threat to a firm’s operations in a country due to fluctuations in the local currency’s exchange rates. The United States dollar is a strong currency and fluctuations in it have, and may prove either disastrous or beneficial to businesses the world over.

MANAGEMENT RISK

This is the potential threat to a company’s operations in a country due to the problems that managers have making decisions in the context of foreign markets. Different countries have different cultures. Hosted identified four national cultures that would have an impact on management styles in different countries;

Power distance- defining the extent to which a culture accepts different distribution of power within society. For cultures/nations with high power distance like France, Spain and Brazil; management style is autocratic with a lot of centralization, close supervision and top-down command chains.

This must to be taken into account as venturing into such cultures without such knowledge would indeed prove risky or hazardous.

Cultures like that of the United States and United Kingdom have less power distance and as such employees are more involved.

Uncertainty avoidance- referring to the extent to which order, security and control are preferred to ambiguity, uncertainty and change.

For nations with a high uncertainty avoidance culture, employees value task culture, written rules and regulations, and standardization. Deviance and/or ignorance of these values pose a threat to a firm wanting to operate in that nation.

On the other hand, nations with a low uncertainty avoidance culture like the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, value flexibility and creativity and greater variability. Deviance and/or ignorance of these values would place a firm operating within such a nation at a risky position.

Individualism/Collectivism- referring to the preference to hire and work in an individualistic way (focusing on the ‘I’ identity as opposed to the ‘We’ identity) as is the case in the United States and the United Kingdom. Collectivism refers to countries that value organizational family, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and relationship over task; Japan.

Deviance and/or ignorance of such values poses risk for a firm operating in such a nation.

Masculinity/Femininity-

Masculinity refers to the extent to which a society values attributes such as;

Assertiveness

Status

Personal achievement

These are masculine traits prominent in countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

Feminine traits are those that emphasize on sympathy and service quality of life as is the case in Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Such values and traits need to be considered when venturing into a foreign market to avoid putting a firm at unnecessary risk.

MARKET RISK- potential threat that a company faces by it being a part of a certain market. This risk can further be divided into;

Industry risk

Positioning risk

Misy’s risk description according to their Annual Report on principal risks and uncertainties (2010) under the heading ‘Business environment and market risks’ is as follows;

“As an international company, we operate across the globe and difficult or unexpected economic conditions in the markets we serve may affect the financial position of our customers and their willingness to commit expenditure. Other developments in the markets we serve may also impact the Group. The financial services sector is currently subject to regulatory review which could increase taxes on, or curtail certain of the activities of our customers leading them to reduce expenditure. Our Healthcare business is benefiting from the Healthcare Stimulus program in the United States, however, we must ensure that we comply with the requirements for ‘meaningful use’ as defined by the United States Department of Health and Human Services across our healthcare product portfolio. In addition, we operate in highly competitive markets that are characterized by changing technology, industry standards and customer needs and by commercial pressures from customers.”

Four further classifications of risk as classified by Misy in their Annual Report (2010) are:

Strategic Risk- which further embodies;

Business environment and market risks

Business strategy risks

Operational Risk- which further embodies;

People risks

Product development risks

Contract implementation and service level risks

Business continuity risks

IT risks

Intellectual property risks

Financial Risk- which embodies;

Foreign exchange and interest rate risks

Compliance Risk- which embodies;

Legal and regulatory risks

Strategy and Risk

There are a number of strategies that can be employed in relation to risk, that is, the various types of risks. In response to positional risk this report considers the following strategies;

The Strategy Clock

The Strategy Clock (et al, p. 225) is a vital tool in determining the positioning of a firm. A firm entering a foreign market for the first time can assess which of the eight strategies/positions on the strategy clock to pursue, with full understanding of the risk that the various positions pose.

Generic Strategy

Needs/Risks

‘No Frills’

Likely to be segment specific.

Low Price

Risk of price war & low margins; need to be cost leader.

Hybrid

Low cost base & reinvestment in low price & differentiation.

a) Differentiation; without price premium

Perceived added value by user, yielding market share benefits.

b) Differentiation; with price premium

Perceived added value sufficient to bear price premium.

Focused Differentiation

Perceived added value to a particular segment, warranting price premium

Increased price/standard value

Higher margins if competitors do not follow; risk of losing market share.

Increased price/low value

Only feasible in monopoly situation.

Low value/standard price

Loss of market share.

Porter’s Competitive Forces

Porter’s 5 forces (1980) is another tool for positioning in relation to risk. The ideal situation (especially for a firm entering a foreign market for the first time) is one of low risk where;

Bargaining power of buyers is low

Bargaining power of suppliers is low

Threat from potential entrants is low

Threat from substitutes is low

Competitive rivalry is low

Why Companies Expand/Venture into Foreign Markets

To spread business risk across a wider market base. It will not depend entirely depend on operations in domestic markets.

To achieve/maintain core competences.

To lower costs and enhance firms’ competitiveness.

To gain access to new customers- expanding into foreign markets offers potential for increased revenue, profit and long-term relationships and growth, and becomes an especially attractive option when a company’s home market is mature

RISK MANAGEMENT

It is important that risk is identified in advance, recorded and managed. A firm entering the United States market for the first time can do this using one of the following four strategies;

Avoidance- where the factors that give rise to the risk are removed or the profit is undertaken.

Reduction/Mitigation- these measures tend to reduce the likelihood and the consequence of the risk/risky event.

Transference- where the risk is passed on to or stored in another party.

Absorption- where potential risk is accepted in the hope that the consequences can be coped with if necessary.

UNCERTAINTY

Uncertainty refers to indecision or doubt over options. Uncertainty is inherent in a company’s strategy, because nobody can be sure about the future or the stability of an economy. There is therefore even more uncertainty for firms in international business or those planning to enter foreign markets.

Uncertainty Avoidance refers to the extent to which people can tolerate risk and uncertainty in their lives. People in societies with high uncertainty avoidance create institutions that minimize risk and ensure financial security. Companies emphasize stable careers and produce many rules to regulate actions and minimize ambiguity.

Uncertainty Avoidance determines whether or not risk will be an issue for a company. Higher profits do come with greater risks and vice versa. Therefore for a firm entering the United States market for the first time will have to undertake risk management in order to identify risks and gauge whether or not they are able to tolerate whatever risks are discovered.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI)

Another option that companies wanting to enter a foreign market like that of the United States can consider is FDI. FDI is an internalization strategy in which the firm establishes a physical presence abroad by acquiring productive assets such as capital, technology, labor, plant and equipment.

FDI is the most advanced expensive, complex and riskiest entry strategy that a firm could use. It is undertaken by and targeted at firms from both advanced economies and emerging markets.

Some considerations relevant to choice of foreign market entry strategy are;

Degree of control that the firm wants to maintain over decisions, operations, and strategic assets involved in a venture;

Degree of risk that the firm is willing to tolerate, and the timeframe in which it expects returns;

Organizational and financial resources (for example, capital, managers, technology) that the firm will commit to the venture;

Availability and capabilities of partners in the market;

Value-adding activities that the firm wants to perform itself in the market, and what activities it will leave to partners;

Long-term strategic importance of the market

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

From the above analogy it can be derived that the question at hand has been adequately addressed.

This report has affirmed that a firm will face unknowns in the world of business, more so in foreign/international markets.

This report has also affirmed that risk is indeed a factor of concern for firms seeking to venture into such markets. It has significantly defined risk and highlighted a considerable range of types of risk.

This report went further in even suggesting risk-related strategies and outlining the risk management framework.

Uncertainty has also been addressed.

It has also addressed the issue of FDI, its associated risks and how it is an option for venturing into foreign markets.

The concept of uncertainty does not seem to ‘hold as much water’ as that of risk. It would seem uncertainty is a by-product of risk as doubt or indecision over a promising/profitable venture would be sparked by the risk that comes with it.

