Assessment of Determinants of Teenage Pregnancy :

Abstract

Uganda is one of the countries with a big number of teenagers who have been found to engage in sexual activity at an early age leading to a high rate of teenage pregnancies, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality and other complications both medically and non-medically (UDHS, 2006, Neema et al., 2006).

The study was based on four objectives which were: assessing individual determinants of teenage pregnancy, examining the socio-economic determinants of teenage pregnancy, identifying the cultural determinants of teenage pregnancy, and lastly establishing the health system determinants of teenage pregnancy in Nawanyago Sub-county. This was a cross-sectional study that explored the determinants of teenage pregnancy. Questionnaires and Key Informant interview guides were used to collect information. Data was collected from 138 expectant and nursing teenage mothers between 13-19 years of age who were residents of Nawanyago Sub-county for at least six months and consented to participate in the study. A purposive sampling procedure and a convenient sampling method were utilized. Microsoft Excel was used to tabulate all the findings for easy interpretation and completeness.

Findings: revealed that Majority of the respondents 95 (68.8%) were in the age group of 18-19 years. Lower levels of education were associated with teenage pregnancy where majority of the respondents 80 (58%) had primary level education. Adolescents who were unemployed were more likely to become pregnant than those who have employment where the largest proportion of the respondents, 60 (43.5%) were unemployed. Majority of the girls, 89 (64.5%) reported that the circumstances of their pregnancy was due to influence from their boyfriends. Results suggest that Intensive sex education; parents, religious leaders, teachers, health workers, the media and law enforcement agencies if determined, can increase on the sensitization on teenage pregnancy and the related repercussions. Girl child education should be well facilitated to enable more girls to go to school. In conclusion, the study concludes that employment in an established organization (white collar job) is highly protective against teenage pregnancy while students are becoming increasingly prone to early pregnancy especially those in primary; this can be attributed to the way most parents do not bother about early marriage, failure to communicate to the teenagers about reproductive health and therefore the teenagers do not access reproductive health services due to fear. In addition, most of the teenagers only attain primary education which puts them at a high risk of teenage pregnancy