TEENAGE PREGNANCY

PREVENTION AND COMPETENCIES

Research Proposal

Presented to:
Mr.Raplh Arvic T. Arcenal
Instructor

Naval State University- Laboratory High School

Jaropojop, Justine
Aranzado, Jan Andrea
Atok, Aiza
Ebajan, Daphne
Ebajo, Nhaliana
Pequero, Belle Krista
 Introduction
Background of the study

Pregnancy is a gift. The baby is a miracle, a great gift and treasure from God. Pregnancy is not a
sin neither a crime. It is merely a result of a consummated relationship; pregnancy may not be
planned by man but has long been laid out in the perfect plan of our Creator.

Pregnancy during the teenage years is a bombastic situation, one that comes unexpected. For a
student facing unintended pregnancy, the physical, emotional and spiritual issues can seem
overwhelming. Teenage pregnancy may have been the result of the lack of supervision from
parents, though blaming is nonetheless helpful if pregnancy presents itself. What I would like to
emphasize is that the pregnant teenagers need help. They need understanding and acceptance the
more. (Krisse, 2008)

Teenage pregnancy is defined as a teenage girl, usually within the ages of 13-19, becoming
pregnant. When a girl is pregnant during her teenage years it is really a hard situation for them,
one that comes unexpected. For a student facing unintended pregnancy, the physical, emotional
and spiritual issues can seem overwhelming.

Teen mother have lower chance of completing high school, especially if they have their first
child before 18 years. Teen Mothers usually have to abandon their education to give birth or raise
their child. Girls who become pregnant are expelled from schools because it goes against the moral
teachings of the school thus delaying the chance of earning a degree that will help them in
providing for their child. Education becomes a lesser priority and is often delayed until they are
able to leave the children at home are financially stable. But there are girls who are studying as
well as taking care of their child. The burdens for these girls have double as to they have to take
care of school as well as their child at home.

The number of teenage pregnancy tends to grow rapidly because of some inevitable
circumstances. Peer pressure is one of the reasons why unplanned pregnancy happen because
during adolescent many teens are pressured to have sex. Lack of knowledge, teens nowadays to
do not fully understand what will be the possible outcome, the aftereffect and the consequences of
their action. Teens are more likely to get pregnant because rape and sexual abuse. Improper
guidance is also one of the factor why teens gets pregnant. It appeared to be that teenage pregnancy
is one of the youth problems that our country face. The more teens becomes pregnant, the more
our population growth increases. It will be a long run for teen moms because in a very young age
they already shoulder big responsibility.

Statement of the Problem

The study was conducted because of the rapid outgrowth of teenage pregnancy and its social
disadvantages.

The researcher want to determine the causes and effects of having teenage pregnancy and to justify
the possible baseline of the problem. It hopes to answer the following question:

Main Question: What are the social disadvantages of teenage pregnancy?

Specific Questions: The study aims to answer the following questions:

1. How teenage pregnancy does affects the family?

2. What are some of the struggles that Teenage Mother Experience?
3. What are the causes of teenage pregnancy?

Objectives of the Study

This study was conducted to determine the impact on teenage pregnancy of interventions that
address the social disadvantage associated with early parenthood and to assess the
appropriateness of such interventions for young people around Naval.

The research aimed to achieve the following objectives:

1. Aims to help adolescents and youth to know more about how to avoid pre-marital sex,
teenage pregnancies, and sexuality transmitted infections.
2. Aims to promote equal responsibility for pregnancy and the use of contraception among
males and females.
3. Help ensure that an adequate number of medical professionals at community and private
clinics are trained and willing to provide clinical services.
 Our long term objectives include decreasing rates of Teenage Pregnancy, School
Dropout, Poverty, Depression, Delayed Education, Absent Parents, Lack of Knowledge
Sexual Abuse or Rape and Teenage Drinking.

Importance of the Study

The outcome of this study will be useful in serving as a guide for following individual:

Teenagers. The result of the study will help them developed their awareness and highly mindful
from avoiding getting pregnant.

Researchers. This study will help some researcher for gaining details. It will add more information
to the existing literature. The study will stimulate to carry out further research.

Parents. As the primary socializing agents of children, parents are a trusted source of information
about sexuality for young people. The parents can benefit to the findings of this study. The findings
of this research may serve as a guide on how to deal with children's questions about sexuality,
establish boundaries and limitations for their children, and to provide assistance to their children
if happened to be pregnant.

Barangay Health Workers. This study will hasten their interest to propagate more ideas and
facts or basis essential to the practice of their profession.

School. The teachers and guidance counsellors can benefit to the findings of this study. The
findings of this research may serve as a guide to deal with problems, controversies and topics
related to sexuality. Equipped with this information, they will be able to understand, educate and
give apt advice in order to breed respected and responsible members of the community.

School administrators. Being the ones to discipline the students, will gain advantage to the
findings of this study since this will provide them additional awareness on initial information
addressed to the needs and problems of Teen Mothers.
Scope and Delimitation of the study

This study was focused on the social disadvantages of teenage pregnancy and determining
the possible prevention for its rapid outgrowth. The study limited only to all teenage mothers
around Naval, Biliran. We may use cluster sampling method to distribute questionnaire.

Statistical Treatment Data

This study assume a group of people in choosing all teenage mother as a respondent which
consist of an allocation all around Naval. The gathered data were expound, interpreted and
analyze by applying descriptive statistic such as percentage, frequency counts were used in
describing survey responses.

Definition of Terms

For clarity, precision and ease of communication, it is helpful to define certain frequently
employed terms. The following terms are defined conceptually and operationally.

 Unintended-not intentional; happening unexpectedly or by accident.

