Teenage pregnancy is an important health and social problem in South Africa. Despite declining trends of fertility rates in last two decades, the pregnancy among school girls remains steadily high in South Africa. Teenage pregnancy had negative impacts on various aspects of socio-economic well being of school girls. Aim: To determine the proportion of teenage pregnancy among high school girls and to identify the possible factors that influence teenage pregnancy in Mthatha region during the year 2009. Materials & Methods: This is an observational cross sectional, analytic study of teenage pregnancy conducted among high school teenage girls in the Mthatha region of South Africa. Result: A total of 1150 teenage girls from 15 to 19 years of ages responded from seven high schools in the Mthatha region of South Africa. In total 113 (10%) of teenage high school girls were currently mothers or had previously been pregnant. The proportions of those who had ever been pregnant increased significantly with age. The risk of falling pregnant among public high school teenage girls had two times higher compared to private high school teenage girls. Condoms were the most common method of contraception whereas the oral pills were the least common in practice. About half of teenage girls who had ever been pregnant had an abortion and of this one-third had had a backstreet/illegal abortion. The frequency of substance use was significantly higher among teenage girls who had ever been pregnant. A significant correlation was found between low socio-economic status, public schools and teenage pregnancy in this study. Conclusion: Teenage pregnancy is common among high school girls from 15 to 19 years of age in the Mthatha Region, South Africa. Poor socio-economic family conditions, lack of contraceptive use, early sexual maturation, risky behaviour, lack of knowledge about sexuality and reproductive health, multiple sexual partners and substance use were the common contributing factors of teenage pregnancy.

With increasing teenage pregnancy rates among Blacks in the United States and the negative impact on families, it is important that practitioners and communities acknowledge the changes in society. According to the research, the influence of the media, entertainment industry and technology weigh heavily on the behavior and interactions of teens. Building on Erikson’s Theory of Identity Development, sexual scripts which are drawn from hip-hop culture are utilized as points of entrance and tools for reeducating Black adolescents and preventing teenage pregnancy. Finally, intervention and prevention strategies that educate teenage girls around sexual scripts and utilize personal narratives are essential to reducing teen pregnancy are presented. / text

During the six month period June to December 1990, 300 Indian teenagers attending the urban general practice of the researcher were interviewed. Data pertaining to age, sex, knowledge and utilization of contraceptives were recorded. The results showed that the majority of teenagers (57%) had a good knowledge of contraceptives. Utilization, however remained low. Most (56%) knew where their local Family Planning Clinic was, but only a small percentage (15%) attended. Recommendations directed towards implementing increased utilization of various contraceptive methods and decreasing teenage pregnancies are submitted. / Thesis (M.Med.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

Mississippi is among the states with the highest teenage pregnancy rates, and the study site is among the high schools with the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the state. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify successful practices and areas for improvement in the implementation of a teenage pregnancy prevention program (TPPP) at the study site based on the perspectives of school administrators and staff members. Bandura's social cognitive theory provided a conceptual framework for considering behaviors and the social contexts in which they occur. Twelve participants were interviewed, including 3 administrators and 9 staff members. Data were analyzed using open coding to identify themes. Findings indicated that, according to the perspectives of the 12 participants, the evidence-based TPPP positively influenced the students by providing a structured curriculum for classroom teaching; promoting small-group discussions; and implementing an abstinence approach to prevent teenage pregnancy, HIV, and STDs. Strengths identified included the use of various instructional techniques and a general support for communication. Areas for improvement included scheduling, school staff and parent buy-in, and knowledge about specific problems related to risk-taking behaviors. Social change implications of this study include increased awareness among adult stakeholders of practices that support successful implementation of a TPPP and enhanced ability to make positive decisions about sexual behaviors among students. School officials could apply the findings to strengthening the effectiveness of the school's TPPP. Students may benefit from improved TPPP instruction by being better prepared to prevent teenage pregnancy, HIV, and STDs.

