PERCEIVED CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OWERRI NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF IMO STATE

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 different 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.

THE PERCEIVED CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OWERRI NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF IMO STATE.