Abstract
BackgroundWhile there has been a steady decline in adolescent pregnancies worldwide and in Australia over the last three decades, Australian rates still rank third highest among developed countries. Adolescent pregnancies are defined as those that occur to girls between the ages of 15 and 19. The current pregnancy rate of 15 to 19 year old females rural Victoria is 21.19%, this is more than double the Victorian state rate of 8.2% and almost double the national Australian rate at 13.1% The aim of this study was to explore Health Care Professionals and Educator perspectives on these high adolescent pregnancy rates, with particular focus on the role of adolescent males, in a rural region in Victoria, Australia.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study using focus group discussion was undertaken with Health Care Providers and Educators (N = 8) in 2016. Data was analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsFour themes emerged from analysis. The first, ‘Gender Stereotyping’ focused on the acceptance of traditional masculinities; the second ‘Adolescent males as health consumers’ was based on the consensus that adolescent males are poor consumers of health and ‘invisible’; the third ‘Complexity of Issues’ identified that, particularly in a rural region, contributing issues are varied and complex; and the fourth ‘Focus on Fatherhood’, saw the participants diverge from the discussion about pregnancy prevention and the adolescent males’ role in unintended pregnancy, and focus on the role adolescent males may have as unintended fathers.ConclusionsParticipants did not consider young males to be of importance in the prevention of adolescent pregnancy. There is a need to further explore the role of young males in pregnancy prevention, including what role traditional gender stereotyping, from health professionals’ and young males’ perspectives, plays in provision of adolescent sexual health services.
Highlights
While there has been a steady decline in adolescent pregnancies worldwide and in Australia over the last three decades, Australian rates still rank third highest among developed countries
The purpose of this study was to explore Health Care Professionals’ and Educators’ perspectives on prevention of adolescent pregnancy and the male adolescents’ role in unintended pregnancy and pregnancy prevention, as a growing body of evidence suggests that Health Care Professionals are failing to provide adolescent males with support services, equivalent to those, that are made available to young adolescent women [8,9,10,11,12]
Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants, and inclusion criteria for participants included being a Health Care Provider or Educator currently working in the identified rural Victorian region
Summary
While there has been a steady decline in adolescent pregnancies worldwide and in Australia over the last three decades, Australian rates still rank third highest among developed countries. Adolescent pregnancies are defined as those that occur to girls between the ages of 15 and 19. Adolescent pregnancies are defined as those that occur to girls between the ages of 15 and 19 and while there has been a steady decline in adolescent pregnancies and births worldwide since 1990, currently 11%. While not all adolescent pregnancies and births are unplanned, the often negative consequences of being an adolescent single parent and the effects for the children and society, are well documented. Connor et al BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2018) 18:245 significant consequences for adolescent single mothers and their children, are an increase in welfare dependency and poverty. Children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk of developing behavioural problems, being injured in an accident, and having lower levels of literacy and numeracy skills [1, 3,4,5]
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