Socio-economic Factors determining Teenage Pregnancy in Ede South Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VII, July 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Socio-economic Factors determining Teenage Pregnancy in Ede South Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria

Gabriel Olusola OWAGBEMI¹, Rachael Seun OLUWADARE^2
1Department of Sociology, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria
²Department of Human Kinetics & Health Education, Adekunle Ajasin University

Abstract: The study seeks to examine the socio-economic factors determining teenage pregnancy; its effects on teenage pregnant woman; public attitude to teenage pregnancy and how to reduce teen pregnancy in Ede south local government area of Osun State, Nigeria. Quantitative method of data collection through the use of questionnaire was employed to elicit information from 120 respondents who were randomly selected from the study area. The study found that, 95% of the respondent attributed teen pregnancy to parents’ socio-economic status. Similarly 97.5% of the respondents were of the view that the environment that a child grew could cause teenage pregnancy; Majority of the respondents (84.2%) felt that lack of adequate sex education for a girl child could cause teenage pregnancy. Its effects on a girl-child range from; exposure of a girl child to hardship (95.9%); it truncates a girl child’s ambition (82.5%); The ways to curb teen pregnancies also range from; involvement of parents in their daughters’ sexual affairs (71.7%); public sensitization by government on the danger of teenage pregnancy (94.2%). The test of hypothesis established that public attitude towards teenage pregnancy has a significant positive relationship with the effect of teenage pregnancy [r (118) = 0.02, p < .05], Based on the findings the following recommendations are therefore made; sex education for a girl child at all levels. Mothers should be involved in their daughters’ sexual affairs; teenage pregnancy should be discouraged by religious organization, and there should be government sensitisation against teen pregnancy.

Keywords: teenage, pregnancy, adolescent,

I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Pregnancy is considered to be a blessing when experienced by a married couple who had intentionally planned to have a child (Anochie & Ekpeme, 2001). As important as pregnancies are to women particularly, if peradventure, after some months of marriage, the desire to conceive is not actualised, the woman becomes so worried. Pregnancy is therefore considered to be for matured women who are most times married. The maturity here has to do with age. Any female who got pregnant between the age of 10 and 19 years is considered not matured and this is referred to as teenage pregnancy (Weiss, 2012; Adams, 2008). Teenage is often used interchangeably with adolescence, and it is the period between 10 and 19 years when the secondary sex characteristics appear (World Health Organization – WHO. 1997; Alabi & Oni, 2017; Galaboa & Gempesb (2017).

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