Results and findings in the socio-economic determinants of adolescent pregnancy in Katutura, Windhoek: Namibia (original) (raw)
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Factors associated with teenage pregnancy in the Eastern Cape Province
Background: In line with international trends, current South African policy and plans identify sexual and reproductive health, including the prevention of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies amongst teenagers and the provision of support to those who do conceive, as a key priority area for health intervention. Since it has been shown that a majority of young women’s pregnancies are unplanned and unwanted, and because prevalent research contains various gaps on teenage sexual reproduction/sexuality, the aim of this study is to contribute to an enhanced understanding of the nature, extent and factors associated with teenage pregnancy in the Eastern Cape Province. By doing this, it will be possible to identify, as well as to suggest areas of intervention needed to prevent unplanned and unwanted teenage pregnancies. Methods: In order to harness evidence on the causes of teenage pregnancy, triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methodologies was done. The study was to understand factors associated with teenage pregnancy in the Eastern Cape Province. Knowledge, attitudes, practices and perceptions (KAPP) survey among teenage mothers and service providers was conducted. Focus group discussions were conducted with parents and teenagers in general. The study had a total of 294 teenage mothers and 68 service providers surveyed as well as 39 focus group discussions held with parents and teenagers in all seven districts of the Eastern Cape Province. Results: The study showed that teenage pregnancy in the Eastern Cape Province is a problem, with both unplanned and unwanted pregnancies among teenage mothers being exceptionally high. The explanatory factors identified to be the most significant ones, are related to four categories, 1) the exposure to sex; 2) cultural factors; 3) psycho-social factors, and; 4) economic factors. Early sexual debut increases incidences of unwanted pregnancies and the proportion of teenage mothers engaging in sex for pleasure was significant in the province. The result showed that rape, either statutory or explicit, though not significant factor it is high in the Eastern Cape Province. The cultural practise of proving one’s womanhood influenced teenage girls to fall pregnant. Complementary to this was “partner wanting a baby” which also influenced teenagers to get pregnant. Ukuthwala, though not significant most teenage mother and service providers identified it as a practice exposing girls to sex. When looking at psycho-social factors, early marriages contributed to unwanted pregnancies. The study recognises that teenagers from the African group population are more likely to have unwanted pregnancies than other population groups. Experimenting with sex also increased incidences of teenagers falling pregnant. Lastly, the research highlights the perception among teenagers that having multiple partners as a means of alleviating poverty is widespread in the Eastern Cape Province. While there is a myth that teenagers fall pregnant because they want to access the child support grant, the results show that the proportion of teenagers who fell pregnant to access the CSG was low. Also, by investigating which sources of knowledge teenagers use to receive information on sexual issues, the study reveals that there still exist many barriers, keeping the vicious cycle of ignorance as well as unplanned and unwanted teenage pregnancies alive in the province. Conclusion: In order to reduce the high number of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies in the Eastern Cape Province, there is a need to adopt a multi-stakeholder, institutional capacity building approach, inclusive of schools, hospitals and clinics, traditional leaders, family members as well as non-governmental organisations and the government. The strategies used must cover multiple issues, such as the understanding and enforcement of relevant law, economic empowerment, improved accessibility to services and public awareness campaigns.
Adolescent pregnancy and associated factors in South African youth
African Health Sciences, 2013
Background: Adolescent pregnancy, occurring in girls aged 10-19 years, remains a serious health and social problem worldwide, and has been associated with numerous risk factors evident in the young people's family, peer, school, and neighbourhood contexts.
