Chapter 1

The Problem and its Background

This chapter includes:

Introduction

Background of the Study

Statement of the Problem

Scope and Delimitation

Significance of the Study

Conceptual Framework

Definition of Terms

Introduction

Jose Rizal once said that “The youth is the hope of our future”. In their hands

lies the future generation to follow. But as we see in our present time, teenagers are

more prone to get pregnant. Almost every year there is a rapid increase on the cases of

Teenage Pregnancy. One of the major causes of this issue is that most of the youths

or teenagers nowadays grow up in a broken family. It shows that the teenagers have

limited guidance with these topics and it ends up in curiosity, Parents—either the father

or mother of the teenager decides to leave them behind due to the fact that they cannot

handle the responsibility or their obligation as a parent.

Teenage Pregnancy is one of the major factors that affect population growth in

the Philippines. It is considered as one of the major problems the Philippine

government is facing today due to its increasing rate. According to the National

Statistics Office or ‘NSO’ (now known as Philippine Statistics Authority or ‘PSA’), a

total of 126,025 mothers under 19 years of age gave birth in 2000. However, cases of

underage childbirths had skyrocketed—with a recorded count of 207,898 mothers

under 19 years of age in 2010. In a span of 10 years, occurrences of Teenage

Pregnancy has increased by 39%.

However, even with the alarming rate that cases of Teenage Pregnancies are

occurring in the Philippines, the ones that will undergo through hardships the most are

the young women that got pregnant in the first place—regardless of how they got

pregnant. Not only will the young mother suffer harm during childbirth, but she will also

suffer physical, mental and societal harm during the 9 months of pregnancy.

Physically, it is not normal for a teenager to conceive a child at such an early age, let

alone have sexual intercourse. Teenage mothers can suffer health issues such as

contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) Preeclampsia (High Blood

Pressure), or worse, the teenage mother might suffer a premature delivery, in which the

child is delivered more than three weeks before the expected date of delivery. If a child

is delivered prematurely, there is a very likely chance that the child will suffer major

medical complications.

Furthermore, raising a child isn’t an easy task either. It is physically draining as you

need to be able to help your child in physical tasks that they themselves are still

incapable of doing so. It is also costly since it is essential to give a child’s basic needs,

such as food, water, a proper shelter, maintaining proper hygiene, etc.

 A young mother’s environment can also affect her significantly. Depending on

the people that surrounds her before, during and after pregnancy, it can either have

positive, or negative effects on the teenage mother. If the people that surrounds her

constantly look down on her, it has a high chance of negatively affecting her.

Furthermore, if the environment that the child in is inappropriate for standards of living, it

can have negative repercussions on the child’s health.

Lastly, a young mother can heavily suffer mentally, but it also depends on the

mother’s mental fortitude. Although, it is much more common for a teenage mother

might suffer through panic attacks, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, depression,

and suicidal tendencies before, during and after delivery since it can be very worrying

for them to become a mother at such an early age, especially if the child itself is

unexpected.

While pregnancies aren't necessarily a negative occurrence, it becomes one if

those that are involved in the act are unaware of the destructive consequences that can

happen to them. The fact that not only is getting pregnant an easy task, but also its

chances of occurring are significantly higher once you factor in the life-ruining, but

commonly-underestimated actions that can easily (and commonly) occur in the modern

world—such as peer pressure, sexual curiosity, and recklessness in general. Thus, it is

a problem that shouldn’t simply be overlooked.

The primary objectives of the researchers is to research about Teenage

Pregnancy and its effects, and to persuade readers into avoiding situations that can

lead them to unwanted pregnancies.

Background of the Study

Puberty—a certain point in a person’s life in which people seem to discover more and

more about themselves, or specifically, their own body.

This is the stage in adolescents where their bodies slowly start to mature and more,

commonly leading to curiosity. This ‘curiosity’ is very dangerous once like-minded

individuals, say—a boy and a girl—decide to discover more about themselves, unaware

of the severe consequences that their actions might have. One of those consequences

is Teenage Pregnancy, which is slowly becoming more and more common in the

Philippines.

