Name Pamella

Surname Peyana

Lecture Dr T Shembe

Submission date 24 August 2020

Unique number 807778

Module code Edrhodg

Teenage pregnancy in modern-day society

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 INTRODUCTION
Teenage pregnancy refers to girls who have not reached legal adulthood, who become
pregnant within the age of 12-18. A girl child having become a mother as a teenager is more
likely to experience critical social issues like poverty, poor education, behaviors that lead to poor
health issues.
Teenage pregnancies remain a serious health and social problem in South Africa. Not only does
teenage pregnancy pose a health risk to both mother and child, it also has social
consequences, such as continuing the cycle of poverty including early school dropout by the
pregnant teenager.
Teenage pregnancy may be linked to things such as lack of education and information about
reproduction, peer pressure and early engagement of sexual activity. Even though some
teenage pregnancies are intentional, but most of them are unintentional and lead to many
negative outcomes for the teenage mother, the child as well as other family and peers. Teen
pregnancy is a health issue that has huge effect on our society, education, and our economy.
Teenage mothers generally do not have the means to take care for a child and often they are
not able to bear healthy ways throughout pregnancy to ensure they deliver a healthy baby.
These young females often do not complete their education and they begin a continuous cycle
in which their child may further go on to become a teenage parent as well.
statement form
Teenage pregnancy causes personal, family, and societal problems. For example, when a
teenage girl gets pregnant, she suffers serious consequences such as financial strain to her
family, her pregnancy forces family members to intervene to help her in terms of taking her to
health care Centre, buying food and clothing for her baby whilst they still have provide for her
also. This ends up overburdening her family members. In most instance teen mothers drop out
of school to take care of their baby. They got isolated in community and fathers run away from
their responsibility because they are also not prepared to fathers. Whereas it is their role as the
person who impregnates the girl to cater for her financial and emotional needs so that she can
be able to cope with pregnancy adequately.
Education is one way a young girl or woman can empower themselves to become financially
independent. Becoming a mother at a very young age affect your future. Healthcare is
expensive and often adds a further financial burden on the family of the pregnant
teenager. Making teenage pregnancy prevention a priority in schools
According to the SADH survey, children born to very young mothers are at increased risk of
sickness and death. Teenage mothers are more likely to experience adverse pregnancy
outcomes and are more constrained in their ability to pursue educational opportunities than
young women who delay childbearing. About 16% of women aged 15-19 years have begun
childbearing, 12% have given birth, and another 3% were pregnant with their first child at the
time of the survey

