Abstract
Pregnancy during adolescence represents a challenge to society as a whole. Its incidence is increasing and brings about social and medical consequences to both the teen mothers and their children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate pregnant teenager involvement in sexual activity and the social context. The group studied comprised 152 pregnant teenagers attending the Department of Pediatrics, Santa Casa de Sao Paulo (SCSP) General Hospital. All information was analyzed. The age at first intercourse was 14.2 years and the average period between first intercourse and pregnancy was 1.4 years. Most pregnancies (75%) were neither planned nor wanted, however, most teen mothers (64.3%) did not use any contraceptive method. Of the pregnant teenagers, 68.1% came from unstructured families where in 71% of the teen pregnancy cases, there was a role model (mother, sister, or cousin who already experienced teen pregnancy). The average number of school years attended by the analyzed pregnant teenagers was 8.1 years, however, there was a high dropout rate of 40.1%. The age at first intercourse was low and concurs with the high incidence of unstructured families. The average number of school years attended was high, which would theoretically reflect a greater knowledge with regard to human reproduction, pointing to the multicausality of teen pregnancy and the role played by the family. Conclusions: We confirmed that teen pregnancy presents multicausal etiology; sexual initiation of pregnant teenagers was quite early with high dropout rates, which indicated that prevention methodology should be based on early detection of risk factors for elaboration of appropriate prevention proposals.
Highlights
Teenage involvement in sexual activity without responsibility can constitute risk in various degrees to the life project of the teenager including unwanted consequences, such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS in particular, undesired pregnancy, and abortion
Influence of the family in the sexual behavior of teenagers has been analyzed under various viewpoints, as the family context has a direct relationship for the time when sexual activity is initiated[9]
65.3%, got pregnant from the first partner, 27.2% from the second, and 7.5% had more than three sexual partners; 19.9% got pregnant in the first year after sexual initiation, 38.4% in the second year
Summary
Teenage involvement in sexual activity without responsibility can constitute risk in various degrees to the life project of the teenager including unwanted consequences, such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS in particular, undesired pregnancy, and abortion. TheScientificWorldJOURNAL (2006) 6, 998–1007 an abortion occurs in a period of intense transformation and, it is increasingly clear that teen pregnancy is primarily a social problem that can bring about medical consequences[1]. As a result of the consequences for the mother and the conceptus, teen pregnancy has been considered high-risk pregnancy by the World Health Organization (WHO)[3,4]; it is currently claimed that the risks are more social than biological. Several factors contributed to the occurrence of pregnancy during teenage years, and the etiology was related to biological, familial, social, psychological, and contraception-related factors[7]. The increasingly earlier puberty and age of menarche has contributed to the earlier occurrence of sexual activity and the consequences thereof[8]. Influence of the family in the sexual behavior of teenagers has been analyzed under various viewpoints, as the family context has a direct relationship for the time when sexual activity is initiated[9]
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