In conclusion, Risk cannot be avoided in business whether it is local or international. Risk is always present and can either be high, medium or low, but never absent. What differs is how tolerable different firms are to risk and how they individually manage their risk.

I would recommend that firms engage in wide-scope risk management as even the smallest of risks can prove to be huge blows to competitive advantage. The business environment is turbulent, more so now than in the past years. It would be unwise to invest in business and not be able to make any profit whatsoever due to falling prey to ‘unforeseen’ risks and subsequent consequences.

“Has your child ever thrown a temper tantrum at the check register when you said no to a candy bar?” (Sheldon) Most parents have had this experience with their child at some point, and at the time the parent may feel like their child will never grow out of this. There are things parents can teach their child to make these situations become less frequent. Parents should teach their child how to deal with these situations, and respond with a better reaction, which comes from self-control. However, sometimes parents can fail at teaching their child these important skills and values because they are more concerned about being their child’s friend, and not being their parent which can lead them into influencing their child in the wrong ways. Even though sometimes parents can influence their children in the wrong ways , one of the most important skills and values parents can teach their children is self control because having self-control can lead to better social skills, and money management skills, and with having these skills and values will lead the child to a more successful life.

In today’s society more and more parents are becoming more concerned about being their child’s friend then parenting them.”Teaching self-control has become a big focus for early childhood education.” (Shute) Parents need to focus on teaching their children these skills and values in the child’s younger years. With failure to teach their children these skills when they are younger can cause the child to have a more difficult future. Parents need to step up and stop trying to be friends with their children when they are younger, in order to teach their kids the skills that will mold their future.

When parents have the wrong attitude toward their child, their negativity can play a big role with the influences the parent has on them. “The informal education that the family provides for their children makes more of an impact on a child’s total education than the formal education system” (Northrup) Parents are the child’s first teachers, and if parents fail to teach important skills to their child, it could possibly affect their child’s future. “Having a caring parent in a child’s life is one of the strongest influences towards the child having a successful life.”(Northrup) If parents fail at this, their child will suffer in the long run because of the lack of the strong positive influences they need from their parents. “A new study says that self-control makes the difference between getting a good job or going to jail, and we learn it in preschool.” (Shute) Parents desperately need to be a part of their child’s life, teaching them the important skills and values that will shape the rest of their life. Children need their parents to be there for them and teach them the skills and values needed, so they can have a successful life.

Even though parents can influence their children in the wrong ways, one of the most important skills and values any parent can teach their children is self control. Having self control can lead to better social skills and money management skills. Self control is something that needs to start being taught at a young age. “By learning self-control, kids can make appropriate decisions and respond to stressful situations in ways that can yield positive outcomes” (Tyna). When kids learn this at younger age, it will only benefit them in the years to come. They will be able to make better decisions, and respond to difficult situations in a way that will help them gain a better and brighter future. For example, “if you say that you’re not serving ice cream until after dinner, your child may cry, plead, or even scream in the hopes that you will give in.”(Tyna) With self control, the child can see that throwing a huge fit will only get the ice cream taken away, but if they wait patiently without having a temper tantrum, they will get their ice cream.

Another example that shows that having self control can lead to better social skills and money management skills is, ” It is widely believed that the everyday experiences in relationships with their parents are fundamental to children’s developing social skills “(Mize) Parents need to take advantage of this precious time they have with their children. When their child is young, it is important to start being a positive influence in their lives. Being a positive influence can give their children the confident they may need to develop better social skills. Children look to their parents to learn these important skills, so when children looks to their parents for social skills, the parents need to be a positive influence. With self control, parents will see their child stand out with their social skills among other children, and they will be able to use these social skills in whatever they do in their future.

Along with having better social skills, children with self control will also make wiser money management decisions. “In addition to providing for their children’s immediate needs, parents need to provide for their children’s future temporal needs by teaching them to be financially independent adults.”(Sheldon) Teaching your child how to manage money will only benefit them later in life. Parents, who teach their child how important managing money is and how to manage it, will have great success in their adult years. If children learn to make smarter money decisions now, they will take that with them the rest of their lives. “Teaching children money-management skills takes practice and patience. Both parents and children will have to make adjustments and correct themselves when they make mistakes.” (Sheldon) It will take time and patience for both the parent and child when they are learning the importance of money and how to handle money. “Learning about how to manage money can start as young as the age of 3 years old.”(Sheldon) It is never too early for parents to start teaching their child. So, whenever kids start asking and wondering about money, it is a good time to start teaching them about the importance of making wise money decisions. It does not matter the age that parents start instilling these skills into their child because they will grow with them all though their life, making the children more successful in their future.

The most important skills and values parents can teach their children is self control because having these skills/values leads to better success later in life. Parents teaching these values to their children at a young age will help them, “The children who struggled with self-control as preschoolers were three times as likely to have problems as young adults.”(Shute) Learning self control at a younger age will simply put the child ahead and make their future a more successful one. Parents have the responsibility to teach their children these skills that will ultimately play a part in how successful the child’s success is later in life.

Another example that shows that having these skills/values leads to better success later in life is: “The later you wait in life to try to learn self-control skills, the more problems you have to reverse and overcome.”(Shute) Parents need to start instilling this knowledge when their child is young so the child can start learning how to make important decisions based the right choice not on how they feel. Having self control can help them either if it is with their social skills or with money management. Having these skills will also benefit them their whole life, not just when they learn them. Having good self control is a lot like learning math, starting off with the basic adding and subtraction, and then go into more depth from there. With self control by learning the basics first, it then allows learning more skills because of the presence have self control.

So, parents need to start teaching their child these important skills and values at a young age. Some of the important skills and values parents can teach their children are self control for two main reasons. First, having self control can lead to better social skills and money management skills, but most importantly, having these skills and values will lead to better success later in life. It is important that these skills and values are taught to children when they are young. Parents are the first teachers any child will have, and they need to set the example for their child. Parents should live a life that they want to see reflected into their children. When these skills and values are beginning to be taught, parents need take the time however long it make take, letting the child know that they care and are doing this for them. Children will not like the process in which it takes to teach self control. There will be many fits thrown, but at the end of it all parents will see their child having a better and brighter future. So, having a child with self control, parents will no longer be the ones with the screaming child at the cash register having a melt down because they are not getting what they want.

The purpose of writing this research report is to discuss on the question that single parenthood does not benefits the society and it brings negative effects to the society. There will be a full explanation with some evidences to support the idea that single parenthood brings many negative effects to the society. Furthermore, this report will also have three main ideas on the negative effects as well as how they are likely to affect the single parents, children and society. At the same time, there will also include the weaknesses of arguments from the opponents. After a brief explanation of the three main ideas, there will also have some recommendations for this report. Understandably, most of the problems are come from the single parents towards the children, thus, single parents have to show some responsibilities towards this problem, several recommendations are needed to take into actions. However, before actions, it is necessary for us to have certain knowledge on the negative effects. Hope that this research report will pave the way to overcome the problems of single parenthood.

1.0 Introduction

A family in society is often seen as a father, mother and their children. Nowadays this is not always the case. In this modern age, single parenthood is now acceptable in our society. It is a person who builds a family and cares for one or more children without marriage or without the presence of a husband or wife. According to information from the United States Census Bureau, in 2002 there are about 20 million children lived in a household with only their mother or their father. (Single Parent Central, 2004). Single parent families are families with children under age 18 headed by a parent who is widowed or divorced, not remarried, adoption, artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood, or by a parent who has never married. It also may be the result of an unforeseeable occurrence, such as death, child abuse, child neglect, or abandonment by biological parents.

