Introduction

“The most important thing in the world is family and love.” What if your

family is broken? Is the children should be okay too? Or is this the reason why

they are trying to get rid of the relationship that is not right in time, which causes

young people early pregnancy or marriage?

One in ten young Filipino women age 15-19 has begun childbearing: 8%

are already mothers and another 2% are pregnant with their first child according

to the results of the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).

Among young adult women age 20 to 24, 43% are already mothers and 4% are

pregnant with their first child

Children from broken homes are twice as likely to have sex before the age of 16,

the legal age of consent, as those living with both parents, according to a report

published today. Around 25 per cent of children of divorced or separated couples

said they had engaged in underage sex compared with only 13 per cent of

teenagers whose parents were married or cohabiting, the Family Education Trust

found.

The report, which questioned 2,250 children aged 13 to 15, showed that

the high divorce rate in Britain had serious implications for children's attitudes

towards sex, said Valerie Riches, founder president of the trust, an independent

educational research charity which strongly supports traditional family values.

She said: "When there is disturbance in family children feel rejected and they

look for love and stability. They mistakenly believe they will find these elements

in a partner and through sex. The vast majority, especially girls, deeply regret
what they have done and suffer emotionally. “Concerns over the prevalence of

underage sex in Britain are borne out by the rate of teenage pregnancy, the

highest in Western Europe. But the report, Sex Under Sixteen?, showed that a

minority - 17 per cent - of children was sexually active, with almost a fifth

believing that sex before marriage was wrong and less than a half condoning

protected sex at any age. Asked why they had sex, a third said "it just

happened", 19 per cent were drunk, six per cent were persuaded by their boy or

girlfriend, three per cent cited peer pressure and four per cent, all girls, said they

had no choice.

Despite the rise in the number of cohabiting couples in Britain, most

children believed in the institution of marriage. More than two thirds disagreed

with the statement that "marriage is old-fashioned and no longer relevant", 89 per

cent said they wanted to find a wife or husband and 66 per cent said they wanted

to get married because they needed "to feel secure and loved". Robert Whelan,

director of the Family Education Trust, said: "If the Government is serious about

addressing the problem of teenage pregnancy, it needs to address the underlying

problem of the increasing number of children who are growing up in single-parent

and other non-traditional family types.”Paula Doran, of the Family Planning

Association, said that sex education should focus more on improving children's

self-esteem. She said: "What we need is comprehensive sex education of which

the most important part is developing children's negotiating skills, which would

hopefully stop them just drifting into relationships. Too much attention is given to

the purely biological aspects of sex."