Effects of teenage pregnancy among female learners: A case of selected secondary schools in Kapiri Mposhi district of central province, Zambia

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy is when a woman under the age of 20 gets pregnant. It usually refers to teens between the ages of 15-19. Teen pregnancy or adolescent pregnancy is the pregnancy of girls aged 10-19 years, leading to many maternal and neonatal adverse effects. These pregnancies have been a global concern for many decades and yet are still prevailing. Pregnancy can occur with sexual intercourse after the start of ovulation, which can happen before the first menstrual period (menarche). In healthy, well-nourished girls, the first period usually takes place between the ages of 13 to 16. It was for this reason that the study was conducted to analyze the effects of teenage pregnancy among female learners in Kapiri Mposhi district of Central Province in Zambia at some selected secondary schools. The study adopted a mixed methods approach which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The sample involved a total of 110 respondents which included; two (2) health workers, from Kapiri General hospital, three (3) head teachers, twelve (12) teachers and ninety-three (93) learners. The respondents were obtained through purposive and simple random sampling. Data was obtained through interviews and questionnaires from the selected secondary schools. Data analysis consisted of content analysis of the interview responses and item analysis of the questionnaire responses; the data gathered were analyzed according to the themes of the study and the order of the research objectives. Data generated from the questionnaires were analyzed manually using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 26) and Microsoft Excel (version 16) to come up with frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The findings indicated that due to teenage pregnancies, there was high levels of school drop-out rates on female learners. Also, the study revealed that poverty, lack of education, lack of information about sexual and reproductive health, child marriages, sexual violence and drug abuse among others, resulted into teenage pregnancies in Kapiri Mposhi district.