In this day and age, single parenting caused by adoption of a child are widely accepted. Adoption by single individuals has also soared. In 1970 only 0.5 to 4 percent of adoptive parents were single. In the 1980s this rate increased from 8 to 34 percent. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 33 percent of children adopted from foster care are adopted by single parents. (Single Parent Central, 2004). A single parent who has chosen to adopt generally feel as though their life is incomplete without a child, they feel there is a loneliness which money or a social friend network cannot cure in their life.

As a result of that, it has brought up an ultimate question which remains debatable among the society is, single parenthood does not benefits the society and it brings negative effects to the society. Do you agree?

In the end, the answer for this question is yes. Single parenthood does not benefits us, besides, it brings many negative effects to the society. So, single parenthood is not encouraged by the society because it will bring impacts for the children of single parent and they are not growth in a complete and healthy family. According to a study conducted in the United States, children from a single parent background had a 77 percent chance of being physically abused, 87 percent risk of being harmed by neglect and overall 120 percent of being endangered by some form of child abuse. (National Service Personnel, 2010)

Therefore, this report will mainly focus on the negative effects of single parenthood to the society. It will indicate that the single parents have financial problems, they cannot handle the pressure of raising the children alone. Furthermore, most of the children may have psychological problems due to lack of supervision and they may involve in social problems. It also include the weaknesses of the arguments from the opponents. Overall, this research results are related to the global range, including United States and some other European countries.

The percentage of children of all races living in single parent homes has been steadily increasing since 1970.
Percentage of Children in Single Parent Homes: 1970-2005

http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu/prevention/images/singleparentchart.gif

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Survey – Families and Living Arrangements, Historical Tables. Table CH-1: “Living Arrangements of Children Under 18 Years Old: 1960 to Present.”

The proportion of children living in single-parent homes more than doubled between 1970 and 2006 from 12% to 28%, according to the Current Population Survey (CPS). Over the 36-year period, the share of children living with only their mother rose from 10 percent to 24 percent while the share living with only their father grew from less than 2 percent to 5 percent. A never-married parent is becoming more common in single-parent homes. Between 1970 and 2006, the proportion of children living with a never-married parent increased from 7% to 42%. In 2006, almost 4 percent of children lived with other relatives (including foster parents) and fewer than 1 percent lived with non relatives. Although there may be no direct, causal link between single parent families and youth violence, poor parenting is often identified as one of the most serious risk factors for unhealthy youth development.

2.0 Body of Content
2.1 Single parents cannot handle the pressure of raising the child alone.

As a single parent, raising a child is challenging. It is like having two jobs at once. Psychologists believe that raising a child is a very stressful task that single parent will require to be a sympathetic mother plus a strict and providing father at the same time. Without proper guidance from counselors, a single parent will deteriorate emotionally due to stress. Psychologists suggest that in order for a single parent to manage both stress and take care of their child, they should enumerate things that brings them the stressors. (Maxx Family Life, 2010).

Another important thing to regard is single parent have to struggle to do everything by themselves with no one else to blame if it does not get done. They have to learn that if something has to be done, then they are the one has to do it. Even if they have developed a network of friends which helps each other, they also may find that there are some jobs have to be done by themselves when no one is capable of or have time to do.

According to The Single Mother’s Survival Guide, the most common challenge for a single parent will be the financial problems. Opponents argued that single parents will have total control over expenditures than a two parents. They will have to plan on a specific date and set money aside to cover the expenses for their living that a two parents may not have. As single parents are handling the family finances, medically dental care, transportation, household tasks such as repairs and moving, so they must have a wise plan on their expenses. However, to oppose this, in 2002, as twice as many single parent families earned less than $30,000 per year compared to families with two parents present. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 39 percent of two-parent families earned more than $75,000 compared to 6 percent of single mother families and 11 percent of single father families. (Single Parent Central, 2004). Single parents are low income earners. They usually survive on only one income, whereas other families usually have two parents working providing double income. Kristen Anderson Moore from the Child Trends claims that children living in households with single parents were five times as likely to be poor as the children in households where both parents were present. (Child Trends Research Brief, 2007).

Child Poverty by Family Type. Children Age 0-11, 1994-1995

Note: Poverty is measured using Statistics Canada’s Low-Income Cut-Off Lines.

Source: NLSCY

17 percent of children in two-parent families and 68 percent of children in single-parent families were living in poverty, based on Statistics Canada’s 1994 Low-Income Cut-Off Lines (LICO). Infants were over 20 percent more likely than 11-year-olds to be living in poverty, primarily because younger families have higher poverty rates. One in ten Canadian children live in households that are supported primarily by social assistance.

17% of children in two-parent and 68% in single-parent families live in poverty.

Only 0.4 percent of children live with teen mothers. However, the overview report stated, even though the numbers were relatively small, this group of children demands particular attention because of the heightened risk of growing up in a poor household and having poor child outcomes.

Child outcomes were examined in the areas of emotional and behavioral functioning, academic functioning and social functioning. Most children had no problems in these areas – only 26 percent had one or more problems.

About 10 percent of Canadian babies are born prematurely, and 5.7 percent had a low birth weight. There is a well established link between important indicators of health at birth, such as low birth weight and prematurity, health and social problems later in life, the authors of the report stated. Also, the NLSCY corroborated past research linking low household income and mothers who smoked during pregnancy with a higher incidence of low birth weight.

2.2 Children may have psychological problems due to lack of communication and attention from their parents.

Children from single parent families are more likely to suffer emotional problems than those who are living with both parents. According to the survey carried out by National Statistics, children from the age of 5 to 18, the result showed that 3 percent had developed problems, 30 percent had emotional issues and 43 percent had behavior problems. They stressed that they had not found any direct causes of the problems in children but sure that will be a link to living in a not complete family. (National Statistics, 2008). Children who experienced the stressful events such as seeing their lovely parents divorce, appear in court, being tortured or serious injured by one’s parent, they were likely to develop emotional problems. Others emotional issues includes anxiety, depression or become aggressive and antisocial behavior because they think that their parents divorce because they do not want to take care of them. Based on another survey, children whose parents had break up were 4.53 times more likely to develop emotional problems than those children in two parent family and were 2.87 times to show the onset of behavior disorders. (National Statistics, 2008). As a fact, children in single parent families have psychological problems or abnormal behaviors due to the lack of family care. Consequently, these children suffer a lot from mental strain and stress, therefore they may change their moods very easily and frequently, sometimes they are not willing to listen to their parents.

Another important thing to regard is single parents are the sole breadwinners for the family, so they cannot always spend so much time with their kids, this will lead to a poor relationship between them and single parents also may have less parental control over the children. In fact, the children are lack of supervision and they do not receive guidance or attention when they are desperately seeking for. As a result, the gap between the single parent and the children may widen, children might feel that friends are more important than their parents. Hence, communication is an important role in the developing and growth of a child. Parents who communicate and supervise their children will enhance their well-being. (Maccoby and Martin, 1983). Single parents should work to the best on doing everythings to make their children feel love, respect and secure.

Opponents argued that in a single parent household with sufficient income, the parent will actually have more free time to allocate for the kids that a married parent would have. They can give much attention that a single parent will often bestow in the absence of a spouse and concentrate on their children’s studies in order to have a high level of academic achievement. Children who have that kind of support, even if it is only from one parent, are much better equipped to deal with the intellectual. On top of that, African American children in elementary school actually do better in school when their parents work outside of the house. The fact that children from low income, single parent families actually can have higher grades than children from two parent homes. (One-parent households and achievement, 1992). However, to oppose this, single parents who have less time overseeing their children’s study habits and helping them with their homework, therefore, the children may have discipline problems and do poorly in school, all these will lead to the lower of academic achievement. Thus, two parent household is “better” for a child, it is really not surprising. (Matt Garrett, 2007).

