Pregnancy in unmarried teenaged girls in America today is a growing concern to health care workers, educators, government officials and parents. Pregnancy during adolescence is not an issue because births to teenagers are increasing but because teenage pregnancy is no longer a societal option. This paper describes adolescent pregnancy from within the context of the subculture of adolescence and from the perspective of 16 pregnant, teenaged girls. The findings revealed a description of the life experiences of pregnant teenagers and introduced health-care issues that were not previously disclosed in other research studies of pregnant teens. The anthropological concepts of liminality, the double-bind, social labeling, and schizmogenesis served to guide the research. The concepts also helped to explain many behaviors and observations that were made of the informants throughout the research. An ethnographic approach using participant observation and ethnographic interviews was used to collect data from 16 pregnant, unmarried, teenaged girls in a large Southwestern, urban area. The informants ranged in age from 14 through 19 years and represented various backgrounds. Nine informants resided in a home for unwed, pregnant teenagers with the remainder residing in diverse locations. Data analyses occurred concurrently with data collection as part of an ongoing process. Data were ordered and transcribed within a framework designed to enhance thematic analysis. Transcribed interview and observational data were transferred onto the Ethnograph, a data-management software program. Data were coded using substantive and conceptual codes. Codes were linked according to patterns of association and frequency of occurrence which in turn led to the revealing of recurrent thematic patterns. In all, eight themes were revealed: (1) pregnancy is bad; (2) loneliness; (3) waiting it out; (4) dependency; (5) looking bad; (6) giving up baby; (7) losing what was; and (8) losing control. Thematic content also disclosed many inconsistencies and double-binds between the larger Western macroculture and adolescent subculture. Ethnographic themes and expressions of these themes provided new information for constructing health-related interventions with pregnant teens.

Thesis (M.A.) (Psychology) ---University of Limpopo, 2010 / The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of teenage pregnancy on pregnant teenagers. Specifically, the study sought to determine whether or not pregnant teenagers experience psychological distress during pregnancy, and to explore the nature of such distress. Fifty two (52) pregnant teenagers were conveniently sampled to participate in the study. Their ages ranged from 15 to 20 years, with the gestation period ranging from 4 to 9 months. The sample included pregnant teenagers from high schools and tertiary institutions in the Capricorn District (Limpopo Province). Data was collected using triangulation of methods, namely quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative data, a 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) which measures such factors as somatic complaints, anxiety and insomnia, social isolation, and depression was used. For qualitative data, three focus group interviews were conducted with the participants. The results suggested indications of psychological distress during the gestation period. These included experiences of symptoms associated with somatic complaints, anxiety and insomnia, social isolation and severe depression. Furthermore, the study showed themes of distress wherein teenagers react to the realisation of pregnancy with fear and disbelief, and thoughts of termination of pregnancy. Participants gave reports that pregnancy was seen as a shameful event for the teenagers involved. Coping strategies noted included teenagers‟ resort to avoidance of situations which were perceived to be stressful, and also associating with people they perceived as being more supportive. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: a) Intervention programmes should be put in place so as to help minimise the psychological and social problems experienced by pregnant teenagers, for example, crisis management skills could be offered to help deal with the trauma experienced; b) Social support structures should be made available to pregnant teenagers; and, c) Cultural practices should be incorporated in education syllabi that focus on human sexuality and reproduction. / N/A

Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / Recent research has established that teenagers have the means to prevent pregnancy but many do not necessarily use them, because they are open to the idea of becoming pregnant, or have a desire to parent their own child. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between attachment and teenagers’ desire of becoming pregnant and parenting a child. The sample of the study, selected through convenience sampling, comprised 455, 14 and 15 year old registered female learners from selected urban and rural high schools in Mopani District, Limpopo Province. Findings from structural equation modeling indicate that both mother and father attachment do not influence teenagers’ idealization about pregnancy and parenting. Mother trust had a statistically significant relationship with attitudes towards pregnancy. Trust for both mother and father also had a significant relationship with parental readiness. Alienation to mother had a significant association with teenagers preparedness to become parents. Socio-economic status was found to be associated with teenagers’ idealization of pregnancy and their report of being physically and emotionally ready to become parents. This study has found a relationship between the Trust and Alienation dimensions of attachment with attitudes towards pregnancy and parental readiness. Key words: Attachment; socio-economic status; pregnancy; idealization; parental readiness / Medical Research Council (MRC)

Thesis (MTech. degree in Nursing)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2010. / Teenage pregnancy is a major public health problem for this age group in many countries. The consequences of early childbearing are a reduced likelihood of school completion and a decreased opportunity of a high earning career. The motivation of this study was twofold, the increase in the terminations of pregnancies in Soshanguve and the lack of guidelines for health professionals to prevent teenage pregnancy. The research question for the study was using the Johnson Behavioural System Model as basis.