Teenage Pregnancy is a major worldwide issue and has raised large numbers

of campaigns and awareness to lessen its occurrence. In the Philippines, according to

‘2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study’ by the University of the

Philippines Populations Institute (UPPI) and the Demographic Research and

Development Foundation, 26% of our Filipino youth nationwide from ages 15 to 25

admitted to having a premarital sex experience which will leads to teenage pregnancy.

What’s worse is that 38% of our youth are already in a live-in arrangement and it

affects their education, relationship with their family, self-esteem/courage, etc. In

relation to this problem, the Philippine’s government was working on the Reproductive

Health Bill, or the RH Bill. The RH Bill was supposed to be the most effective solution

not only to Teenage Pregnancy but also to the increasing population of our country.

Unfortunately, that was 7 years ago and it was not approved because there is likely no

more important steps in the Philippines could take toward improving reproductive
health. The RH Bill’s current provisions for maternal care are important, but

underdeveloped.

Statement of the Problem

The research is entitled “Commonly-Occurring Teenage Pregnancies in Quezon City

and its Physical, Mental and Societal Effects towards Teenage Mothers”.

A. Demographic Profile

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents?

1.1 Age

1.2 Number of Child

1.3 Gender

B. General Question

1. What are the struggles that a teenage mother faces?

2. How does teenage pregnancy affect the mental health of women?

3. When did teenage pregnancy become serious problem?

4. How does teenage moms deal with negative judgement from other people?

5. How does teenage moms cope with the difficulties of raising a child?

Scope and Delimitation

The researchers will acquire respondents in—and only in—Quezon City,

Philippines. The researcher's amount of respondents are limited to 5 to 10 Teenage

Mothers, regardless if they are still in their teenage stage or not.In addition, the

researchers will seek a respondent that has empirical knowledge in teenage pregnancy.
 The scope of the study will mainly be about the effects of Teenage

Pregnancies towards Mothers in Quezon City. Now as mentioned, the study will be

limited to Quezon City only. Additionally, while the study itself will tackle all the general

aspects that Teenage Pregnancy has, the researches will prioritize on the effects—as

stated in the title.

Significance of the Study

The importance of this study is to inform people to know what to do, how they deal with

the circumstances. It’s is beneficial to these following people:

Parents - This study will remind the parent to spread awareness to their children

so that they can prevent such things happening to themselves.

Students - This study will help the teenagers to become vigilant to avoid being a

victim of teenage pregnancy.

Readers - This study will help the readers to be aware about the cause and

effect of teenage pregnancy.

Future Researchers - This study will help future researchers to find a way to

prevent more upcoming teenage pregnancy.

Conceptual Framework

This part of the chapter tells the concept of the study. The input is the statement

of the problem, process would be the questions, survey and gathering of data from

books and articles. The output would be the findings of

 INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

 What are the  Interview Commonly-Occurring

struggles that a  Questionnaire Teenage Pregnancies in

teenage mom  Data Quezon City and its

Gathering
face? Physical, Mental and

 How does teenage Societal Effects towards

pregnancy affect Teenage Mothers

the mental health

of girls?

 When did teenage

pregnancy

become serious

problem?

 How does teenage

moms deal with

negative

judgement from

other people?

 How does teenage

moms cope with

the difficulties of

raising a child?
Definition of Terms

This is a list of unfamiliar words that are mentioned in this Chapter that are given a

definition.

Adolescent -In the Process of developing from a child into an adult.

Conceive- Become pregnant with a child.

Constantly- Continuously over a period of time.

Sexual Intercourse - Sexual activity between two or more people.

Mental Fortitude - Defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions when in the

face of uncertainty or adversity.

Peer Pressure - Influence from members of a one’s peer group.

Recklessness - Lack of regard for the danger or consequences of one’s actions.

Repercussion - An unintended consequence occurring sometime after an event or

action, especially an unwelcome one.

Societal - Relating to society or social relations.