TITLE.

THE CAUSES AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN

WUSAKILE TOWNSHIP.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
I acknowledge the help I received from family, friends and my geography teacher
for me to carry out this research successfully, may god bless them all.
INTRODUCTION.
TOPIC: THE CAUSES AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TEENAGE
PREGNANCY IN WUSAKILE TOWNSHIP.
Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy is pregnancy in a female
under the age of 20, (WHO). Pregnancy can occur with sexual intercourse after
after the start of ovulation, which can be before the first menstrual period but
usually occurs after the onset of periods. So this research therefore, explored the
causes teenage pregnancy and its negative effects in Wusakile Township which has
seen the rapid increase in the cases of teenage pregnancy.

LOCATION OF THE STUDY AREA.

This research was undertaken in Wusakile Township, Kitwe on the Copperbelt
province of Zambia. it is located along the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriage way with a
latitude of S -12 50’ 59” and longitude E 28 12’ 54”
 AIMS.

The aims of this study are;

-To find out the causes of teenage pregnancy in ipusukilo compound.
-To investigate the negative effects of teenage pregnancy in ipusukilo compound.
 OBJECTIVES.

The specific objectives of this study are;

1. -To find out the causes of teenage pregnancy.
2. -To find out the negative effects of teenage pregnancy.
3. -To find out the possible measures that can help to solve the problems that
are caused by teenage pregnancy and ways that can help to prevent teenage
pregnancy in the study area.
Questions.

1. What are the causes of teenage pregnancy in Wusakile Township?

2. What are the effects of teenage pregnancy in Wusakile Township?
3. How can teenage pregnancy be prevented in Wusakile Township?
 METHODOLOGY.
The use of primary method of data collection that involved the use of oral
interviews, questionnaires and observations, helped me to carry out this research
successfully.
I personally made 30 questionnaires and distributed them to participants who I
randomly picked from the study area these participants have been living in
Wusakile for over 15 years now.
GENDER AGE GROUP NUMBER OF QUESTIONERS.

F 30-45 15
M 18-25 10
M 50-75 3
F 50-75 2

The 15 females I gave the questioners to, are the mothers who did fall pregnant at
their teenage age, I did also distribute 10 questionnaires to the youths of Wusakile
Township.
Lastly I interviewed civic leaders which included the area councilor and the
representative of the area member of parliament. Nurses and teachers were also
interviewed so as to get more data from different participants in their respective
aspects.
 DATA PRESENTATION..
1. Figure 1.1 that follows below shows how teenage pregnancy cases have
been rising for the past 3 years and it was taken from health facility from
Wusakile Township.
5000-

4500-

4000-

3500-

3000-

2500-

2000-

1500- 2020 2021 2022

1000-

500-

Figure 1.1 source: health facility in Wusakile Township.

2. Figure 1.2 below shows the causes of teenage pregnancy in Wusakile

township of Kitwe.

CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY.

Poverty

52 %
Early Marriages

6%

Peer Pressure

11% Lack of Sex

education

22%
Sexual
Violence 9%

Figure 1.2 Source : Field 2023

 3. The table below shows the negative effects of teenage pregnancy in
Wusakile township of Kitwe.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY.
Overpopulation.
Leads to teens dropping out of school.
Affects the health of the young mother.
Emotional problems.
Poverty in the family.

4. The following data shows the measures that can help to solve the problems
that are caused by teenage pregnancy and to prevent teenage pregnancies in
the area.
HOW TO PREVENT TEENAGE PREGNANCIES.
 Arresting of all perpetrators of sexual violence and Early marriages.
 Provision of condoms and other family planning kits.
 Sensitization.
 Investing in the Girl child’s education.
 Providing employment and empowerment to residents of Wusakile
Township.
 DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS.
According to the findings it's clear that the cases of teenage pregnancy in Wusakile
Township have been rapidly increasing for the past three years as fig 1.1 shows
and this has been caused by the following factors...
1. CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY WUSAKILE TOWNSHIP.
Poverty.
Many residents of Wusakile Township are poor, they do not manage to get what
they need to use on a daily basis, now this makes young girls to engage themselves
into prostitution and since they are able to reproduce they fall pregnant at a very
tender age.

Peer pressure.
Fig 1.2 shows that peer pressure also causes teenage pregnancy. Most ladies,
young ones of course, they are being pressurized by fellow peers to start selling
their bodies for sex and in return, men who sleeps with them gives them money.
Since, some of these young ladies wants to have money at all cost, they agree to
this and in the process they get pregnant because of peer pressure.

Early marriages.
Early marriages also contribute to the rising cases of teenage pregnancy as fig 1.2
shows, many teens are sent into marriages and since they are able to reproduce
they fall pregnancy for their husbands..

Sexual violence.
Wusakile Township is one of the townships in Kitwe that are characterized by a lot
of criminalities and sexual violence is one of them as fig 1.2 shows. YOUNG girls
are abused by men who take advantage of their vulnerability, some young ladies
just get raped and usually what happens is that they fall pregnant and that leads to
high cases of teenage pregnancy that are been recorded in the study area.

