Learning Objectives

1. Define the sexualization of childhood and discuss the fears it generates in American parents.
2. Describe trends in rates of premarital sex, contraceptive use, and pregnancy over the past several decades.
3. Explain why kids from low-income families are the likeliest to become teen parents.
4. Recognize how popular ideas about teenage pregnancy reinforce the sexual double standard.
5. Identify the characteristics of early childhood education that can lower teen pregnancy rates.
6. Compare attitudes toward teen sex and pregnancy in the U.S. and the Netherlands.