Teenage Pregnancy: Its Social and Emotional Perspective of Teen Pregnants

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Teenage Pregnancy has become one of the perennial issues in the country nowadays. As reported by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), teenage pregnancy has a huge rate in the Philippines and this is supported by the data from the National Statistics office that 8 percent among 1.7 million babies born in 2004 were born by mothers aged 15-19 years old. This urged the call for the conduct of this study to strengthen the programs and mitigation measures on teenage pregnancy and to make students aware on the potential scenarios of teenage pregnancy.

METHODS

A quantitative-qualitative research method is employed wherein quantitative method is setto be the foundation of the qualitative interview for the respondents. Purposive random sampling was utilized to determine the respondents. A 10-item questionnaire was administered to measure the emotional and social perspective of pregnant teen mothers.Analysis was conducted which became the basis in constructing semi-structured interview questions. Mean and frequency counts and t-test were used to answer the research questions.

RESULTS

Results under social perspective show that 53.333% or 8 of 15 respondents strongly agreed with the ideas that people they know care about them and help them. This result is being supported by the statement of 2 of the respondents "...kahit na ganito yung nangyari sa akin, nararamdaman ko naman yung pagmamahal ng tao sa paligid ko..." (Even though I have experienced this, I still feel the love of the people around me). Respondents disagreed with the idea of not pursuing studies because of the problems they have faced.in terms of its emotional phase, respondent's idea posted a mean of 2.904 which asserts that respondents do not feel at ease due to lack of sleep. However, 60% or 9 of the respondents agree that teen pregnant mothers felt confusion among themselves as their family is expecting them to finish a degree.

DISCUSSIONS

With the data gathered, it can be inferred that mothers who experienced teenage pregnancy are more optimistic and they persevere despite the challenges. Despite the study's limitation, it can be concluded that the study will attest the perception of teen moms towards teenage pregnancy to be positive.