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.

My interest in teenage pregnancy began when I discovered pregnant girls in my class. Upon discussion with other educators in my school, I discovered that there were many pregnant girls in school. Thus began a journey in which I spent much time researching the topic. What I learnt along the way is that this is not a third world problem that affects certain race groups. It is a universal problem and if it is left to grow it will become the greatest social problem faced by the world. I believe that as educators we need to help curb the problem of teenage pregnancy. More importantly Secondary School educators need to become more aware of the debates surrounding teenage pregnancy for three reasons: (1) many of us may have pregnant or mothering teenagers in our classes and we need to understand where they are coming from and where they are heading towards, (2) we have the potential to help prevent teenage pregnancy by removing the cloak of ignorance that covers the issues surrounding sex and (3) teenage sexuality may be closely linked to the Aids pandemic that is moving like a veld fire across our country. We know that teenage pregnancy is not a new social problem. It has been around for centuries, but of late the severity of the problem has increased. It was this increase in teenage pregnancy that spurred me on to research why the youth of today, who have so much of sexual information made easily available to them, are still falling pregnant while at school. This study attempts to answer two critical questions. Firstly: "How do learners engage with factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy?" My study revealed that learners lack the knowledge or skills to avoid sex, they were ignorant of the different types of contraceptives, they were in denial that they could fall pregnant and they lacked the motivation to avoid early childbearing. Secondly, the critical question, "Why, in context of all the information present today on sex, do teenagers still fall pregnant?" Through the process of research it was found that teenagers engage in premarital sex because of the following reasons: peer pressure, they get caught up in the moment of passion and because they are bored and have nothing better to do. It is hoped that the analysis, findings and recommendations of this study will help curb the problem of teenage pregnancy. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

American adolescents are no more sexually active than adolescents in other Western nations. Each year more than one million American teenagers become pregnant, which gives the United States the dubious distinction of leading the industrialized world in the highest rates of teenage pregnancy. With the number of adolescent pregnancies increasing yearly, the cost of healthcare has become a major concern for healthcare providers. Because the teen's viewpoint is different from that of an adult, this research study focused upon the issue of teen pregnancy through the eyes of the pregnant adolescent.Heideggerian phenomenology was used as the research methodology to acquire information regarding the lived experience of pregnancy for the single adolescent, with Heideggerdian hermeneutics used in the interpretation of interviews. A purposive sample of five single primipara adolescents living in a teen home, in a large metropolitan area of a Midwestern state was utilized. Each interview was given a number in order to protect the confidentially of the participant. Interviews were audio taped and were transcribed by the researcher. The audio tapes were destroyed at the end of the study. The data obtained were studied by the researcher and others familiar with Heideggerian hermeneutics. The data were analyzed according to the seven step method described by Diekelmann, Allen and Tanner (1989). The findings identified an overall constitutive pattern along with four common themes.The overall constitutive pattern which emerged was "Pregnancy as a diverse human experience." Along with the constitutive pattern identified were four other common themes: (a) Body image changes as being within oneself; (b) Being marked as a pregnant teenager; (c) Pregnancy as loss; and (d) Pregnancy as connectedness. Both the constitutive pattern and the common themes were validated by the adolescent interviewed. The conclusions of this study showed that teens were aware of the methods of contraception and pregnancy but were unaware of the impact pregnancy would have on the teen's being in the world. / School of Nursing

The study is about the effects of teenage pregnancy on learning and teaching in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools of Butterworth District. The researcher’s objective of the study was to determine how pregnancy affects the learner’s performance on learning and teaching in schools. Qualitative paradigm informed the study. The participants were drawn from teenagers; teachers and parents areall from rural schools, around Butterworth Education District through the use of non-probability, purposive and convenient samples. The sample included learners from ages 13-19 who were pregnant and those who were once pregnant while in schools, teachers who taught pregnant learners in their schools and parents who were having pregnant children at schools. A total of fifteen (15) participants were involved in the interview. The data collected was analyzed and interpreted during data collection and thereafter. The findings of the study showed that absenteeism, drop-out, poor academic performance, poverty and unemployment which are the results of pregnancy are some of the contributory factors that affect learning and teaching in schools. Recommendations were made based on the findings of the study. The study concludes by recommending awareness campaign on learner pregnancy.

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.

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Refer to document