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Risk factors/causes of teenage pregnancy in modern-day society.
Causes of teenage pregnancy have been found to be at two levels, namely:
▪ There are factors that are at the individual level and
▪ Those that are at a social level.
Individual level factors
o Developmental factors: Three developmental factors have been identified as having a
bearing on the early start of sex and teenage pregnancy, i.e. ego development, early
physiological maturation, and social development.
I. Ego development; according to (Blos, 1989)ego development refers to development
of inner resources through internalization of parental figures, so that one is able to
act independently of parental figures, to master one’s impulses and to have control
over one’s environment.
Research results suggest that teenagers’ cognitive functioning is more likely to be in
the real operations, rather than in proper operations as suggested by Piaget’s
theory (Hamburg, 1986), because they are in the interim stage between puberty
and adulthood (Erikson, 1963). Therefore, the teen is more likely to experience
instable ego functioning or strength. So, the teen may sometimes struggle to make
critical and objective decisions (Peterson & Crocket, 1986). Teenage pregnancy is
also linked to other risk-taking behaviors, such as alcohol and substance abuse,
unprotected sex, and drop in school achievement, which tend to increase
dramatically during this period (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998; Compass, 2004).
Teenagers start to engage in unprotected sex and other different behaviors
because of immaturity, poor valuation of risk and a false sense of invulnerability
(Hudson & Ineichen, 1991).
II. Early physiological maturity: girls who mature early are more likely to be in a risk of
becoming pregnant at an early age, because they are more likely to initiate sexual
activity. whereas cognitively they may not be able to understand the relationship
between menarche, sex, contraception, and pregnancy.
III. Social development: Engaging in intimate relationships with the opposite gender is
a source to the development of gender identity. Even though dating is necessary for
social development, often these relationships are sexual relationships, mostly
unprotected sex which may lead to teenage pregnancy.
o School achievement and motivation; It is argued that learners who do not do well at
school are more likely to be unmotivated, have a negative attitude towards education
and to have a low intelligence quotient (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn & Morgan, 1987).
They are seen to be at a higher risk of becoming pregnant because they use their study
time by entertaining relationships mostly with older men, who have already pass school
time. (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). It was found that adolescents who become
sexually active had lower grades and low aspirations for achievement.
o Knowledge, Perception, and Attitude towards sexuality matters.
Lack of knowledge and misperceptions about sexuality matters, as well as attitudes and
beliefs held by teenagers has a significant part in shaping their sexual behaviour
(Hudson & Ineichen, 1991).
I. The use of contraceptives: poor usage of contraceptives among youth is a
serious issue even though there is accessibility of contraceptive in our health
 care centres. Teenagers choose not to make use of the contraceptives because
they are afraid that community will judge the of being sexual active and they opt
not to go to clinics, which result on them having unprotected sex and become
pregnant at an early age. Also, the misperception about having a change in the
body (e.g. not having firm body) if using contraceptives lead to teenagers not
wanting to make use of contraceptives.
II. Abortion : The harsh and judgmental attitudes of society, nurses in public health
centres, a lack of confidentiality, lack of knowledge concerning early signs of
pregnancy and fear of the abortion procedure and its consequences have also
been allude to as factors which discourage teenagers from seeking legal abortion
(Dickson-Tetteh et al., 2000).

Social level risk factors

▪ Socio-economic status: Studies conducted in South Africa have discovered that teenage
pregnancy is often linked with low socio-economic status (Osofsky, 1968; Dryfoos, 1990;
Russell, 1994; 1994; Lesch & Kruger, 2005). Poor communities are characterised by low
levels of education and lack of employment opportunities. Risk factors such as poverty,
single parent families, especially the female headed households, poorly educated
parents and the presence of a parenting teenage sibling or a relative have been
associated with teenage pregnancy, these families are caught in a cycle that continues
deprivation. Teenagers from single parent families and low-income groups are to suffer
from deprivations that may lead them to seek affection, security, provision and a sense
of significance elsewhere, and usually in order for them to get all that in return the have
to have sex with those who provide them with their “needs ”.
▪ Emotional Deprivation and Sexual Coercion: The emotional deprivation theory sees
early sexuality and parenthood as an attempt to satisfy unmet emotional needs (Coley &
Chase-Lansdale, 1998). It is argued that teenage mothers are usually victims of abuse in
their own families, which often starts before they even become pregnant. According to
Russell (1994) early pregnancy is often experienced as stopping from the parent-child
relationship, which is often perceived by the teenagers as stressful and strained.
These young mothers are emotionally needy at home, so they seek attachment,
bonding, and nurturance in extra familial relationships (Dryfoo,1990). Even though some
of these girls do not want to become pregnant but they find themselves victims of sexual
exploitation and pressured sex (Dickson, 2002). They are often exposed to trauma tic
experiences like rape. Transactional sex, in which the youth engage in sex in return for
money or favours, increases the risk of becoming pregnant in their youth age.

