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THE CAUSES OF THE PREVALENCE OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG SECONDARY FEMALE STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

One of the salient responsibilities of women is procreation as ordained by God. However, there are conditions to be met before a woman could start procreating. In African context, the act of procreation is a responsibility of grown up young adults who have been found to be physically, economically, emotionally, spiritually and at large psychologically matured; that is why marriage act is highly contracted and celebrated in our present societies. The observed situation prevalent in both developed and underdeveloped world is such that there are, however, girls as young as ten who are sexually active and occasionally become pregnant and give birth, such that girls of between thirteen and nineteen years are now getting pregnant at an alarming rate. Surveys by investigators such as Briggs (2001), Onuzulike (2003) and others revealed that teenagers become sexually active at an early age with corresponding high fertility. This condition is widely referred to as teenage pregnancy. Teenage Pregnancy is defined as ‘a teenager or under-aged usually within ages of thirteen to nineteen years becoming pregnant’. The term in every day speech usually refers to women who have not reached legal adulthood who become pregnant, (Oguguo, 1995).

Teenage is often used interchangeably with adolescence. World Health Organization – WHO (1997) opined that, it is the period between 10 and 19 years when the secondary sex characteristics appear. Turner and Helms (1993) reported that the teen years fall between the ages of 13 and 19 years. The issue of pregnancies among teenage girls seems to be one of the social problems facing not only Nigeria, but also several other nations of the world. Teenage sexual activities in Nigeria also tend to be on the increase (Nwosu, 2005; Okafor, 1997). A major consequence of these increase sexual activities among teenagers is out of wedlock pregnancies that may result in abortion, childbirth or even death. Pregnancy at whatever stage in life can be a life changing experience that cuts across boundaries of race, educational attainment and socio-economic status (Kost et al., 2010). Motherhood places demands on one's life which were hitherto non-existent prior to the birth of the woman. When a girl that should be in school becomes pregnant, her entire life could be completely altered as her hopes and aspirations could be shattered. Teenage parents according to Kost et al., (2010) are parents between the ages of 13 and 19 years. Maynard (1997) believe that teenage pregnancy is a delinquent behavior resulting from stress, dislike, malice, boredom and unhappiness experienced by a teenage girl within her home environment. Other predisposing factors include alcoholism, drug addiction, and sexual promiscuity.

According to Kinby (2001) victims of teenage pregnancy lacked information or probably were not adequately educated on safe-sex either by their parents, schools or development agencies that could have enabled them deal with friends who lure them into sex prematurely. He stressed further that children of single parents are more vulnerable to teenage pregnancy. In the same vein exposure to sexual content on television, sexuality in the media, pornographic and sex chart rooms by teenagers, could most likely tune them to engage in sexual activities (L’Engle et al., 2006; Park, 2008). Acceptance of gift for sex and some adult deliberately taking advantage of poor teenagers, encouraging them into having sex were also noted as factors responsible for teenage pregnancy (United Nation, 2001).  

Yampolslaaya, Brown and Greenbaum (2002) posited that approximately 60% of adolescent mothers live in poverty at the time of the birth of their babies and “approximately 73% go on welfare within 5 years of giving birth”, its associated motherhood are characterized with shame, disgrace, and school dropout sometimes end up the individual’s dreams of achieving higher pursuits. 

Teenage pregnancy according to Williams (2010) is therefore a major concern to world communities with the United State being at the top with almost 1,000,000 teenage pregnancies each year. Teenage pregnancy has attracted a great deal of concern and attention from religious leaders, the general public, policymakers, and social scientists, particularly in the developed and less developed countries especially in Nigeria. The continuing apprehension about teenage pregnancy is based on the profound impact it can have on the lives of the girls and their children. Demographic studies continue to report that in developed countries such as the United States, Mexico, Canada, Austria, teenage pregnancy results in lower educational attainment, increased rates of poverty, and worse “life outcomes” for children of teenage mothers compared to children of young adult women (Yampolslaaya et al., 2002) . Most teenagers do not plan their first sexual experience; rather, it is something that just happens to them based on the influence by female counterparts. Nearly 10 percent of adolescent or teenage girls get pregnant each year. Studies have found that between 20-30 percent of pregnancies in teenagers are direct results of rape, while 60% of teenage mothers have unwanted sexual experiences preceding their pregnancies before 15 years when they were coerced by males who were at least six years older than them (Williams, 2010). 

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