Many experts suggested that a multitude of factors are taking part in the increase, but a majority of them are pointing to the socio-economic problems in the provinces where the rates have skyrocketed. One of the problems is that teenage girls are more likely to get pregnant sooner when they have fewer job and education opportunities provided to them, to postpone having a child. Lucia OSullivan, who is a psychology professor at the University of New Brunswick and also holds a Canada Research Chair in Adolescents’ Sexual Health Behavior, has voiced her opinion about the socio-economic problems that are occurring in New Brunswick, that she believes leads teenage girls to have children early on in their lives. In Bielski, Z., & Bielski, Z. (2018, May 11), O’Sullivan concurs, ‘That’s how the broader socio-economic context gets translated to the individual psyche: Do young people have a vision of the future that is positive? Do they have long-term goals that are worth delaying childbearing for? When young people have a future orientation that is positive ‘There are good things ahead for me,’ ‘I can go
far,’ ‘I need to delay some immediate things for long-term reward’ then we find that they look after their sexual health better. They either delay intercourse, or, more likely, they contracept better.’ Basically, if teens do not see a bright future for themselves, they tend to focus on their immediate lives. Beyond the socio-economic standpoint, others wondered if contraception and sex education played a role in the increasing rates. New Brunswick introduced a continuous sex education curriculum for elementary and middle schools students in the early 2000s. Many argued that this was not the primary issue for the increase in rates. As for contraception, research that was done in the United States states that teenage pregnancy rates dropped when individuals are young, and women in poverty have greater access to reversible, long-term contraception such as implants and IUDs. This latter is not available in Canada. OSullivan has said that women are put under all of this pressure to be the ones to take care of things such as birth control because there isnt a great option for males, besides the use of condoms.