International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 2015
A quantitative, descriptive and explorative survey was conducted to determine factors that influence adolescent pregnancy rate among teenage girls (n = 147) attending four high schools in the Greater Giyani Municipality in South Africa. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire which had a reliability of 0.65. Response frequency distributions, two-way frequency tables, Chi-square tests and Cochran-Armitage Trend Tests were used to determine the effect with the demographic characteristics of participants. Participants reported that health services were not conveniently available for them. Their relationship with nurses was poor (p < 0.05) as reported by 73% of participants with regard to maintenance of confidentiality. Participants reported key psychosocial variables such as inadequate sexual knowledge (61%), changing attitudes towards sex (58.9%) and peer pressure (56.3%) as contributory to high pregnancy rate. Recommendations were made to improve school health services, reproductive education in school curricula focussing on reproductive health, sexuality and guidance for future research.
The objective of this study was to determine the views and perceptions of teachers and adolescent's on adolescent's pregnancy in school in Kavango Region, Namibia. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted using mixed methods-quantitative approaches among 350 school learners (grade 6 to grade 12) and 150 school dropout adolescents (aged 12 to 19 years). For the qualitative approaches 15 school learners and 25 teachers went through an in-depth interview. In total a sample of 540 was utilized. The stratified random sampling techniques were used in the selections of the circuit and the schools. Structured questionnaires were used in face-to-face interviews, and in depth interviews were conducted among the key informants (teachers). Themes and subthemes were identified and discussed: Challenges for learners in grasping or understanding the concept on reproductive health towards; Poverty – early marriages, bribe from men. Identified cultural barriers on reduction of the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy, towards; Culture – uncomfortable and shy to talk about sex. The study found that the following aspects/factors: lack of parental supervision; poverty; lack of knowledge and communication skills to talk to their children regarding sex & contraceptives; parental irresponsibility; lack of sex education; were associated with adolescent pregnancy in Kavango region.
Factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in the Sunyani Municipality of Ghana
International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 2019
Adolescent pregnancy is an important social and public health issue worldwide, and it is linked to several social andeconomicconsequences. Thisstudysoughttoinvestigatethefactorsassociatedwithadolescent pregnancyin the Sunyani municipality of Ghana. This study was an unmatched case-control among adolescents aged 15–19years. The cases were pregnant and parenting adolescents, and controls were non-pregnant adolescents with no birth experience. Data were collected from 245 participants (120 cases and 125 controls) through a structured questionnaire survey and analysed with STATA version 12 for risk factors of adolescent pregnancy using Pearson’s chi-square test and logistic regression. The average age of study participants was 16.9 ± 1.15years. Place of residence, occupation and economic status were found to be associated with adolescent pregnancy. Multiple logistic regression revealed that adolescents from urban settings, Abesim zone (OR=0.07, 95% CI 0.01–0.35), and New Dormaa zone (OR=0.19, 95% CI 0.05–0.77) had decreased odds of adolescent pregnancy compared to their rural counterpart-Antwikrom zone. Adolescents were also at increased odds of becoming pregnant when they were into apprenticeships (OR=9.77, 95% CI 2.00–47.75) or unemployed (OR=11.69, 95% CI 4.47–30.58) than being in school. Adolescents with low economic background (OR=4.05, 95% CI 1.43–11.52) were 4.1 times more likely to get pregnant compared to those with high economic status. Key factors associated with adolescent pregnancy have been established and these need attention from all stakeholders to forestall public and social health safety among adolescent
2000
The overall aim ofthe study was to detennine the risk factors associated with teenage pregnancy in Ga-Dikgale. To detennine whether the following risk factors were associated with teenage pregnancy: * Socio-demographic characteristics of teenagers and of their parents; * The most importaTlt risk factors for teenage pregnancy were low educational level, having a boyfriend, believing other girls engaged in sex for the first time at an early age and perceiving that friends were sexually active.