2.3 Children who involve in social problems like crime, alcohol and drug abuse are they face family problems.

Children of single parents are more likely to involve in dangerous behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug abuse, crime, delinquency, violence, sexual activity, suicide attempts, etc. This would link on logically from the psychological problems mentioned above. If a child is unhappy and dissatisfied, they need someone to share with their problems and they can’t find their own parents to talk with, so they will most probably want to smoke and drink to release out their stress. Often, children left alone at home for long periods when their parents get outside to work, they may be unduly influenced by peers that can lead to unwanted behavior. While most parents will want to respect their children’s privacy, watching for early tell tale signs of drug use or other harmful behavior will save everyone much grief later. (David Richardson, 2007). Furthermore, in The Lancet’s Jan. 25 issue, the research showed among other things, that 2.5 percent of boys and 1.5 percent of girls in single parent families were hospitalized with alcohol problems and the increased risk for drug addiction, compared to just 1 percent of boys and 0.5 percent of girls in two parent homes. (Bootie Cosgrove-Mather, 2003).

Another important thing to consider is adolescents are more negatively affected by parental discord prior to divorce . Later, as they from single parents families become adult, they are more likely to marry early, have children early and divorce too, follow their own parents footstep. (Demo and Acock, 1991). Understandably, children need to feel love and secure from their parents in the developing and growth, this may be difficult following a divorce, especially if it was an acrimonious divorce. Family and home are fundamental to a child’s sense of self and if children lose confidence on this safe and loving place, they might lose their belief to the world.

Opponents claim that in single parenthood, children prior two parents household included frequent fighting and discord between the adults, the absence of a partner means the absence of sometimes irrational and vehement arguments that the children would observe. Consequently, children can be benefit from living in a one parent home provided that the conflict is stopped. At the same time, children being raised in a single parent families can learn to be self reliant, they solve problems themselves. They also can learn to help with household chores and care for younger siblings, which makes them become more mature and gain in more responsibilities than other children in their age group as a result of altered family routines (Demo and Acock, 1991). However, to oppose this, in fact, having two parents is usually better than one. Children are actually learn by example, if their parents didn’t have any fighting and discord, on the contrary, they are loving and caring to their children, then it will lead to a happy and well being family. So, be a good role model for the children to follow by setting a good example.

3.0 Conclusion

Above all, it can be states that single parenthood does not benefits the society and it indeed brings many negative effects to the society. In this day and age, people pursue a high quality life and happy marriage, but their hopes will usually end up in a higher rate of divorce and greater hurt to the children than before. It will be better if divorced parents establish a new family life with their children, they should spend more time, patience, care and love to their kids. Single parents will have a unique opportunity to influence their children for good or ill, without the counterbalance of another partner.

Therefore, based on the three arguments that are mentioned and with the aids of examples and supporting arguments, we could conclude that it is really important to give children a peaceful and stable home environment in the developing and growth of them.

4.0 Recommendations

It is highly recommended that the society take steps to help in overcoming the problems of single parenthood whether is the single parents or the children. We should keep in mind that we want to live in a peaceful life and to look forward to a progressive society.

Statistics indicate that single parents cannot handle the pressure of raising the child alone, so the government sector should provide some subsidies for single parents in order to reduce the expenses of single parents, instead they can also save the money for being used by future. Besides, some of the children may have psychological problems due to lack of communication and attention from their parents, therefore, single parents should spend more time with their children like have some family day events on holidays, always have a talk with them, do not let them feels that they are left out. Other than that, as a matter of fact, children who involve in social problems like crime, alcohol and drug abuse are they face family problems, the single parents and the society should avoid the happenings of such social problems because children who are still young, they do not know how to differentiate that what should do and what should not do. Hence, adults like us have the responsibilities to help and protect the children, especially their parents.

Abortion is a process of termination of pregnancy. The classic definition of abortion is the expulsion of the fetus before it is viable. This could include spontaneous abortion, which is a miscarriage, or induced abortion such as a doctor, the woman herself, or a layperson causes the abortion. Before modern methods of abortion, this sometimes meant the introduction of foreign objects like catheters into the uterus to disrupt the placenta and embryo (or fetus) so that a miscarriage would result (Family Jrank 2002). Abortion can be carried out by few ways such as taking pills and operation.

Statistical information and cases.

According to the report prepared by the Better Health Channel, in the year 1990, ’23 percent of all pregnancies in Australia were terminated. This makes abortion become one of the most common surgical in the country with around 80,000 women undergoing abortion every year. Our current ratio of one abortion in every four pregnancies is an improvement over the estimated one in three recorded in Australia in the 1930s. Australia’s abortion rate is reasonably low by international standards compare to the United States of America has a 30 percent abortion rate.’ The majority of the Australians support the idea of the safe and legal abortion. The typical profile of a woman who is seeking abortion includes the ages in the 20s, single, educated and childless.

Thesis statement

This study has been carried out to determine whether abortion should be encouraged to the public. This study investigates the advantages and the disadvantages of the abortion to conclude that whether abortion should be encouraged to the public. This study draws on information gathered from International articles, World Wide Web sites, books and a survey.

Abortion should be encouraged.

First, abortion should be encouraged because an unwanted child’s future will be affected.

The young parent such as the teenager who has the unplanned pregnancy, they are unable to provide a good environment for the child. The teenager which is still studying and they do not have a job which causing them could not give a good environment to the child. Most of the juvenile crime happened is because of the children did not grow up in a good environment. ‘Children who not grow in a good environment will cause them to do illegal things for getting attention from the others’ (Associated Content 2006). An unwilling parent is unlikely to be a good parent so the unwanted child is far more likely to drop out of school or commit acts of violence than children who are wanted, nurtured and well parent. The young parents are unable to take care of the child because they are immature. Parents play an important role in the child’s education but the young parents have an immature mind so they can not give a good example for their child. When the young parents did something that is immature would affect the child do to the same mistake too. The young parents can not give accurate information that parents should give because their immature mind can not differentiate the rights and wrongs. If their children had done some mistake, the young parent could not give the right punishment and guide the child to the right pathway.

In an addition, abortion should be encouraged because the future of the young parent would be affected if there is an unplanned pregnancy.

According to the book, ‘Should abortion rights be restricted?’ (2003), when a teenager is pregnant she has to face social problems, such as reduced education and employment opportunities. They are forced to stop their education because they have to spend more time on the child. For example, the young parent has to work hard to earn money for feeding the child. And due to the low education of the young parent, jobs with higher salaries may not want to hire them. There are only low salary jobs that would hire the low education teenager, which are typically hard-working employment types. The teenager could not afford to that job which is too heavy work. This will cause them to do illegal things to earn more money for their family such as become a robber, a thief, drug dealer and so on. And they will have to take the risk of getting caught by the police and going to jail. They also may be influenced by criminal associates and addicted to bad habits, such as smoking and gambling. So if they have an abortion, their future might include a high standard of education, working with a high salary job and live happily.

Furthermore, abortion should be encouraged because it can prevent the unwanted child.

There are some cases such as rape or the incest pregnancy which is an unwanted pregnancy. The trauma will follow all of her life after the raping case, therefore, abortion is the right way to solve this problem or else an unwanted child would be the nightmare for the mother. We can not force a girl in her early age to become a mother after being raped. Abortion should be done toward the mother whom she does not know who is the father of the child. It will be a very hard life for the mother and the child which without a father. The mother is not ready to enter the parenthood yet. It is not easy to bring up a child by a single mother. The mother has to work hard for the child and have to spend time on taking care of the child at the same time. ‘If a child grew up as a homely and because of it an unloved child, he or she will remember those painful experiences for the rest of your life’ (Associated Content 2007).

Abortion should not be encouraged.

On the other hand, abortion should not be encouraged because of the human’s right.

