Effect of Teenage Pregnancy on Educational Attainment of Youth in Egor Local Government Area
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The objective of the study was to find out the problems of teenage pregnancy among youths of Edo State. It will consider the predisposing factors responsible for teenage pregnancy. Also to seek measures of addressing the menace to the barest minimum in our society, precisely in Edo State in particular.
School age girls who become pregnant come from all socio economic classes of all race and all parts of the country.(Rural and Urban). Many teenagers are facing the dilemma of unwanted pregnancy and unwanted parenthood.
Parents, the society and the nation, and the world in general are affected by them directly or indirectly, and their choices will have significant consequences for the future of their communities, their countries and the rest of the world.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
CONCEPT OF TEENGE PREGANANCY
The term “teenage or adolescent pregnancy” may differ from one individual to the other depending on the point of view one looks at it. According to the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) of the Public Health Division of the Nigeria Health Service, teenage or adolescence factually implies to “grow up”. An expression “teenage or adolescence” is known to one stage or period in the growth and development of human beings”. The worldwide acknowledged explanation classifies the ages from ten (10) to nineteen (19) as adolescents or teenagers. This phase is further separated into two (2), thus younger adolescents (ten to 14years) and older adolescents (fifteen 15 to nineteen (19) years). Once more, this period is staged into classifications namely: Early adolescents (Ten to Thirteen years), mid adolescents (Fourteen to Sixteen years) and late adolescents (Seventeen to Nineteen years). Pre-adolescents refer to people at the age of five to nine years. It is at this period that the physiological changes begin. Adolescence is the evolution from childhood to adulthood. This stage is termed ‘formative period’ where physical, physiological and behavioural changes occurs in adolescents. It is a phase of searching, carrying out tests and widening horizon and this is a time to ensure healthy resourceful development for the adolescents. This period includes development towards sexual prime of life, liberty and orientation if identification is focused on peers. It is also a time in life when the greatest conflict exists between the drive for individuality and the desire for conformity. Adolescence is a time of obvious physical changes. Most youngsters seem to adopt the changes in themselves quite well and adjust to the changing demands and expectations of parents and society in a relatively smooth and peaceful way. In May 2011, the World Health Assembly adopted a declaration urging Member States to accelerate actions to improve the health of young people. It included these specific measures:
- reviewing and revising policies to protect young people from early child-bearing;
- providing access to contraception and reproductive health care services; and
- promoting access to accurate information on sexual and reproductive health. According to WHO (2012) About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 years and two million girls under the age of 15 give birth every year. The report (WHO, 2012) added that one worldwide, one in five girls has given birth by the age of 18. In the poorest regions of the world, this figure rises to over one in three girls. Almost all adolescent births – about 95% – occur in low- and middle-income countries. Within countries, adolescent births are more likely to occur among poor, less educated and rural populations. The teenage pregnancy is fundamentally made up of teenagers whose ages range between 12 and 19 years.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is the plan structure and strategy of investigation developed so as to obtain answer to research questions and control variance (Kerlinger, 1973:45).
SOURCES OF DATA
The researcher used both primary and secondary methods of data collection.
Primary Data: This is data that is obtained first hand from the respondents. Primary data method is obtained through the administration of questionnaires and personal interviews.
Secondary Data: secondary source of data are parents and teachers views and are obtained from related literature from private, professional ad academic libraries.
THE POPULATION STUDY
The study of population would cover about 120 respondents including both teachers and parents in Egor local government area of Edo state, Nigeria for the purpose of study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter is devoted to the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the data gathered in the course of this study. The data are based on the number of copies of the questionnaire completed and returned by the respondents. The data are presented in tables and the analysis is done using the chi-square test.
Data Presentation and Analysis
The data presented below were gathered during field work.
Table 1 above shows the gender distribution of the respondents used for this study.
80 respondents which represent 66.7percent of the population are male.
40 which represent 33.3 percent of the population are female.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The purpose of the study was to find out the problems of teenage pregnancy among youths of Edo State. It will consider the predisposing factors responsible for teenage pregnancy. Also to seek measures of addressing the menace to the barest minimum in our society, precisely in Edo State in particular.
School age girls who become pregnant come from all socio economic classes of all race and all parts of the country. (Rural and Urban). Many teenagers are facing the dilemma of unwanted pregnancy and unwanted parenthood.
Parents, the society and the nation, and the world in general are affected by them directly or indirectly, and their choices will have significant consequences for the future of their communities, their countries and the rest of the world.
FINDINGS
Based on the responses of the respondents we were able to find out that:
- Poor socio-economic background of parents has no significant effect on the level of teenage pregnancy in the society.
- teenage pregnancy have no setback on educational attainment of a teenager.
- Peer group have any significant effect on the level of teenage pregnancy
- mass media has influences on teenage pregnancy among youths in Edo State
- educational level of female teens has significant effect on the level of teenage pregnancy among teenagers.
CONCLUSION
From the responses of the respondents and the result of the data analysis; we therefore conclude that Poor socio-economic background of parents has no significant effect on the level of teenage pregnancy in the society also teenage pregnancy have no setback on educational attainment of a teenager.
RECOMMENDATION
We therefore recommend that:
- parents should always educate their children on the implication of teenage pregnancy
- the teacher should always disclose to the students the effect of early pregnancy on the academic performance of students
- there should be a kind of programme that will always educate the youth on the implication of early pregnancy among youth
- the male in the society should always be educated on the set back that will result from unwanted pregnancy.
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