Health consequences

• Elevated risks of maternal death; the risk of death after pregnancy for teenagers is twice
than of those aged 20-24. Annually up to 70 000 15-19-year-old girls world-wide die due
to pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications
• Low birth weight is associated with negative outcomes later in life such as cognitive and
physical disabilities and lower educational attainment. Low birth weight is a significant
risk factor for infant mortality. In fact, low birth weight is the number two killer among
 South African children under five, second only to HIV and AIDS (Bradshaw, Bourne &
Nannan, 2003)
• High risk of infant mortality, Child mortality is a critical indicator of the health and state of
development of a population. HIV and AIDS is a critical determinant of increasing infant
and child mortality, but nevertheless early childbearing is an important contributor to both
infant and child mortality.
Social Consequences

• Stigma and discrimination; Teenagers who become pregnant are visible in the
community, in school and to families. this often incorrectly leading to the conclusion that
teen pregnancy is increasing. But increased visibility also means increased stigma.
Because of the relation of teen pregnancy, contraceptive use, HIV and STIs to sexuality,
it will forever remain bounded with morality and stigma
• Less likely to be married: Teenage pregnancy also affects the marriage prospects of
young women.
• Most likely to suffer abuse. Teenage pregnancy has also been associated with
domestic violence and family disruptions. Teenage mothers face a high frequency of
physical abuse.
Economic and educational consequences
education is essential to secure future employment. Teenage pregnancy can have a profound
impact on young mothers and their children by placing limits on their educational achievement
and economic stability and predisposing them to single parenthood and marital instability in the
future (Ashcraft and Lang, 2006; National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2002;
Olausson, Haglund, Weitloft & Cnattingius, 2001). ‘The price of adolescent pregnancy is lost
potential’ (UNFPA, 2007) because teenagers become mothers without the necessary
knowledge, skills, resources, and networks to cope with the demands of parenthood
Ultimately due to larger families and low education, the labour force earnings of mothers who
are teens or who had an early teenage pregnancy are not satisfactory. These young mothers
are barred by a lack of education and inexperience from earning a sound living. The disturbance
that pregnancy imposes on the educational and occupational outcomes of young mothers both
maintains and worsens poverty.
Nature and extent of teenage pregnancy on societal level.
In the past few decades South Africa has seen a decline in teenage fertility; and yet rates still
remain high with around 30% of 15-19 year olds reporting having ever been pregnant, with the
majority of these pregnancies being among 18 and 19 year old.
When exploring knowledge, access to, and use of, contraceptives we found that many
teenagers have a basic knowledge about contraceptives and protection from unplanned
pregnancies, STIs and HIV. However, many reports insufficient contraceptive knowledge and
not using contraceptives correctly and consistently, as well as limited reproductive knowledge
about fertility and conception and stigma about abortion.

fertility
 In the 1998 South African Demographic and Health Survey, it was found that the total fertility
rate has declined to an average of 2.9 children per woman (Dickson, 2002). A decline in fertility
rates has been associated with a high use of contraceptives among women and the legalisation
of abortion in 1996 (Swartz, 2002). Despite the decline in the total fertility rat e, adolescent
pregnancy has been found to be significantly high. The South African Demographic Health
Survey revealed that adolescent pregnancies accounted for a third of all births (Dickson, 2002)
The overall decline in fertility in South Africa has run a long course of almost 50 years but at
differential rates for the population groups. To date, South Africa has the lowest fertility rate in
mainland sub-Saharan Africa. While over time teenage fertility has been declining, this has been
at a slower pace than overall fertility. The slower decline in teenage fertility may be attributed to
interruptions in fertility associated with national epochs. For example, the interruption of
schooling during the struggle years was associated with a rise in teenage fertility. Similarly, the
spike in fertility in the mid-nineties is associated with political changes during that period when
there were concerns for the large cohort of young people who had become marginalized from
mainstream systems of education, work, healthcare and family life. However, it must be noted,
that teenage fertility has declined by 10% between 1996 (78 per 1000) and 2001 (65 per 1000).
A further decline in teenage fertility (54 per 1000) was reported in the 2007 Community Survey.
Analysis of the EMIS data on teenage pregnancy shows an increase in learner pregnancies
between 2004 and 2008. However, this trend is contrary to national trends in fertility and is more
likely the result of improved reporting, rather than a real increase in fertility. Analysis of
provincial trends shows a concentration of learner pregnancies in the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-
Natal and Limpopo. Despite the incompleteness of the EMIS data, it does provide some
indications of the types of schools in which learner pregnancies are concentrating. Learner
pregnancies are higher in schools that are poorly resourced i.e. lower in specialised schools,
those located in poor areas ,no fee schools and schools located on land independently owned,
as well as in schools that involve considerable age mixing combined schools.
Abortion
Despite the legalisation of abortion in SA in 1996 and the progressive increase of service
availability in public and private facilities over time, few teenagers report using legal services for
termination of pregnancy in both quantitative 3% and qualitative data. Administrative data from
the Department of Health, however, suggests much higher levels 30% of usage of legal services
by young women aged 15-19. These data sources need to be reconciled to establish a true
estimate of use of services. Failure to use legal services is related to the ensuing lack of
information about the costs of termination and the stage of gestation at which legal termination
can take place, as well as the stigma of pregnancy and abortion generated in the community
and replicated within the health system. Although abortion is recognised as morally and
religiously objectionable, young people apply a ‘relative morality’ to abortion to avoid both social
and financial hardships and to protect their educational opportunities. So, termination does take
place, although illegally.