It is a process that is too cruel to a baby. The most basic human right of the human is the right to life there is no doubt which everyone knows it. The Catholic Bishop of the United States stated that since human life is sacred from conception until natural death, they contend, abortion is immoral. A person who did abortion is a murder because this action is taking away a human person’s life. It is so unfair for a child who does not have a chance to enter this world. It is no different between abortion and infanticide. The parent should think about the rights of the child and not just make such selfish decide by their own opinion. We should appreciate the life that the god gives. It is the fate that the parent who get an unplanned pregnancy. God give them a chance to have a baby and guide them to another stage of life. ‘All people, regardless of the circumstances of their conception, or whether they are healthy or handicapped, have been personally knit together by God’s fingers. He has planned out all the days of the unborn child’s life before one of them has happened’ (Leadership U 1992).Some of the people might think that the embryo is just a bunch of cells but it actually a soul is inside the embryo. We have human rights because we are human beings. Therefore, direct abortion is never a morally tolerable option.

Moreover, abortion should not be encouraged because a woman’s health would be affected badly by abortion.

Abortion brings both physically and mentally harms to women. A woman who done the process of abortion has to face some physical health problem. Abortion is linked to the breast cancer due to the hormone changed after the abortion and resulting in an increase in a number of new breast cells. Infertility also one of the health problems that have to face by whom had done the process of abortion. As everyone knows that infertility which means being unable to have a child is a high risk of the abortion procedure. This health problem occurs is because, during the process of abortion, it damaged our uterus. Abortion brings mentally disturb to a woman too. At the early emotional effects, many women will experience the feelings of relief and numbness. In the later emotional effects, they have to face the complex feelings. They will have some complex feelings such as depression, tearfulness, guilt, anger, shame and so on. The mother who done the process of abortion may find difficult to face the others who are pregnant or have babies. Flashbacks to the abortion experience also one of the mentally disturb to those who done abortion procedure. In a study report, 92 percent of women who have had an abortion will also feel guilt on that. As stated in Leadership U(1992), the mother would hear this little voice in her head says she is a terrible, awful person because she had done abortion. Due to the guilty feelings on taking away the child’s life, they will feel very regret on it and causing they have an illusion that there is a ghost child following them.

Lastly, abortion should not be encouraged because the parents have to take their responsibilities seriously towards the child.

The parents behave badly so they have to pay the price. As a parent, they should know the values of a child’s life and not just take abortion as an easy way to solve problems. Once they get pregnant, they have to do what a parent should do which they have to put afford on the baby and being a good example for the child. To prevent the same mistake again, they should give birth to the child and take care of the child. ‘Whether or not a baby is “unwanted” is irrelevant. Just because a human being is not wanted does not mean that the human being has no value or should be killed. In addition, there are huge numbers of families who are willing to adopt those “unwanted” babies. So, those babies are wanted, not unwanted’ (CARM 2001).

Conclusion

Based on the evidence above, I strongly disagree abortion should be encouraged. It can not be a smart choice for the parent to do abortion. Abortion brings many disadvantages to the mother such as health problem as stated above. It brings both physically and mentally side effect. Abortion also is an immoral activity which is killing an innocent baby. Besides, if abortion is encouraged, it might cause the citizen to get involve in sexual activities easily because once they get pregnant and abortion could help them to solve the problem. There are many ways to solve the problems of unplanned pregnancy such as adoption, not just abortion. In the 50 sets of the personal survey, 44% of the public thinks that if one of their friends gets an unplanned pregnancy; continue the pregnancy and give the baby up for adoption is the best way for the mother.

If the parent does not prepare to have a child yet then they should take action to prevent it before they get pregnant such as a condom. Besides, the government can help to prevent the unplanned pregnancy through education too. For an example, the Minister of Education has to implement sex education in schools to give students a better idea of sexual intercourse. When they get to know more about the sex knowledge, they would know the importance of preventing unplanned pregnancy. Therefore, it helps to prevent it. At the end of the essay, the 50 sets of the personal survey show that 84% of the public do not agree that abortion should be encouraged. The personal survey will be shown in the pie chart below:

The purpose of this report presents the findings of that sex education should be implemented in schools due to its many benefits to teenagers. The implementation of sex education in schools will provide teenagers with the correct information to enable them to make the right choices in life. On the other hand, some have claimed that implementing sex education in schools actually promotes the risk of sex and is ineffective. However, based on various research findings, it is shown that sex education is effective by reducing the rate of teen pregnancy, providing correct information and also decreasing the number of HIV, AIDS and STDs cases among teenagers. Hence, sex education encourages healthy teen sexuality.

Introduction

“This is the real world, and in the real world, you need protection,” – Cherie Richards, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. (Antonuk, 2006)

In the simplest form, sex education is basically education about sexuality, contraceptive methods (condoms, drugs or surgery), how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, the importance of protection and last but not least, attitudes and principles about sex. There are also two kinds of sex education which are abstinence-only programs and comprehensive education. However, both of them also teach about the process of sex education which can lead to teenagers understanding about how to make their choices and making them right. Teenagers need information and the right sources to help and protect themselves. This is because when they have no knowledge or whatsoever, they turned to media or even sometimes pornography to get information as their parents are not open enough about sex.

Take this for example, at present time in the United States; the rate of teen birth and abortions is the highest among other western countries with teenagers over a number of one million going through pregnancy every year. The highest number of those having sexually transmitted diseases is also proven in past surveys and reports with teenagers being the apparent source. Meanwhile, Sub-Saharan Africa also has the highest number of teen pregnancy in the world. In Asian countries however, Thailand has reported that a noteworthy sum of unmarried teenagers are sexually active with 25% of students admitted to hospitals to undergo abortions. And even though the rate of teen marriage and pregnancy has dwindled in Malaysia and Indonesia, it doesn’t change the fact that it is still considered quite high compared to the others. For more developed countries like Japan and South Korea, their teen pregnancy rates are at 4.6 and 2.9 respectively, which are the lowest in the world. (UNICEF, 2005)

And therefore, the question is – should sex education be implemented in schools?

Most definitely, sex education should be implemented in schools because sex education can reduce teen pregnancy, it’s better for the teenagers to get information about sex and sexual protection methods from right sources (schools) rather than from the media and sex education in schools can also protect children and teenagers.

This report will show convincing and undeniable evidence of why sex education should be implemented in schools. The majority of these research findings will be limited to the United States of America, because the rate of teen sex and pregnancy is found to be the highest in this region.

2.0 Reduce Rate of Teen Pregnancy

Some had claimed that sex education does not have any effect on the rate of teen pregnancy. They said that those who took up the virginity pledges denied the oaths five years later and had had sex during that time. They argued that those who did take the pledges and those who didn’t did not have much difference in not having sex. They felt that the information provided from the education was unable to help the teenagers and could not prevent teen pregnancy. (Ostrow & Randall, 2008).

However, it is indeed proven to be true that sex education can reduce teen pregnancy and teen births. Firstly, sex education has caused a plunge in the United States’ teen birth rate based on a report done in California and Ventura County. The recently released statistics showed that the birth rate went from 36.2 to 34.1 per 1,000 births to adolescent mothers. (Ventura County Star, 2010). According to the California Department of Public Health, the rate of teen births which was previously 37.1 in the year 2007 decreased by 1.9 per 1000 in 2008. Secondly, an epidemiologist with the CDC – Trisha Mueller, found that sex education does work and it also delays teen having sex which inevitably leads to teen pregnancy being reduced. Based on a national survey of 2,019 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2002, her team found that teen boys were three times more likely to used contraceptive methods compared to those who did not went through sex education. (Vann, 2007). Thirdly, for teenage girls who took sex education, the risk of having sex before the age of 15 is reduced 59% while for boys’ are 71%, compared to those who didn’t take sex education. (Doheny, 2007).

