Teenage pregnancy is seen, on the whole, by researchers and service providers as a social problem. Various theoretical approaches have been utilised in the attempt to explain teenage pregnancy, and to find 'solutions' to the problem. What is common to these approaches is the assumption of the reality of teenage pregnancy, and the legitimation of the intervention of the expert. This thesis is concerned with these fundamental premises of the scientific literature and professional practice with regard to young women, their sexuality and reproductive behaviour. A feminist post-structuralist approach, which draws on the insights of Derrida concerning the absent trace and Foucault's analytics of power and governmentality, is taken. The tensions and commonalities between feminism and a Foucauldian approach are explored, and a radically plural post-structural feminism is explicated. The data used in this study consisted of South African scientific literature on teenage pregnancy (the technologies of representation), and transcriptions of interviews with service providers at a regional hospital (the technologies of intervention). The bulk ofthe thesis is taken up with analysis of the first of these. The aims of these chapters are to analyse how: (1) a range oftaken-for-granted assumptions or absent traces regarding, inter alia, the nature of adolescence, adolescent sexuality, mothering, and family formation and function underlie the scientific statements regarding the causes and consequences of teenage pregnancy; (2) the governmental tactics of medicalisation, psychologisation and pedagogisation are invoked in the literature with regard to teenage pregnancy; and (3) broader governmental tactics (the familialisation of alliance, the conjugalisation of reproduction, racialisation, the economisation of activity) are deployed in the literature to achieve particular gendering, racialising and class-based effects. The section on the technologies of intervention analyses how the governmental tactics described above are installed in the everyday lives of teenagers and their families through the deployment of the mechanisms of security at the interface between the service provider and the teenager or her parents. Finally, the undermining of the assumption of the reality of teenage pregnancy, the link between expertise and government, and the efficacy of the feminist post-structural approach are reviewed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Adolescent pregnancy is a concern worldwide and has risen at an alarming rate in South African societies. Many teenage pregnancies end up being aborted. Despite the availability of contraceptives free of charge in public institutions, unintended pregnancies among adolescents still persist. These unintended pregnancies result in a high rate of induced abortion, both safe and unsafe. The study was conducted to explore and describe the perceptions of adolescents regarding induced abortion in two public hospitals in East London, South Africa. This was a qualitative, phenomenological research study to explore the perceptions of adolescents regarding the induced abortion. Participants were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data were collected by means of individual interviews using interview guide in order to allow the participants to express their perceptions freely because of the sensitivity of the issue. Data were collected until saturation was reached. Saturation was reached after 24 participants were interviewed by the researcher. Data analysis used Tech’s (1990) steps as outlined by Creswell (2014:198). Themes, categories, and subcategories were identified following the data analysis. All adolescents admitted having consensual unprotected sex. Engagement in early sexual behaviour by the adolescents was evident as their sexual debut was between the ages of fifteen and sixteen years. Adolescents emphasised that they had abortions because they had no choice. Adolescents cited poor-socio economic status as their main reason for having abortions. Some findings were that adolescent men were against abortion and they had to be persuaded by their female counter parts. A recurrent factor in the results was the infrequent use of contraceptives, including condoms by the adolescents. This indicated that adolescents practised unsafe sex, with little or no regard for sexual transmitted diseases including Human Immune Deficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV and AIDS). The results also indicated poor treatment by the nursing staff at the family planning clinics. This poor treatment resulted in adolescents not attending family planning clinics. This led to adolescents using abortion as the only method of contraception. Shortage of staff was a contributing factor to the poor treatment of adolescents in the family planning clinics. Adolescents cited that contraception at the clinics is not prioritised. The participants suggested that they should be reminded when to come to the clinic for family planning. Perceptions of reasons for adolescents choosing induced abortion ranges from psychosocial to socio-economic reasons. The knowledge of participants of what was happening to them and what they were doing seemed adequate. The perceptions of the adolescents regarding induced abortion were that abortion is wrong, against their morals as they are Christians; they use abortion because they have no choice due to their poor socio-economic status. The strategies to reduce the unintended pregnancy through the proper management of the contraception programmes, including the change in negative attitudes of health care providers in the family planning clinics could yield positive results.