Young fathers
 Despite the growing focus of research on fatherhood in SA, scant data is available, both locally
and internationally, on young fatherhood. Available international research suggests that the
profile of young fathers is no different from that of young women – they tend to come from low-
income homes, have poor school performance, low educational attainment and seldom have the
financial resources to support the child and the mother. Our secondary analysis shows that
premature exit from the schooling system almost doubles the odds of becoming a father early
on in SA.
In a context of pervasive unemployment, few young men can fulfil this role, often leading to
estrangement from the child. In addition, poor relations between the female partner and her
family, together with cultural factors related to negotiation of paternity and ongoing responsibility
for the child also serve as barriers to young men fulfilling their role as father.
Comprehensive approach at structural level involving the family, school, the community and the
health care setting.
Health care involvement
Despite significant advancements at policy and programmatic levels to improve the availability
and accessibility of health services to young people, usage is compromised by lack of
acceptability of services. Even with the roll out of the Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative in
South Africa, young people are still confronted with the negative and stigmatizing attitudes of
health staff. These young women would rather not use contraception, delay accessing antenatal
care when they are pregnant, or resort to illegal means for termination of pregnancy. Much more
careful effort is required to roll out teenage friendly services and to establish its key principles
among the custodians of healthcare. In addition, the full range of preventative services for
pregnancy should be made available and accessible to young people. Emergency
contraception, that is considered safe and effective, and that does not increase sexual activity
among young people, should be deregulated to increase availability and usage. Until the quality
of healthcare services can be improved for young people, consideration should be given to
making available health services outside of the health system. For example, mobile services are
proving to be an effective means to provide voluntary counselling and testing services to young
people, in particular, young men, who do not generally attend traditional health services.
Family involvement
Teen mothers can increase their flexibility through having the support of their parents, family as
well as maintaining social relations with their peers. Having those connections throughout your
pregnancy and after as well as having all of that support greatly influences the mothers attitude
and adaptation to her new role in life. family level interventions in South Africa have shown that
programmes can promote open communication between parents and children about sensitive
subjects and foster strong parent-child bonds, as well as teach parents how to set and enforce
rules. As a support to sex education in the school setting, consideration should be given to
wide-scale implementation of such programmes.