The evidences collected have pointed out that sex education indeed can reduce teen pregnancy. Therefore, in conclusion, again it is emphasized that sex education should be implemented in schools.

3.0 Information about Sex from the Right Sources (schools)

Nowadays, sex scenes are heavily portrayed in some movies and TV shows which teenagers are watching. Even on the Internet, when one clicks on a certain link to a website, adverts containing sexual messages and pictures are posted to the side of the pages as if they were normal. Teenagers could have strayed easily to such websites and unknowingly received incorrect information about sex. In movies and TV shows however, though there is a limit to underage children, the older teenagers are accessible to demonstration of sex scenes in this media. Sex scenes in the media are portrayed as casual and harmless and seemed to bring no serious consequences, causing the teenagers to view such media to be fooled by the producers who are using sex to promote their production. (Why Do Teens Have Sex n.d) It should be noted that without truly knowing about it, sex can be dangerous. Parents’ discomfort about discussing sex related issues with their children drives them to the Internet and other unreliable media sources to find out more about the topic, as they have no other means to get more information. Hence, it is important that sex education is implemented in schools so that teenagers can receive the information they need from the right sources; namely, teachers who are well informed about the topic.

On the other hand, some claimed that sex education is ineffective and does not give out the right information to help teenagers in making the right decisions for their sexuality. (Parents, teachers still embarrassed about sex, 2010). A survey made showed that 26.4 percent of the students complained that the sex education taught was not enough and the teachers who were responsible hardly discussed about sex at all.

However, research has proven that sex education does indeed provide the much needed information and reduces sexual activity as teenagers received correct information from the classes. Firstly, there is much difference between those who took sex education and those who did not. (Moore, Furstenberg & Peterson, n.d). Figure 1 below (National Survey of Children) shows the difference in percentage between teenagers who are exposed to sex education and those who are not.

This is because when teenagers are exposed to the lie that sex is harmless, their sexual activity increases as they have not covered sex education yet.

Secondly, getting the right information about sex can also reduce the number of HIV, AIDS, and STDs cases among the teens. Teenagers can learn that one of the major causes of STDs is through sexual activity. Even oral sex can be a pathway for the transmission of such diseases. (Williams, 2010) Sex education teaches teenagers about the prevention of HIV/AIDS and that one should get their partner tested for sexual transmitted diseases before undergoing any sexual activity with them. Sex and AIDS education have been proven by research done that they delay sexual activity as well as they teach students who are more sexually active to have safer sex. (School Health Education to Prevent AIDS and STD, 1994)

4.0 Protecting Children and Teenagers

There are many sexually abused children who did not come to light or the attention of government authority on what have been cruelly done to them. The wrongly placed shame, the guilt and the fear of being blamed on have shied them away from confessions to parents or authority figures. This is mainly because the victims’ incomprehension of ‘sexual abuse’ and their rights to reject such treatment. Sex education has only recently become important in these past few years but child sexual abuse has existed throughout human history. Thus, implementing sex education into schools can decrease the rate of child sexual abuse and thus providing a way out for children and teenagers. (Carroll, 2010) Besides that, the availability of sex education can also offer help and guidance to children with learning disabilities as they go through puberty.

Child sexual abuse is defined as any form of sexual activity forced onto a child whether by a person younger or older than the child. (Munro, 2000) Munro claimed that children and teenagers are vulnerable and often can be exposed to sexual abuse without anyone knowing. And as they did not receive any counseling or teaching, they do not have full understanding of being taken advantage of. It also leaves them in a defenseless situation which they might be preyed on again. In America, there are 39 million of survivors from child sexual abuse at present. By their 18th celebration, one in four females and one in six males are sexually abused. (Mish, cited in Mail Tribune) But sex education gives children and teenagers information about how to prevent sex abuse, that sexual abuse do not occur to every child and that they must seek help if they were victimized. It teaches children and teenagers to be well aware of sexual abuse. There’s also have been one program that was organized in classes of sex education in which students learned to say “NO” to such inappropriate acts committed by the other. (Carroll, 2010)

It can be concluded that in order to decrease the rate of child sexual abuse, the implementation of sex education in schools is practical as children and teenagers would learn about child abusers and sex abuse and they could reject such offences upon them. Children and teenagers would be more aware of the current situation in this modern society and they would know the actions to be taken if necessary. Not only that, the victimized would be able to understand that they are not alone and many are willing to lend a hand to their plight.

A child with learning disabilities received and processed data and information with a slower speed due to some difficulties in the brain as well as the nervous system. (Kemp, Segal, & Cutter, 2010) Still, teenagers with learning disabilities may be different from their counterparts but they still go through growth and puberty. As they need help when studying or paying closer attention to lessons, these children also need help in controlling their sex drives when they reach puberty in their teenage years. However, the topic of sex and children with learning disabilities always seemed to be swept under the carpet, ignored for fear that it would promote sex risks. According to Stephen Simpson (cited in “Teaching sex education to children with learning disabilities”, 2007), those that have learning difficulties are at a higher risk of getting sexually abused. Besides that, there is also evidence proving that the implementation of sex education is desperately needed for children and teenagers with learning disabilities. In reference to Leeds’ youth offending team, the 40% who committed any sexual offence are teens with learning disorders. (Teaching sex education to children with learning disabilities, 2007)

For John who is a teenager with learning disability, he managed to control his inappropriate actions in public and it decreased gradually. (NursingTimes, 2007) Obviously, this proves that as long as a person with learning disorder obtained proper education about sex, he can reign in his sex drives based on his surroundings and what he had been taught. It can be concluded then that sex education can help teenagers with learning disabilities to control themselves as well as preventing others for abusing them sexually. They can also understand better about sexual relationships and their body.

Thus, this shows that sex education is capable of preventing children and teenagers from becoming victims of sexual abuse as well as being the perpetrator. Therefore, it can be concluded that sex education aids teenagers in their sexuality and related issues at present and in the future.

5.0 Conclusion

Children and teenagers need good and correct information from the right sources about sex, sexual relationships and various other related issues in order to make a right decision for their present and future. They need to understand about what can happen if there are misconceptions about sex, it in turn becomes dangerous. After all, “information is power, and in this current, risky world, they would need all the necessary information they could get. For they will be our future pillars for the next generation and the next. The implementation of sex education in schools will be able to prepare them properly. Not only that, based on the evidences and research done as well as collected carefully, it proves that sex education brings many benefits by reducing the rate of teen pregnancy, providing teenagers with accurate and helpful information, and also protecting them from harm.

6.0 Recommendation

Looking into the creditability of the evidences and research done on this topic, it is safe to say that sex education in schools is heavily encouraged on. However, it should be tested whether abstinence-only or comprehensive sex education works better for the students. The collected results from the selected schools will then only be analyzed and then implemented into schools. Not only that, parents should also be encouraged to meet with the educators responsible so that they may know of the contents of sex education and will be able to discuss easier about sex with their teenagers. The meetings can consist of teachers explaining what they will be covering on with the students in schools. By accomplishing this, parents would no longer be standing on the opposing side of implementing sex education into the school curriculum.

Sexual education (sex ed) in public schools has long been a controversial and debated topic in society. There are several questions when it comes to approaching sex ed in schools. These questions include: appropriate age for introducing sex ed; should sex ed be mandatory or optional; and whether sex ed programs should be comprehensive or abstinence-based. Sex ed is a necessary subject to teach in schools. It should be appropriate to the grade level and taught in a knowledgeable, unbiased manner. Comprehensive sex ed should include teaching students about abstinence, prevention techniques, and should place an emphasis on helping students to acquire decision-making skills when it comes to sexual activity. Sex ed can be a very useful and efficient tool for young students when it comes to making the decision that is best for them. It is an unfortunate trend that not all young adolescents have a safe place to turn to for effective sexual information. Providing sex ed in schools gives all students an equal opportunity to get information about sex and all the aspects that come with it.

