The Truth About Teenage Pregnancy:

Its Effect and Impact to the Youth

Ablasi, Cheryl D.
Comom, Johanissi M.
Talipnao, Reynalhyn G.

GBDAIS Extension
Taba-ao, Kapangan, Benguet
February 28, 2018

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 The Truth About Teenage Pregnancy:
Its Effect and Impact to the Youth

Over the past few decades, teenage pregnancy has become a public concern
which has generated a great deal of attention in every community. It is also been
known as adolescent pregnancy where pregnancy takes place among females under
the age 20. A female can become pregnant from sexual intercourse after she has begun
to ovulate. Nowadays, ovulation occurs among females in their younger years which
takes place around the age of 12 or 13 which means pregnancy is possible with this
ages.With regards to these, there was a strong agreement that teenage pregnancy rate
is on the increase and remain as a significant social problem since it is also been
linked to an array of other social issues such as welfare dependency, child health and
well being, out of wedlock birth, fatherhood responsibility, chid abuse and neglect and
school drop-out. (Torivillas, 2013).

In relation to this, the Word Health Organization (WHO) conducted a survey in

2014 on nulliparous pregnant women less than 20 years of age with a live singleton
birth to access the rate of teenage pregnancy among teenagers worldwide and discover
the factors and impact of it. Based on the result, it was discovered that 7.3 million
girls become pregnant before they turn 18 every year and 2.5 million among these
girls aged 15 and below. It also turned out that among all nations, the highest teen
pregnancy rates are in United Kingdom and USA and lowest in Japan and South
Korea. Among the prominent factors is poverty for about one-half of all teen
pregnancies occurvin 30% most deprived families. Morever, 85% of teen pregnancies
are unplanned and 11-20% of these pregnancies are reported to occur as direct result
of rape. As results, schooling suffers, as about 50% of teen mothers get a highschool
diploma by age 22, compared with 90% of girls who did not give birth. It also shows
that pregnancy and childbirth complications are the second highest cause of death for
girls aged 15 to 19 and 3 million girls undergo unsafe abortions every year. Also, if
the child survives, they are more likely to be born prematurely, do poor in school, and
about 30%more likely to become teen parents as well.

On the other hand, teenage pregnancy is also among the numerous societal
problem faced by the Philippines. Among six associations of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) reported that on
2014, Philippines ranked the highest rate in teenage pregnancy based on their
conducted survey in Southeast Asian. Overall, the result shows that the Philippines is
the only country in the Asia Pacific region where the rate of teenage pregnancy rose

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over two decades. In relation to this, a study by Natividad, et al. (2013) entitled
"Predictors on Early Childhood Bearing" was conducted from different universities in
the country wherein the respondents aged 15 to 19 was randomly selected which aims
to determine the cause and predictors on early motherhood. Accordingly, one in ten
young Filipino women aged 15 to 19 has begun childbearing: 8 percent are already
mothers and another 2 percent are pregnant with their fist child. It also shows that
statistically, 24 babies are delivered by teenage mothers every hour which proves a
high teenage pregnancy rate in the country.

Based on the study, it also showed that parenting styles and lack of education
and information greatly affect the youth in their reproductive health behaviors. It
indicates that teenagers with parents who have not set clear standards for their
children are more likely to be young mothers or impregnate their partners. The
absence of parent is also a great factor because their physical presence plays a vital
role in guiding their children. Furthermore, teenagers who have not attained college
education or higher degrees are the usual young mothers.

Going beyond, Calimquim (2016) also carried out a study regarding teenage
pregnancy among private and public schools in the country with the age bracket 13 to
19 which aims to determine the teenage pregnancy rate among regions in the country
and provide prominent factors that has a great contribution on the said issue. As a
result, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) tops the teen pregnancies in the whole
country with a percentage of 18. 4 teen fertility rate. Although it showed that in the
first semester of 2016, teenage pregnancy in Baguio City decreased, it still persist in
many localities like Benguet, Ifugao, Mt. Province and most especially in Apayao
having an average of 50-55 pregnancies of teeners aged 16-19 years old yearly.
Among the prominent factors of this phenomena is the use of social media and
practice of vices such as drinking as well as expirementing on drugs. Accordingly, the
use of social media specifically facebook initiates relationship and meet-up among
youths which leads to teenage pregnancy. Moreover, sexual and non-sexual behaviors
like smoking (44%), drinking (69%) and illegal drug using were high among 15 to 20
year old Cordilleran youth with its rates surpassing the national rate thus, making
CAR as the number one contributor to the said social problem in the country.

Overall, teenage pregnancy is a woldwide problem and is observe to every

community. As presented by the facts and informations above, it has many factors
such as poverty, lack of parenting styles , inadequate information and education about
teenage pregnancy, social media usage and vices. On the other side, it has also great

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impacts among youths such drop-out in school, child birth complications, premature
child, abortion, child abuse and neglect. Therefore, teenage pregnancy is one social
problem that requires attention not only locally but also nationally and worlwide
considering its increasing rate yearly and implications to both teen parents and the
child.

On the other way around, though the authors presented their studies and
surveys with certain goals, criteria, data collection, well-based facts and information
on the factors and impacts of teenage pregnancy among teenagers, it would have been
better if it also includes the impact of teenage pregnancy among parents, along the
locality and the country as well for a greater value of study. Moreover, the authors
must also have provided their specific data colection procedure not by just stating that
it is a survey or a study. Such on the report of WHO and UNPF, its better if it
specifically presented what method they used in the survey such as distributing
questionnaires, online surveys and others. Also, as observe ,each particular place of
the study has a particular results especially the factors.Therefore, further studies
should be done from international broken down to national and local for a better
findings and used for effective recommendations. As for the research of Calimquim
et. al. (2016), it is much better if it also include the records of the provinces and
municipalities in the Cordillera. These should be considered on the following
researches and surveys to be conducted in the future for a better findings.
Furthermore, though it's good that the researches provided the background, factors
and impact of teenage pregnancy among youths, further studies should still be
conducted with larger age bracket,more natural settings with different populations and
different data collection with particular methods.It would also be great if future
research studies replicate these findings but includes actions made to solve this issue
and its effectivity.

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 References

Natividad, E.C. , De Guzman, C.M., Sagalla, F.B. (2013). Predictors of Early

Childhood Bearing. Journal of Early Motherhood, 7, 16-19.

United Nations Population Fund (2014). Southeast Asian Youth Development

Bulletin.Retrieved from https://plan-international.org/sexual-health/teenage-
pregnancy?gclid=CjOKCQiA2snUBRDfARIsAIGfpqHqay35NVx

Calimquim, A. C. (2016). Maternal Youth and Pregnancy Outcomes In the

Philippines. Moston Press, USA.

World Health Organization. (2014). Statistical Records on Teenage Pregnancies and

Impacts. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/en/

Torivilas, H. M. (2013). Key Ingredient In Positive Adolescent Parenting. The Journal

of Primary Prevention, 19(3): 241- 250.