This research was one of the first longitudinal studies to determine the effectiveness of a computerized infant simulator as a deterrent to adolescent pregnancy. All of the female eighth-grade students (221) in 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 from a suburban North Texas middle school were part of this study. They were tracked from the eighth grade through high school graduation to determine whether and when pregnancies occurred. The Kaplan-Meier procedure for survival analysis was used to determine test statistics. Survival functions and hazard functions were created for each independent variable--parenting the infant simulator, ethnic and racial, involvement in co-curricular activities, and crime. Results showed the computerized infant simulator to be highly effective in postponing the on-set of pregnancies for those students who participated in the parenting simulation. Hazards peaked at 3 years, 2 months for the experimental group and at 2 years, 21/2 months for the control group. Summertime and holiday seasons marked times of the year when the majority of pregnancies occurred. Caucasians peaked before the Other ethnic group. No significant differences were detected in regard to involvement in co-curricular activities, and no involvement in crime was self-reported. The model was developed to use as a guideline for implementing a pregnancy prevention unit in schools. This model could be used by Family and Consumer Sciences classes, teen pregnancy prevention programs, childbirth preparation classes, at-risk student programs, substance abuse intervention programs, and religious education classes.

The study aimed to explore indigenous methods used to prevent teenage pregnancy from the perspective of traditional healers and traditional leaders. Furthermore, it aimed to explore with traditional healers and traditional leaders whether these methods have relevance today as form part of teenage pregnancy intervention. The data were collected through conducting semistructured interviews with ten traditional healers and five traditional leaders from the rural area of Umhlathuzane, Eshowe. The interviews were guided by an interview schedule which allowed the researcher to keep in touch with the purpose of the study while having face to face conversation with participants. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. The findings of the study revealed that traditional healers and traditional leaders are concerned by high rate of teenage pregnancy within the community. They felt strongly that ignoring indigenous cultural practices due to modernity has led to major non-resolvable social issues such as teenage pregnancy, spread of HIV/AIDS related diseases, poverty, drugs and alcohol misuse. The study findings also revealed that there is a high demand for re-instituting elders' and family roles in addressing the erosion of cultural practices and traditional methods. Traditional practices such as virginity testing, ukusoma (non-penetrative thigh sex), ukushikila (physical maturity examination) as well as traditional ceremonies were identified as indigenous methods previously used to groom girls and to prevent teenage pregnancy. Furthermore, traditional healers and traditional leader were totally against contemporary teenage pregnancy interventions and policies around this issue, and have mixed views towards the idea of combining modern and traditional methods for teenage pregnancy prevention. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made regard to collaboration between South African government and indigenous experts so that to deal effectively with teenage pregnancy. Recommendations for further research were also made. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

M.A. (Psychology) / Teenage pregnancies should be understood in terms of a changing of sexual behaviour, slowly evolving over many centuries. In contrast to our modern world, New England puritans in the seventeenth century demanded that the entire community conform to the exemplary moral codes drawn up by the first settlers. Civil magistrates or ministers were responsible for quickly and publicly chastised sexual offenders. One of the sources estimate that in the late 1670's well over one half of the guilty couples involved in premarital pregnancies found themselves convicted and punished. In England the loosening of the popular convention about sexual behaviour was followed by the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 as secularism replaced Puritanism. Observers noted steady but noticeable erosion of church and civil opposition to premarital sexual activity. In Essex County, the number of civil prosecutions dropped and the penalty ranged from corporal punishment to paying a fine. In Middlesex county, Massachusetts, signs of moral irresponsibility in fornication cases increased, starting in the 1660's (Vinovskis, 1988). When prominent church leaders such as Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century tried to punish the lax moral standards of their parishioners, they found they could no longer count on the support of their congregations and the rest of the community. Simultaneously with the unwillingness of the civil or church authorities to punish cases of pregnancies, parents gradually lost their ability to persuade their children to marry according to their parent's wishes. In the absence of concerted communal or familial efforts to curb the problem of teenage pregnancy, a general loosening of sexual behaviour occurred among early Americans. Sexual intimacy returned as a normal part of courtship behaviour and practices such as bundling became more common. The promise to marry rather than the marriage itself often led to sexual intercourse amongst couples. As long as the community was not burdened with the financial burden of illegitimate children, citizens tolerated premarital pregnancies. The result was not a breakdown of social mores in the early Republic but a shift in the definition of appropriate behaviour between individuals in love. Shorter (in Vinovskis, 1988) concludes that central in the history of courtship over the past two centuries had been the enormous increase in sexual activity before marriage. Before 1800 it was unlikely that the typical young woman, would have coitus with her partner and certainly not before an engagement had been sealed, and probably not as a fiancee either. After 1800 however the percentage of young women who slept with their boyfriends or fiancees rose steadily. Today it is a common phenomenon.

This study was an examination of an intervention called the baby think it over doll in a small sample of teenagers. The study attempted to ascertain the impact of the doll on attitudes and beliefs surrounding early parenthood and a teen's future hopes.