The phenomenon of teenage pregnancy among school-going youth is on the increase in South Africa, despite the existence of a number of intervention programmes. Although both curricular and co-curricular awareness programmes targeting this phenomenon are currently employed within South African schools, these programmes have patently not met with much success, since the problem remains acute. It was the question why these programmes are not succeeding in alleviating the problem that prompted my interest in undertaking this study. Based on literature that suggests that those programmes that are successful in reaching the youth are designed through participatory processes, rather than being designed by outside experts, my thesis proposes that prevention programmes that are designed and implemented by the youth for the youth may be more successful in helping them to make healthy decisions in terms of their sexual behaviour. This study attempted to engage youth in a participatory way in identifying and exploring their perceptions of teenage pregnancy and using the knowledge thus gained to design, implement and evaluate prevention strategies in their school. The study is informed by social learning theory and adopted a participatory action research (PAR) design, which is located in a critical paradigm. I purposefully recruited twenty-four youths (14 females and 10 males) to participate. The primary research question that guided this study was: “How can peer educators be engaged to create prevention strategies to reduce teenage pregnancy and its impacts?” The following sub-questions were identified from the primary research question: What do learners themselves know feel and experience with regard to the causes and effects of teenage pregnancy How might a participatory methodology help learners to create relevant and contextualised strategies for addressing teenage pregnancy? How can such strategies be implemented in a school system? What recommendations could be made for addressing teenage pregnancy in a contextualised way? The research was conducted in two cycles. In Cycle One, data was generated through two focus group discussions, led by a young researcher from the community to encourage openness and honesty. In addition through snowball sampling, six teenage mothers and two teenage fathers agreed to be interviewed individually. The same questions were asked in the two discussions and the individual interviews, namely: “What do you know, feel and think about teenage pregnancy?” In the first cycle, I responded to my first sub-research question. Interviews, drawings and focus group discussions were used to generate data. Three themes emerged from the data to provide insight into how the youth at the school perceived the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy. The findings from this cycle revealed certain tensions between what youth said they needed and what adults, such as teachers and parents, thought they needed to know. The participating teenagers regarded themselves as sexual beings, while the adults in their sphere of influence preached abstinence, moralised or merely cited the facts, without entering into any discussion of how young people could deal with social pressures and better protect themselves against unplanned pregnancy. The participating youth were clearly aware of how to prevent pregnancy, but the social barriers to using condoms or contraceptive pills were a stumbling block. They possessed knowledge of the potential consequences of risky behaviour, but this did not stop them from engaging in such behaviour. In the second cycle of the research, the participants used the findings of the first cycle to develop prevention messages and strategies to convey these messages to their peers. They used participatory visual methods to accomplish this. The findings from this cycle revealed that a peer education approach helped participants to increase maturity in sexual decision-making, had a positive effect on the learning and acquisition of new skills, and improved critical thinking relating to sexuality. The study also had a positive impact on other learners’ knowledge and the attitudes displayed by both learners and teachers, and also led to improvements in school policies related to sexuality education. It is contended that the study contributed important theoretical and methodological insights. Knowledge generated from the study could make a contribution to the field of sexuality education and how it should be approached in schools, particularly in communities facing social and economic adversity. The methodological contribution of this study provided guidelines and theory on how participatory action research and participatory methods can be implemented in schools to enable youth to influence change in their schools, not only regarding teenage pregnancy, but also other social issues.

M.Cur. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Teenage pregnancy is an international phenomenon with girls falling pregnant from as early as 14 years of age. In South Africa teenage pregnancies are also on the increase (Kaiser, 2000:18; Statistica SA, 2006:5;). Teenage pregnancy may have negative effects for the teenager in that it can force the teenager to drop out of school prematurely as well as shortening her educational career which might limit future career possibilities. It also predisposes both the mother and the child to health risks. Finally, teenage pregnancy also leads to family destabilisation. Within the Xhosa communities family destabilisation becomes even more severe as it is culturally and traditionally related. Traditionally, teenage pregnancy in the Xhosa communities is stigmatized. The family suffers from embarrassment and disappointment and the effects of these experiences can manifest in outrage on the part of the parents towards the pregnant teenager resulting in non-communication with her and ultimately rejection (Boult & Cunningham, 1991:36). This results in no or minimal support from the family (Nxumalo, 1997:16). The research design and method to achieve the objective of the study was a theory-generative design based on a qualitative, phenomenological, explorative, descriptive and contextual research approach utilizing the four steps of theory generation. During the step of concept analysis, which is the first step of the process of theory generation, data was collected by means of individual interviews with the pregnant Xhosa teenagers, parents and grandparents. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The sample for the study was selected purposively to ensure indepth information.

Adissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fufillment or partial fufilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Education (Research Methodology) in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2006. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of educators' attitudes towards teenage pregnancy in Secondary Schools of the Lower Tugela Circuit of KwaZuIu-Natal. Subjects were educators (N=97) from twenty secondary schools. These educators were of different ages; races: religious affiliation, educational levels teaching experience and gender. The study, further, investigated the relationship (if any) that exist between their attitudes towards teenage pregnancy and various educators' characteristics such as age, gender, race, religious affiliation, educational level and their teaching experience. The study was conducted in response to the KZN Circular Number 116 of 2000 which seem to give more rights to pregnant learners . The findings indicated that educators have positive attitudes and are sympathetic towards pregnant teenagers, but displayed reservations about the level of skills they have with regard to helping teenagers in the times of emergency (like delivery) in the classroom. The study formulated some recommendations that the researcher hope (believe) will strengthen the relationship between educators and pregnant teenagers in schools.

