PERCEIVED CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

In developing and developed countries, teenage pregnancy continue to receive increased attention because of early age at which adolescents engage in sexual activities and the result of unplanned and unintended pregnancies associated with the risk and problem of early motherhood. Lack of adequate information, education and communication on reproductive health services and the perennial concern in dierent parts of the world reveal that adolescents become sexually active at an early age which lead to a high number of teenage pregnancy today. In many developing countries, about half the population is under 15 years. These age groups expose themselves into sexual habit which have led many of them into teenage pregnancy and at the same time cost the adolescent their educational background, (Gyan, 2013). Out of wedlock pregnancy and motherhood is not encouraged in Owerri North community at large. When teenage pregnancy is allowed to continue, at times it places the teenage mother’s health in danger because of inadequate parental care received by the teenage mother.

So, after birth, the risk of the mother and her child will be high. Those circumstances may be responsible for increase in infanticide, baby abandonment and child abuse. For these reasons, pregnancies among teenagers are creating concern for many industrialized countries today WHO, (2000). Van, (2007), perceived economic factor as a cause of teenage pregnancy, he indicated that teenagers from lower income families are more likely to report having sexual intercourse regardless of the family structure or race. It is further pointed out that teenagers from single parent family homes are more likely to report having the family in combination with the high rate of schools fees in the present school system in Nigeria. These have exposed girls to sexual intercourse in order to make out ways to solve their problem of school fees in the school. This act at times occurred as a result of poor family background. Van further indicated that substance abuse was long recognized as one of the greatest health and social problems which resulted in teenage pregnancies because teenagers engage in sexual intercourse without making calculated decisions due to the influence of alcohol.

Added to the risk of being born by teenage mother, there also exist other associated risks for babies born into an environment that lacks life’s basic needs. Baby and mother usually stand disadvantaged and handicapped in day-to-day living. Teenage mothers are typically depicted as inadequate parents (BuchHoiz, 2003), then their children are thought to be a significant risk for maltreatments. However, the degree of risk to children teenage parents may be well determined by the financial, social and emotional stresses these families face. The critical factor being the availability of resources which aer support and encouragement. In recognition of the identified problems of teenage pregnancy and early motherhood, there are many welfare programmes and services available to pregnant adolescents in most of the developed countries. Family welfare programmes are considered as a set of measures formulated at the executive level to provide concrete support and services for the advancement of groups and individuals in order to bring about social change, family planning, education welfare services, food and nutrition. The form and content of a programme as well as its organization and administration depends on the culture and history of a given country including its values, customs and social structure as well as its resources and awareness. The concept of social health emanated from the multifaceted view of health which according to World Health Organization (WHO) is a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being of an individual and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmities.

According to Chijioke (2010), man is well known to be a social animal and therefore lives by interacting with his fellow human beings. Similarly, Oguguo (2004) observes that man’s nature, which cannot be eectively fulfilled without inter and intra relationship has equally created some social problems ranging from hatred to others, breed and nurtured by the so called jet age. These problems according to Ogugo (2004) are the evil eects of man’s social consciousness which health educators have designated social health. Some of these problems emanating from social health according to Asogwa (2000) are called social health problems. This is because according to him, their solution require community eorts, professional know how, co-operation of other disciplines and greater eort and time. Nwachukwu (2009) identified teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, drug addicton, sexual promiscuity among others as social health problems which are usually associated with the adolescents.