Community involvement
interventions will be introduced to prevent recurring downgrading from the school system,
associated efforts required within the community to support young people at high risk for
pregnancy. Although community participation among young people is very low in South Africa
and the reach of large-scale interventions in the community such as love Life is not best.
Expanding participation in community-based interventions represents a potential growth area in
responding to teenage sexual and reproductive health in South Africa, more demanding
evaluation studies will be required to demonstrate their ability. In addition, given that stigma
about teenage sexuality and imbalanced gender relations are often generated at community
level and pretend within homes and the health setting, instituting interventions to shift
community norms may be an effective method to open up channels of communication about
sex, to improve young people’s access to health services and to foster equitable gender
relations.
School involvement
comprehensive sex education in schools might lead to less teen pregnancy. School is where
young people spend so much time, it is therefore an appropriate to make use of schools as a
structural level involving fighting and prevent teenage pregnancy. At the same time, schools
have become battle grounds in many communities, the sites of intense struggles over many
issues, such as teacher competence, student scores and academic performance, safety,
vouchers, and sexuality education. There are ways in which schools can help, many of which
are not at all controversial and are directly consistent with their core mission of education.
Department has a policy in place which aims to set out its goals‚ guiding principles and policy
themes to stabilize and reduce the incidence of learner pregnancy and its adverse effects on the
education system. the policy seeks to ensure that information is easily accessible to pupils on
how to prevent pregnancy‚ choice of termination of pregnancy as well as care‚ counselling and
support.
It also commits the basic education system and other role players to providing Comprehensive
Sexuality Education (CSE). This programme‚ according to the department‚ provides "an age-
appropriate‚ culturally relevant and right-based approach to sexuality and relationships‚ which
explicitly addresses issues of gender and power‚ and provides scientifically accurate‚ practical
information in a non-judgmental way”. The government tries to ensure pregnant learners can
complete their schooling‚ which requires schools to accommodate the reasonable needs of the
learner.
Conclusions
It is evident that girls who become pregnant as a teenager are more likely to face medical risks,
for their babies. Teenage mothers can suffer from poorer life results because of insufficient
financial provision for them and their babies, due to not having jobs where they could earn an
income.
If the teenager can use all the provision to prevent teenage pregnancy, having their role model
people that they look up to because they usually find it difficult to talk to their parents about
sexual matters. Also, the parent to make time for their teen girls and become friends with them
and love them despite all challenges they face as parents more especially single mothers. This
will help teens not to go somewhere else to look for love and affection like in having
transactional relationship with older man, wrong peers and feel pressurized to having intimate
relationship.
Use of contraceptives, if it happens that teen become pregnant have a choice to abort the child
with out being judged or stigmatized by community. South Africa to train nurses that are well
equipped to deal with teenage matter and treating everyone with respect and confidentiality in
their issues of health.
Schools involvement in comprehensive sex education will also be essential to prevent teens
from becoming sexually active at an early age which will result in unprotected sex due to lack of
knowledge which will lead to early pregnancy.

References
❖ Dr Saadhna Panday, Dr Monde Makiwane, Chitra Ranchod and Thabo Letsoalo Child
Youth Family and Social Development Human Sciences Research Council South Africa
COMMISSIONED BY UNICEF ON BEHALF OF National Department of Education July
2009
❖ Chillman, S. (1986). ‘Some Psychosocial Aspects of Adolescent Sexual and
Contraceptive Behaviors in a Changing American Society’. In J.B. Lancaster and B.A.
Hamburg (eds), School-Age Pregnancy and Parenthood.
❖ National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (2013). Fast facts: Teen pregnancy and
childbearing among non-hispanic black teens.
http://thenationalcampaign.org/resource/fast-facts-teen-pregnancy-and-
childbearingamong-non-hispanic-black-teens. Retrieved on March 14, 2014.
❖ Teenage Childbearing and Educational Attainment in South Africa Author(s): Ian M.
Timæus and Tom A. Moultrie Source: Studies in Family Planning, Vol. 46, No. 2 (JUNE
2015), pp. 143-160 Published by: Population Council.
❖ Ashcraft, A. & Lang, K. (2006). The Consequences of Teenage Childbearing. (NBER
Working Paper No. W12485). Cambridge, MA: NBER. Retrieved 15 April, 2009, from
http://ssrn.com/abstract=926063
 RESULTS
Total = 85 / 100 (85%)
 COMMENTS
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