The purpose of this study was to explore the life experiences of multiparous teenage mothers at selected communities in the Eastern Cape Province. The population for this study was pregnant teenage mothers aged 12-18 years having at least one previous pregnancy, living in the catchment areas of the provincial hospital of Bizana in the Alfred Nzo District of the Eastern Cape Province. Data were collected through 12 semi-structured individual interviews using a selfdeveloped interview schedule. The transcribed interviews were analysed by means of thematic analysis, using the five stages according to Terre Blanche, et al. (2006), namely familiarisation, inducing themes, coding, elaboration, and checking. Subcategories were grouped into 12 categories and five main themes. Findings on the life experiences of the multiparous teenage mothers are described according to the main themes, namely the everyday life of the teenage mothers, cultural practices leading to pregnancies, factors contributing to pregnancies, challenges experienced by teenage mothers, and messages from the teenage mothers. Recommendations focus on the role of social services to engage the multidisciplinary team and the community to assist in the empowerment of young mothers to break the cycle of multiparous teenage pregnancies and the negative impact thereof on the lives of young mothers. / Health Studies / M. P. H.

This study was undertaken in order to determine how black teenage primigravidae in the Umlazi area of KwaZulu perceived their pregnancies. This was an exploratory study. An interview schedule was used to elicit information from the primigravida teenagers concerned. One hundred and sixteen primigravida teenagers were interviewed. The sampling frame stretched over 6 antenatal clinics at Umlazi. This study revealed that most primigravida teenagers stand in need of consideration from health professionals of the comprehensive health services. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

This research report is submitted to the School of Social Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of Demography and Population Studies for the year 2016, September 2017 / Background: South Africa has some of the most progressive legislation when it comes to sexual and reproductive health rights. However, contraceptive use amongst this segment of the population group remains distorted. From a public health perspective, investing in the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people translates into an improvement in the sexual health status of the population at large. As such this paper makes use of the Health Belief Model to investigate the factors associated with the choice of type of contraceptive methods used by sexually active young women to prevent a pregnancy. Methodology: Data for this study was obtained from Wave 2 of the Transitions to Adulthood survey. The weighted sample size is 464. Analysis on the weighted data was conducted in STATA 13.1 in survey mode in order to achieve the objectives of this study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data at the univariate level. The Chi-squared test was conducted to examine the relationship between the variables under investigation and the outcome, contraceptive use. The multinomial logistic regression model was used to analyse the data at the multivariate level. The results of which were provided in terms of relative risk ratios. Findings: Approximately 41% of sexually active young women in KwaZulu Natal did not use contraception to prevent a pregnancy with their most recent sexual partner. Results from the multinomial logistic regression model revealed that sexually active young women who were single were 77% less likely to make use of hormonal and other contraceptive methods to prevent a pregnancy compared to their who were counterparts in a relationship (p-value= 0.00001). Young women who have been pregnant at least once were approximately 60% less likely to utilise hormonal and other contraceptive methods to prevent a pregnancy with their most recent sexual partner. Conclusion: By using the Health Belief Model as a theoretical basis this study highlighted the complex non-linear relationships between the variables selected to constitute the health beliefs as well as the health-related behaviour of contraceptive use. The findings of this study demonstrate two key realities related to contraceptive use of sexually active young women in KwaZulu Natal. Firstly, relatively low rates of contraceptive uptake. Secondly, amongst sexually active young women who utilised contraception, there are even lower usage rates of long-acting reversible contraceptive methods. As such, it is important for healthcare facilities in KwaZulu Natal and South Africa at large to support young women in their decision to protect themselves from unintended pregnancies and from infections of HIV and others STIs. / XL2018

The issue of adolescent health has steadily grown momentum with people realizing the vulnerability ofthis sector ofthe world's population. Within the South African context, the tide had also turned. However, most initiatives aimed at the prevention of problems, one of which was adolescent pregnancy. Extant literature revealed that despite efforts to reduce adolescent pregnancy, adolescent fertility rate in SubSaharan Africa remained on the rise. As such, the need for appropriate maternity services for this group became a concern, as extant literature also revealed the costly long term effects to pregnant and parenting adolescents, as well as society as a whole. Within KwaZulu-Natal pregnant and parenting adolescents use the same maternity services as their adult counterparts. It was not clear if these services were appropriate to the needs of these clients. As such, a Glaser Grounded Theory approach was used to explore the maternity services from the points of view of the various stakeholder groups. Data was collected, using theoretical sampling, by means of semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. Constructs of adolescent-friendly maternity care were identified from the findings. The components of the constructs included aspects of (1) Structures and Resources, (2) Attitudes to AMCs, and (3) Services. The resources or structures that either need to exist and/or be improved included policies, the quality and quantity of HCps, formalized support for AMCs, a sensitized administration, community involvement and the educational preparation of HCps. The attitudes that service providers were expected to demonstrate in their interaction with AMCs included those of equality, empathy and respect. They were also expected to show understanding towards AMCs and provide them with reassurance and support. The third component identified specific services to be provided to AMCs during the antenatal, labour and delivery, and postnatal period. These constructs can be used by health care planners and providers to strengthen and improve service provision to and utilization by pregnant and parenting adolescents and form the foundation on which a theory of adolescent-friendly maternity care can be based. Recommendations were made with regards to future service and research endeavours. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.