The Dimensions, Perfidy and Ramifications of Teenage Pregnancies with Examples from a Few Countries of the Globe. A Literature Review

Abstract

Globally, teenage pregnancy appears to burgeon everyday despite global efforts to tackle it. The much desirable wind of modernization and development seems to wreak havoc to the institutions of adolescent sexual health. The aim of this paper is to raise debates, discourses on the underpinning of teenage pregnancy and suggest solutions or newer perspectives to tackle the quagmire. The paper has used a review of literature methodology. Findings indicate that teenage pregnancy is a result of adolescent sexuality, alcohol and use of drugs, ineffective use, or lack of contraceptives, sexual abuse, media influence, childhood environment, low levels of skills for sexual negotiation, gender power imbalances, sexual coercion and violence, poverty, low socioeconomic status, and peer pressure, among others; teenage pregnancy dooms the future of the teenagers and families have a pivotal role of controlling teenage pregnancies; and there is an inextricable relationship between teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS prevalence. The paper recommends countries to bolster the adolescent sexual reproductive health education; invoking religious tenets and mythology; embracing cultural sexual mores and taboos; and having political and societal goodwill to counter cultural attack especially from the western world.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n15p609