The hundreds of early childbearing and disadvantaged teens are undeniable. Trying to untangle the factors which contributes to teen pregnancy from its effects, however, leads to a ”which came first, the chick or the egg” delema. Educational failure, poverty, low self-esteem, illiteracy, sexual abuse, cultural practices,etc, are understood to be part of the causes of teen pregnancy; while unemployment, educational failure, poverty, etc, are the negative outcomes of early childbearing. A study research suggests that most adolescent mothers have already dropped out of school before they become pregnant. On the other hand, adolescents still enrolled in school when they give birth are as likely to graduate as their peers. It is not clear though, how well the adolescents with the most problems would have faced in future even without early parenthood.
CAUSES
1. LACK OF PARENT GUIDE: Most parents evade their children from talking about sex. In some cases, they provide false information regarding sex and discourage their kids to participate in any informative discussion about sex. Many of the teenage mothers are not well educated about sex before getting pregnant and thus this leads to lack of communication between the parents and the children.
2. ADOLESCENT SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR: Among the adolescents, the peerpresure is a major factor that encourages the teen boys and gilrs to indulge in sexual activities. Peers gets information about sex from a very wide range of sources-internet, medea,etc; and most of these information are misleading. Without the guidance of their parents, they will easily spread these false massages across with encouragement to engage in premature sex.
3.INADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SAFE SEX: In as much as some parents try to prevent their children from engaging in premature sexual relationship, it still happens due to peer pressure and wanting to feel among. Not having any knowledge about safe sex and contraceptions, also contributes to teenage pregnancy. Parents while teaching their chidren sex education, should also talk to them about safe sex and the use of contraceptives just in case of nesseccities.
4.EXPLOITATION BY OLDER MEN: This is another major factor that contributes to pregnancy among teens. Girls who date older men are more likely to become pregnant before they reach womanhood.
5.SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTOR: Teen girls who belong to poor families are more likeliy to become pregnant. Even in most deveploed countries of the world, teen pregnancy occurs most commonly among the deprived sections.
EFFECTS/CONSEQUENCIES
Teenage pregnancy is a very vital issue for several reasons; for example, there are health ricks for the new born, and children born to teen mothers are likely to suffer health, social and emotional problems than children born to older mothers. Teenage mothers are likely to drop out of school. Only few tends to futher their education, the rest would prefer to start up a pety-buiseness in other to raise money for their up keep especially when the father denies responsibilities.
There are other negative implications for women who conceive before the age of 20. Some die while giving birth, some even commit suicide due to not being able to stand the shame and the consequences involed. Marriage is also a problem as most responsible men wouldn’t want to marry a woman with kids already. Some lack parental care, while some give in to abortion.
Children who are bron to teen mothers also experience a wide range of problmes for example, they are more likely to have a higher rick for low birth weight and infant mortality, lower level of emotional support, behavioural problems, rely more heavily on publicly fund health care, lower school aechievement, possibly drop out of school due to lack of fund, be unemployed, and end up on the streets.
These immediate and long lasting effects continue for teen parents and their children for a longer period.
There are many other causes and effects of teen pregnancy, but the fact however, remains that most of the teen pregnancies are unintentional. Additionally, most of them occur to unwell-informed teen girls. This means that even though most of them don’t want to get pregnant at an early stage, they still become so as a result of sexual activity. While actual force to have sex is rare, many teen girls-especially those under age 15- feel pressured to have sex; and obviously, the more intercourse a teen has, the more likely it is to result in pregnancy.
We can’t afford to continue tosing our promising young girls to avoidable death from pregnancy complications. Therefore, is it high time we addressed teen pregnancy, especially with the disturbing increase of teens in sexual activities. There are still some places here in Nigeria where girls are regarded as commodity.
TOGETHER, WE CAN BUILD A NATION FREE OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY.
SAY NO TO ABUSE OF SEX.
SAY NO TO ABUSE OF THE GIRL-CHILD.
LOVE LIFE. SAVE A SOUL.
YOUTH 4 LIFE 