M.Ed. / Early pregnancy and unplanned childbirth may have far-reaching physical, psychological and social consequences for the adolescent girl and her offspring and are therefore public health issues of concern. This study initially proposed to provide guidelines and support to help pregnant adolescents cope with their mental health. Ten pregnant adolescents were interviewed. All ten of them were black. Instead of dropping out of school, they were all staying in. The data were collected by means of observation and phenomenological interviews. The researcher followed a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual method. In the second chapter the researcher describes the research design and method of the research. The approach to data collection, analysis and report writing to achieve the goal of this research study are also indicated. The third chapter focuses mainly with the phenomenological interviews that were conducted and the central themes that have been identified and categorised. The fourth chapter indicates guidelines to help and support pregnant adolescents to cope with the situation they are experiencing and also to cope with their mental health. The research ensured trustworthiness to the participants during the research process. The researcher gained confidence of the participants by spending time with them informally. The researcher ensured credibility of the research study by audio-taping the interviews conducted with the participants. The independent coder was given the transcribed interviews. Thereafter a consensus discussion was held with the independent coder. The researcher ensured that the research study was credible, transferable, dependable and confirmable. The participants were also informed about the advantages and disadvantages of participating in the research. The researcher received informed consent from the parents of the participants. Consent was also obtained from the participants. All participants were informed about their privacy, benefits, withdrawal and the procedure to be followed. Ethical measures were also applied throughout the research. The research ensured that the participants would not be harmed, either physical or emotionally. The researcher ensured the participants of their anonymity. This was done by giving the participants pseudonyms and also made sure that the setting was not identifiable. The researcher’s results revealed that special attention should therefore be paid to adolescent sexual and reproductive health service needs. These should include contraceptive counselling in order to prevent pregnancy at a young age and also to improve their sexual and reproductive health status. / Prof. C.P.H. Myburgh

MA (Psychology) / Department of Psychology