Every year, approximately 21 million girls aged 15 to 19 living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) become pregnant and over 12 million of these girls give birth. Complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15 to 19 in LMICs and adolescent mothers face an elevated risk of life-long morbidities due to pregnancy and childbirth. The risk of early childbearing and its associated consequences vary significantly depending on age, socioeconomic status, and place of residence. Adolescents affected by conflict or natural disasters are often recognized as one of the most vulnerable groups in this regard; among the countries with the highest adolescent birth rates globally, most are affected by conflict or fragility. This dissertation aimed to fill a critical gap in the literature on adolescent pregnancy in humanitarian settings. The three studies in this dissertation utilize qualitative and quantitative research to better understand the myriad drivers of adolescent pregnancy and, in the context of protracted conflict in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), how exposure to armed conflict may or may not modify certain risk and protective factors. The findings of this dissertation confirm that risk and protective factors for adolescent pregnancy are numerous, interrelated, and complex; preventing early and unintended pregnancy requires multi-level interventions that build the protective assets of adolescents while also engaging with male partners, parents and caregivers, and community members. The research deepens this understanding by demonstrating the extent to which long-standing and deeply rooted sociocultural norms influence adolescents’ individual and inter-personal behaviors in diverse contexts, including settings affected by armed conflict. Thus, instead of considering how standalone risk and protective factors for adolescents differ depending on the context, the research highlights the importance of understanding linkages between environmental, inter-personal, and individual factors and the pathways through which these linkages influence reproductive health decision-making among adolescents. This dissertation also provides new evidence as to how the presence of armed conflict does not uniformly influence risk and protective factors for adolescent pregnancy. Instead, it finds that, in the case of DRC, underlying social norms and differences in social, demographic, and economic characteristics outweigh the effect of armed conflict on incidence of adolescent pregnancy. This finding does not mean that armed conflict does not have any impact on adolescent pregnancy; rather, it confirms the need for continued research in different humanitarian contexts and informs how to apply best practices from development settings to improve sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes among adolescents affected by humanitarian crises. Meeting the SRH needs of adolescents requires going beyond service provision and understanding the numerous, interrelated risk and protective factors that exist at the individual, inter-personal, and community levels. Situations of conflict and displacement may present additional complexities for understanding and meeting the SRH needs of adolescents. However, this dissertation shows the feasibility of conducting research and utilizing existing data to understand some of the root causes of adolescent pregnancy in a conflict-affected setting. Moreover, the studies highlight how more robust evidence can challenge some of our longstanding assumptions about adolescents affected by humanitarian crises. Continued rigorous research and taking the time to listen to adolescents and their communities can lead to more responsive adolescent SRH programs and services that contribute to adolescents’ healthy transitions to adulthood.

The United States teen birth rate has been declining since 1991, but the teen pregnancy rate remains one of the highest in the developed world outside the former Soviet Bloc. There is no current national strategy to implement comprehensive sexuality education in schools, and states have varying sex education and abortion policies. There are various effective programs designed to prevent teen pregnancies that share common characteristics of effective programs. Given the widespread reach and number of users, YouTube has the potential to be an education resource for teen pregnancy prevention. At the time of this study, there were no studies describing the content of videos that relate to teen pregnancy. This study is intended to fill this gap in the literature. YouTube was searched with the key words “teen pregnancy,” and the results were sorted by view count. The most widely viewed 100 videos meeting inclusion criteria were included in the study. The most widely viewed videos received 434,423,558 cumulative views. These videos were coded for their source, format, and the inclusion of content variables. The content variables were also organized to fit Kirby’s model of characteristics of effective programs. The majority of videos were sources and formats that depicted teens’ experience with pregnancy, including documentaries, reality TV programs, talk shows, and vlogs uploaded by consumers. Notably, there were no videos uploaded by professionals. The content most covered in the videos were the pregnancy outcome, how the teen mother found out she was pregnant, the teen mother’s reaction to the pregnancy, and the involvement of various family members. YouTube is an opportunity to reach a larger number of viewers, but the teen pregnancy videos in the study are missing key elements of teen pregnancy that are present in the literature, like the relationship between poverty and teen pregnancy, teen abortion rates, and repeat pregnancies. The videos were also lacking in elements of Kirby’s characteristics of effective programs. Recommendations for health education practice include the need for professionals to utilize the true stories of teen pregnancies and popular influencers to create engaging, accurate content.