 Equipped- having the skills needed to do something
 Burdens- a duty or responsibility that is hard to bear.
 Interventions- the act or fact of becoming involved intentionally in a difficult situation.
 Boundaries- an edge or limit of something.
 Expelled- deprive (someone) of membership of or involvement in a school or other
organization.
 Supervision- the action of supervising someone or something.

.
Related Reviews of Literature

From 2000 to 2010, the number of live births by teenage mothers in the Philippines rose by more
than 60 percent, latest data from the National Statistics Office showed.

Another alarming fact is that the number of teenage mothers who gave birth to their second or
third child during their teenage year has increased in the last 10 years. This is according to the
data shown in the press conference in Quezon City by Carmelita Ericta, administrator and civil
registrar general of the National Statistics Office. (Ime Morales, July 9, 2013) Teenage
pregnancy is a global issue and a major contributor to school drop-out among girls. Permanent
expulsion was one of the solutions made for teenage pregnancy but this has been proven
ineffective and unfair to the girls. Now there is a return to school policy where a student is
temporarily dismissed from school due to teenage pregnancy to further pursue their education.
(Okeyo, 2012)

As stated by Brown and Amankwaa (2007) “As more female college students are involved in
sexual relationships their risk of conception increases. However, when pregnancy occurs it is
only the woman who bears the burden and risk of the pregnancy and in most cases child care.
“Often these types of pregnancy are unplanned or planned caring for a child becomes a full time
job. Having a child while being a student becomes stressful because child rearing consumes time
and energy, with a few exeptions the women are the primary care giver of the child. (Hofferth,
Reid, & Mott, 2001 as cited by Brown &Amankwaa, 2007). According to Kidwell (2004),
rearing a child while being s full-time student may be daunting and difficult however, it will be
easier if she has a partner or a family member who can help her in taking care of the child.

With the increase of higher education students, 10% of this population areparents or mothers
who are hoping to give their children a better future and attending to their needs through
receiving a degree. These nontraditional students are often Student Mothers and should be given
special attention because aside from their role as student they are also mothers and care givers at
home. Many see or consider their families a hindrance to their education which is wrong they
should see it as a motivator because primarily, Student mother go back to studying because they
want to provide for their child. (Wilsey, 2013)
When pregnant students and student mothers are expected to subordinate their needs and desires
to those of their children and families, they are forced to grapple with the conflicting roles of
motherhood and studentship (Berg &Mamhute, 2013). Brown &Amankwaa, (2007) stated that
parenting is a very stressful and some women cannot handle all the tasks involved especially the
first time mothers and need help or assistance from the people around them. Although having
someone help the mother is good but the expectation of receiving support after giving birth to a
baby often causes Stressors that may lead to depression during postpartum period. Many student
mothers have expressed feelings of guilt, worry and inadequacy in both as a student and as a
mother. (Thompson, 2004)

Though not always does being a student mother have negative effect, it also has positive effects.
Story (1999), as cited by Brown &Amankwaa (2007), has found out that student mothers are
more responsible than those of regular students. He has seen that girls who were irresponsible
before pregnancy has become more responsible after pregnancy and ismore less likely to drop
out of College than the regular students.

For women who juggle family and student responsibilities, the lack of time is one of the major
issues faced. (Liversidge, 2004) Many student mothers use different coping strategies to adjust to
their situation. As stated by Grohman (2009), student mothers depend on time management to
handle the many different tasks of a student mother. Another coping cited by
Grohman&Renelamn (2009) is managing tasks to handle the things needed to be done as both
student and a mother as well as emotional and physical support from both the partner and parents
of the student mother.

Okey (2012) has said student-mothers go through a number of challenges as they live double
lives as mothers and students. Often challenges are faced like lack of support due to other factors
like lack of finances and time being limited.

A study by Boutan (2012) shows the feeling of student mother in regards to lifestyle she said
thaGale (her participant) said she juggles multiple lifestyles as a full-time student and a full-time
mom. This does make her feel disconnected from campus life.
Due to student mothers’ situation being difficult they have adapted coping mechanism.
According to Okeyo (2012), their coping mechanisms included: problem-focused, avoidance and
emotion-focused strategies and the support they received upon resuming studies were spiritual
and social support.

It was argued that raising a child involves a great deal of financial, emotional, and practical
planning (Kidwell, 2004). It is necessary to make sure that there are adequate child care
resources available. This may be very difficult to do if the student is going to school full-time.
However, if the student decides to remain in school and take care of the child it may be more
possible if she has a partner or family member who will provide additional help to care for the
child (Kidwell, 2004). Parenting is very stressful and some women cannot deal with all of the
tasks that are involved. It is best if there are people around who are there to assist. Although it is
best to have family, friends and spousal support after giving birth to a baby this expectation often
causes Stressors that may lead to depression during the postpartum period. (Brown &Amankwaa,
2007)
 Methodology

Research design

In this study a qualitative exploratory design was used, allowing the researchers to get an
in-depth understanding of the social disadvantage faced by Teen Mothers. Qualitative research
has the advantage of uncovering the lived experiences of individuals by enabling them to
interpret and attribute meaning to their experiences and in the process construct their worlds
(Merriam and Simpson 2000, as cited in Berg &Mamhute, 2013)

Research Locale

This study will be conducted around Naval, Province of Biliran.

Research Respondents

The respondents of this study are the teenage mothers. We are going to interview 5 teenage
mother and ask permission to the respondents.

Research Instrument

In this study we will interview those teenage mothers using structured questionnaire as an
interview guide, phone recording. This interview will focused on the challenges, coping
strategies, realizations of student mothers.

Data Gathering Procedure

In the gathering of data, all instruments were prepared. Before conducting the interview,
permissions were asked first from the respondents.