Age-Appropriate Sex Ed

Sex education should begin in early adolescents or sooner, possibly starting in 5th or 6th grade. “Sex education that works starts early, before young people reach puberty, and before they have developed established patterns of behavior” (Forrest & Kannabus, 2009, pg 3). If a child doesn’t get introduced to sex ed until age 16, but starts having sex at age 14; then it’s possible they didn’t learn anything about abstinence and STD or pregnancy prevention prior to their sexual activity. At which point it may be harder to teach them new behaviors concerning sexual activity. “In 2005, 6.2 percent of high school students reported having engaged in sexual intercourse before age 13” (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS), 2007, n.p.). While 6.2 may seem like a small percent; 45.5% of young women and 45.7% of young men claim to have had sexual intercourse between the ages of 15 and 19. According to these statistics, it would appear that some sex ed would be appropriate at least prior to or at age 12. It is difficult to know at what age sex ed should be administered. It all depends on the physical, emotional, and mental development of the child. Some argue that introducing sex ed at such a young age will encourage young kids to experiment and act on their curiosity. However,

According to 48 studies of comprehensive sex and STD/HIV education programs in US schools; there was found to be strong evidence that such programs did not increase sexual activity. Some of them reduced sexual activity, or increased rates of condom use or other contraceptives, or both (Forrest & Kannabus, 2009).

It appears to be evident that providing sexual education at a younger age, such as 5th or 6th grade, is not only necessary but appropriate as well.

Mandatory vs. Optional Sex Ed

Because all students deserve the opportunity to have equal access to sex ed; it should be mandated by all schools to teach comprehensive sexual education, with the option for parents opting their children out of class. During interviews conducted with parents of school aged children, by the author of this paper; it was found that all the parents also thought sex ed should be mandatory for schools to teach sex ed, and mandatory for schools to offer parents the choice of opting their children out of the programs. The parents also thought it necessary for schools to allow parents to review the information that would be taught to students prior to their children taking the course, this would give them the opportunity to pull their children out of the course. According to the Guttmacher Institute (2009), “21 states and the District of Columbia mandate that public schools teach sex education” (highlight 1). While 37 states require school districts to allow parental involvement in sex ed, only 3 states require parental consent for their child to participate in sex ed, and 35 states permit parents to opt their children out of sex ed (Guttmacher Institute, 2009, highlight 3). Only 4% of junior high students’ parents and 6% of high school student parents believe that sex education should not be taught in schools. Many school districts do however make exceptions for students that cannot participate due to religious beliefs and customs (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), 2007, n.d.).

Program Effectiveness

Even though there seems to be little debate about the appropriate age to introduce sex ed and whether it should be mandatory or optional; there is a very big debate about the effectiveness of the two main programs being taught in public schools. These programs include comprehensive sexual education and abstinence-only programs, both of which have supporters and opponents.

Many abstinence-until-marriage or abstinence-based programs taught in schools are funded by the federal government. Billions of dollars have been poured into these programs, yet they have not been proven to be as effective as comprehensive programs nor have they shown a positive change in young students’ sexual activities (No More Money, 2008).

Abstinence-only programs place an emphasis on abstinence from all sexual behaviors as a means to prevention of pregnancy and STD’s. These programs cover minimal information about contraceptives and STD prevention. If discussed at all, these programs only discuss failure rates (Community Action Kit, 2008). While many proponents of abstinence-only programs argue that the program is the only way for students to be 100% protected, opponents would argue that the programs don’t supply enough knowledge to students about other forms of protection and preventative measures. Students are more likely to engage in unprotected sexual activities when they have not been taught any information about prevention. Many abstinence-only programs also teach students about exercising self-control (No More Money, 2008). According to Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality (FACTS Handbook) (2000), “Students who do not choose to exercise self-control to remain abstinent are not likely to exercise self-control in the use of a contraceptive device” (p. 50). However, this is not a known fact since contraception as a preventative device is not taught in abstinent-only programs.

Abstinent-only programs do not prepare students for the possibility that they may not be able to exercise self-control. Educational Psychology by John W. Santrock highlights adolescent thinking, on page 314. Santrock notes that “in the heat of the moment, adolescents’ emotions may especially overwhelm their decision-making ability”. In the heat of the moment, a student who hasn’t been taught about contraception or condoms probably won’t make the right decision. However, an adolescent who has been supplied with adequate information about condoms and contraception might have already considered the consequences before-hand, during a moment not aroused by emotion. Having the knowledge to make the right decision concerning protection may help the young student to make a better choice during an emotionally aroused state.

The evidence and research clearly shows that abstinence-only programs do not prevent teen pregnancies or the onset of vaginal intercourse (Kohler, 2008).

Comprehensive sexual education (CSE) is an unbiased approach to sex ed. CSE teaches and develops decision-making skills in students about abstinence, contraceptives, STD prevention, condom use, teen pregnancy, human development and reproductive systems and relationships (Community Action Kit, 2008, pgId 886). Many parents argued that sexual education programs did not focus enough on teaching students responsible behavior and self-esteem associated with making decisions about sex. CSE provides that students be taught about relationships and interpersonal skills. This program also highlights the development of students’ attitudes towards their values and beliefs about sex and exercising responsibility regarding sexual relationships (Community Action Kit, 2008, pgId 888). Even though these programs have been proven to “delay the onset of intercourse; reduce the frequency of intercourse and the number of sexual partners; and increase condom or contraceptive use” (Community Action Kit, 2008, pgId887); only “15 states require that sex education programs cover contraception” (Guttmacher Institution, 2009, highlight 1.2). Even with its proven effectiveness and success rate, CSE is not being taught in enough schools to reach its max potential at reducing young students’ risky behavior concerning sexual activities.

Some critics argue that CSE programs increase sexual activity due simply to the students’ awareness of sexual information. While CSE may not primarily prevent sexual intercourse it is 50% more likely to prevent teen pregnancies than abstinence-only programs. It is also shown to marginally reduce reports of vaginal intercourse among young students (Kohler, 2008). CSE allows students to continually build upon development and learned skills. It also focuses on helping students to maintain these skills in memory, thinking and decision-making processes. For CSE to be successful, educators have to be dedicated in providing students with unbiased and effective sexual knowledge and information. There are many young adolescents in society’s communities that are just not provided with the adequate knowledge about sex ed necessary to make choices and decisions that are best for themselves and their futures. With the right tools and motivation teachers and educators could be very successful at preparing students for real life sexual encounters.

Parents in America strongly support a wide breadth of topics being taught as a part of sex education, and there is broad public support as well. 93% of junior high parents and 91% of high school parents support sex education as a part of school curriculum. 71% up to 100% of junior high and high school parents support topics such as HIV/AIDS, STD prevention, teen pregnancy, birth control, condom use, and sexual orientation as appropriate topics to discuss in sexual education programs (SIECUS, 2007). Even with these high numbers; it’s alarming to know that many states just don’t require it.

Many more states need to require that comprehensive sex education be offered in all schools, rather than no sex education or abstinence-only programs. They need to be mandatory programs with the option of opt outs. Programs should start at age-appropriate times such as 5th-6th grade, and each grade level provided with age-appropriate material to increase in intensity in higher grade levels. Only when this approach is taken will sexual education in schools see max potential and effective results. Effective results that just may change those 6% of opposing parents’ minds.

School delinquency is a rising problem in our schools today. There are a large number of youth who are participating in youth delinquency in our schools. What are some of the problems that cause delinquency in our school? There are a number of reasons for this type of behavior. Poor parenting , children who are in poverty. School bullying plays a role in school delinquency. There has been large scale of gang activity in our school. There are many problems due to delinquency in our schools but it is everyone’s job to correct the problem.