The objective is this study is to determine the potential risk characteristics among the in-school and out of school adolescents in Kavango region, Namibia. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted using mixed methods-quantitative and qualitative approaches among 350 school learners (grade 6 to grade 12) and 150 school drop-out adolescents (aged 12 to 19 years). The stratified random sampling techniques were used in the selections of the circuit and the schools. Structured questionnaires were used in face-to-face interviews, and in depth interviews were conducted among the key informants (teachers). The following variables include the potential risk characteristics alcohol used, drug used, marijuana used, more than one sexual partner in past 12 months, partner older than 5 years, orphan, abortion, sex regularly, mothers education, contraceptive used, current pregnancy and outcome of birth. Descriptive statistics was used to summarise the above mentioned variables. Cross-tabulations of demographic, sexual and economic variables were used to describe the relative frequencies. The associations between different categorical variables were assessed using Chi-square test whilst the identification of different determining factors was analyzed with the epidemiological methods using odds ratios and/or estimated relative risks. The means, standard deviation and 95 % confidence interval were computed. The differences between different variables or factors were considered to be statistically significant for p-values less than 0.05.
Factors associated with Teenage Pregnancy in Mpumalanga Province
Background: Teenage pregnancy is a widespread phenomenon in South Africa, reflecting a pattern of sexual behaviour that puts teenagers in risk of HIV. For this reason and in line with international trends, current South African policy and plans identify sexual and reproductive health as a key priority area for health intervention. Both the prevention of unwanted pregnancy amongst teenagers and the provision of support to those who do conceive contribute to the overall aim of enhancing reproductive health. A human rights-based approach requires that we reduce incidences of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy for which a majority of young women’s pregnancy in South Africa are the former but not the latter. In doing so and due to various gaps on teenage sexual and reproductive health in prevalent research, it is necessary to identify the nature, extent and factors associated with teenage pregnancy. As forming part of a larger study conducted in all of South Africa’s nine provinces, this study will specifically address the issue of teenage pregnancy amongst sexually active adolescents in the Mpumalanga area. This will include looking at factors that encourage girls into sex in general as well as factors related to unwanted pregnancy more specific. Methods: By adopting the ecological systems theory and the health belief model, this study employed multiple research paradigms, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to collect knowledge, attitudes, practices and perceptions (KAPP) of teenagers, parents, community leaders and service providers in order to understand the factors associated with teenage pregnancy in the Mpumalanga province. For quantitative methods, a survey together with a semi-structured questionnaire was conducted among teenage mothers and service providers. For the qualitative data, focus group discussions were carried out among teenage mothers, teenage learners, service providers and parents. The study covered all three districts of the province, with a total of 387 individual interviews with teenage mothers and service providers and 23 focus group discussions among the different stakeholders. Results: The study confirms that teenage pregnancy in Mpumalanga province is a problem, with 70.4 percent of first pregnancy among teenage mothers both being unplanned and unwanted. The result shows that teenage mothers who planned their pregnancy were 94.0 percent less likely to have unwanted pregnancy. It also shows that by the time of first pregnancy, 83.7 percent of the teenage mothers were below the age of 16 years. The results presented on the factors associated with teenage pregnancy are discussed in six themes, these being exposure to sex, sources of information as well as psychosocial, economic, cultural, and household factors. The findings suggest that the major reason for teenagers engaging in sex is to prove love to their partners, hence maintain trust in the relationship. Moreover, the study shows that all factors taken into discussion, apart from sources of information, are significant in explaining unwanted pregnancy. Conclusions: While the majority of young women’s pregnancy in South Africa is unplanned but not unwanted, this study shows an inextricable link between unplanned and unwanted pregnancy in the Mpumalanga province. Furthermore, we argue that because the findings illustrate that exposure to sex, as well as cultural, psychosocial, economic and household factors are all significant in understanding teenage pregnancy as such, there is a need to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach to change the current pattern of sexual behaviour amongst sexually active adolescents and reduce the number of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. In addition, the problems of poverty and peer pressure is an indicator that caregivers are not devoting as much attention to teenagers as they should and calls for interventions to educate the teenagers in Mpumalanga about the dangers of engaging in unprotected sex. To drive programme interventions, an interdepartmental task team reporting to a political oversight structure need to be established.