In our society we are faced with different forms of behavior, some good and some bad. The are many different view points, when it comes to how we are suppose to act. What is right and what is wrong is determined by what society except. What society don’t except is wrong acts that are also called acts of deviance. Deviance is something we look at as a act that violates our social norm. To understand what is not norm you have to understand the culture of which you live in. Murder, for instance is an act of taking someone’s life purposely. This is an example of delinquency. An act of such is not excepted by society. In society we have laws, they are design to govern and protect us. These rules give us a guideline to how we must act. The society that we live in is full of law abiding citizens and ones who break laws regular. In our society these law breakers are not only breaking laws in the community but they are introduced to our school system

Delinquent acts in our schools are committed by youth. Juvenile delinquency in our schools today has become a major problem. Our schools are not the same safe place to focus on education anymore. Some youth come to school everyday focus on education , ready to become what they are design to be in society. There are some youth who come to school just to participate in delinquent activities. There are many different reason children come to school but the problem occurs when the delinquent juvenile brings his delinquent behavior here.

There are many reason that causes kids to become delinquent in our schools. Most reasons start from home. Poverty, a major influence towards delinquent behavior. Poverty is when a family lacks the basic resources that normal families use to survive. Other kids who are furnished with nicer clothes and shoes may appear to be more important to youth who don’t have. Kids with more may even tease or down put youth who are not furnished with the basic goods. This type of behavior puts kids in a stressful mind frame. They deal with stress and eventually began to participate in deviant acts to try fitting in with the crowd. Kids who live in poverty are more exposed to crime. They are normally around violence and different crimes. They are exposed to law enforcement in a bad way at early ages. They grow up not trusting law enforcement or even respecting their authority figure. They suffer from bad living conditions, so their main focus is not school but basic survival. It can truly be devastating challenge for youth to conduct themselves in a school environment when they have this type of negative exposure. These kids suffer from many health problems , they don’t have resources for good medical treatment so school cant possibly be their strong points.

Social disorganization is another reason that youth act out in schools. For instance, children who were involved in a house hold with mother and father, who ended up getting a divorce is faced with a major change. Where as both parents being there and they have to adjust to just one causes great stress. These kids normally feel that it is their fault. They go to school and their grades drop, they began to feel like a failure. This attitude can easily give a youth , “the I don’t care attitude”. With this attitude, kids began to act out in school. They may start by simple little deviant acts to fighting in school to express their anger. In households with both parent, a child is more prong to listen to one parent more or even favor one more than the other. In this case if that parent who they favor is the one who leaves, that child is deffinately gonna at out in school. Another factor that can arouse from a broken home is that single parent will most likely have to work. This may even be long hours, taking away social time and time for help with home work. This means poor grades and more time to participate in deviant acts. While these deviant acts are occurring children are spending more time watching tv. A study at Columbia University showed kids that watch at least a hour of tv everyday commit robberies and fights. There are a lot of violent shows on television today. Youth are watching these violent shows and thinking that this behavior is excepted in society. The acts that they see on tv are taken to school where they find themselves in trouble. It can be a devastating things for parents not be able monitor their children properly.

Child abuse can lead to delinquency in schools. Parents who abuse their children are not only breaking the law but they are damaging their child’s future and well being. Child abuse can be anything from striking your kids to neglecting them. Physical child abuse can be hitting, burning, shaking a baby to hard. This is truly something that teaches a child that violence works. Kids are sent to school who are victims of abuse. They are in pain sometimes and don’t know where to turn. The are always stressed out and cant take it out on that parent so the act violently towards their peers at school. They often take on the role as being a bully. They began to tease other kids and called them names. The parents who abuse their kids are taking advantage of someone who the perceive as weaker than them. This same principle applied when their kids take on their role towards kids at school. They pry on children who they perceive as weaker than them. This type of behavior labels kids as school bullies. This type of behavior leads kids in to believing they can go around an violently do what they want to who they want. Becoming a school bully is not only bad for the child who is doing the bullying but it is bad for the victim. This behavior causes the person who is being bullied to retaliate against bullies creating another violent act in our schools.

Alcohol and drugs cause a major effect of delinquency in our schools. Drugs do not have a rightful place but definitely not in our schools. Drugs can be any illegal substance not prescribed by a doctor. The main drug of choice for youth is alcohol. Seventy three percent youth say they have tried it at one point of time in their lives. Youth who use alcohol says , “it relaxes them and reduces tension”. There are many bad sides to alcohol and youth activity. Most youth who drink alcohol are not properly supervised. They normally hang out late at night and miss school on a regular basis. They performance in school falls shorter and shorter. When they drink larger amounts they act the alcohol act as a depressor. Youth whole attitude changes in school , they may even come to school while under the influence. A youth under the influence of alcohol in schools can cause major problems.

Another drug that youth like to take is , marijuana. This drug is a green leafy substance known as pot. This drug contains (THC). To much marijuana can be a major effect to youth react in school. This substance is illegal and should not be around schools. This substance can cause youth to act different in school and bring it on school grounds, definitely an act of delinquency.

Steroids are another drug found in our schools today . They are used by school athletes to try and bulk up. These drugs cause youth to gain large amount of muscle mass, but it also causes a great risk. This drug can change the way youth act, they may become aggressive. An aggressive youth in our schools can be hard for staff to manage.

Crack is a really dangerous drug. Crack is a substance that is cheap and highly addictive. It can be smoked. A youth who comes into contact with this drug is pretty much damaged for life. This drug actually transform youth into a dying person. Youth who come into contact with it will most likely quit school . In the beginning stages they may be able to go to school but they are guaranteed to steal and commit all sorts of crimes to support their habit.

Gangs is another reason for delinquency in our schools. There are different type of gangs .There are social gangs in school who will participate in delinquents acts but their main goal is to get drunk and high. These type gangs in our school are still deviant because they are participating illegal act but there are more serious gangs in our schools. The gangs who don’t normally worry about getting high but focus on violence. These gangs don’t care who they harm. It could be detrimental for youth to get involved with this type of gang. These gangs in school use there power in school to get what they want. They will threaten other students and dare them to tell. These gangs are controlling the schools because it also offers protection. The old saying, “if you can’t beat um join um” applies.

Our school system is full of all sorts of acts of delinquency. There are a number of programs design to make our schools better. D.A.R.E is program design to teach kids and let the know about the dangers of drugs. This program has truly been a success. After school programs have been in effect to aid against delinquency in our schools. There are many approached to helping with this problem of delinquency in our schools. Not everyone household is the same, but we all should have the same goal when it comes to making our schools a place for education not a place for delinquent acts. One major problem to the solution is for everyone to take a good look ourselves and find out what we can do to help this situation. Spending time with your kids and finding out how their days are going. By starting this you can start a trend by letting that child know you care about them. Taking time with your kids, walking in the park and playing with your kids shows them that attention. You must discipline them when they are in need. Never let your children be the parent. Our youth need that extra attention in the society we live in. It is very important for us to give them that attention because some drug dealer is standing at the school’s playground fence or bus stop waiting to show them that attention that leads to school delinquency. It is not only the schools job, law enforcement, after school program but it is all of jobs when it come to dealing with school delinquency. When I focus on correcting my child’s action and making sure they are doing what they are suppose to do, then that is one less problem child in our schools. The correcting of our children in our school system creates a safer environment for us all.

Larry Siegel Brandon Welsh Juvenile Delinquency

Salynn Boyles Health and parenting , http://www.md.com/parenting/news/20100820

Tim Field, Bully at play time revealed

Neil Marr, Bullying News

Michele Borba, The Facts Of Bullying