Lack of education about sex.

Fig 1.2 indicates that, there is a lot of ignorance about sex in the area, teens in the
study area which is Wusakile, Just practice sex without knowing anything about it,
when it comes to how they can practice safe sex, they absolutely know nothing,
this causes a lot of girls to be engaging into sexual activities and fall pregnant in
their tender age.

2. NEGATIVE EFFFECTS OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN WUSAKILE

TOWNSHIP.
There are a lot of negative effects of teenage pregnancy in Wusakile township, the
observations that I made revealed some of the negative effects that the matter at
hand has brought in the study area and one of the observations is that, the kids that
are being born are suffering from malnutrition because the mother who is young
can't afford to provide what the baby needs in order for him/her to grow healthy
and this happens because the man who impregnated the mother, refuse to take up
responsibilities..

The findings that I found in the same field, Revealed similar effects and they
included the following:

Overpopulation.
The population of Wusakile is said to be higher than other townships in Kitwe and
this is because many teens are giving birth and by the time they reach their old age,
many kids are being born by them which causes the population to grow rapidly and
in turn it causes pressure on governmental facilities such as schools and clinics as
fig 1.3 shows, Because in clinics when these young mothers take their kids for
under five checkups, The health workers at the facility, tend to work under
pressure as they have to attend to many kids as possible in a short given time.
When it comes to schools it is even worse because the available infrastructure can't
accommodate many pupils at once, hence they are forced to over enroll because of
too many people wanting to enroll their kids.

Poverty in the family.

Poverty is also one of the negative effects of the matter at hand in Wusakile as,
many families have no better ways of keeping families, they do not work so they
survive on the little they get, Now when new born babies are brought into the
family, the situation becomes worse as they have to use the little they have to feed
all members of the family which causes not to have progress in life hence causing
more poverty.

Emotional problems.
Most of these teens who fall pregnant, experience a lot of emotional problems such
as depression as fig 1.3 shows. Most of the times men who impregnates these
teens, refuse to take up responsibilities, which causes these young expecting
mothers to start worrying as they don't know what will happen to their kids, how
they will afford to provide what is needed for them to grow health. All these issues
makes these teen to be depressed.

Affects the mother’s health & School dropping out.

The health workers talked to, said, the health of these pregnant teens are being put
into risks and sometimes during birth they encounter some complications as fig 1.3
shows. These teens becomes so weak as they give birth when it is not yet safe for
them to give birth and in most cases they drop out of schools as they have to be
looking after their babies and sometimes they drop out of school because their
health state can't allow them to continue..

3. MEASURES THAT CAN HELP TO PREVENT TEENAGE

PREGNANCY IN WUSAKILE TOWNSHIP.

Provision of Condoms and other Family planning Kits.

Condoms and other family kits should be made readily available to teens of
Wusakile Township so that when these teens engage themselves into sexual
activities they might not conceive and fall pregnant at their teen age.

Arresting of all perpetrators of sexual violence and Early marriages.

Fig 1.4 shows that the residents of Wusakile Township suggested the arresting of
all perpetrators of sexual violence and early marriages as one of the ways that can
help to prevent teenage pregnancy in the study area because no one will be able to
rape these young girls and this will prevent to who would be offenders from
practicing too. Early marriages should be abolished too, No one should sent off
their teens into marriage in order to prevent them to fall pregnant at a tender age,
Whoever send his/her daughter into marriage should be arrested and punished
severely to set as an example to others..
Construction of More clinics and schools.
Teenage pregnancy has caused pressure on public facilities such as schools and
clinics due to overpopulation, therefore there is need to build more of these public
facilities in order to meet the high demand by residents of Wusakile Township.

Empowering women and provision of employment to the residents of

Wusakile Township.
Fig 1.4 highlights that the women of Wusakile Township need to be empowered in
order for them to uplift their living standards by starting up small businesses such
as rearing chickens as fig 1.5 below shows. Once women are empowered they can
help in providing what is needed in their families.

Provision of employment by building up industries near the study area can help the
residents to start providing for their families and in turn this can keep away teen
age girls from engaging into prostitution for a living thereby preventing them to get
pregnant

Sensitization in Communities and Investing Heavily in the education of the

Girl child.
Fig1.4 highlights that the girl child’s education should be prioritized because when
more/many girls are educated it can make them to be aware of the effects of
teenage pregnancy and they can be able to make wise decisions regarding their sex
life. Organizations and groups should be made and funded in order for them to
sensitize the communities about teenage pregnancy and how they can practice safe
sex.
 PROBLEMS & LIMITATIONS.

 The area was too big, this made me experience some financial problems .
 The rains and dogs at some of the correspondents, created a barrier for me
to interact well with participants.
 Some residents couldn't read the question arises therefore I had to read for
them
 Some of the participants were busy at the agreed time and I had to make
several trips to their houses.
 Power outages during my research were encountered that made me to
finish this study late.
 CONCLUSIONS & EVALUATIONS.

The aim and objectives of this study have been achieved and they have really
shown that it is true there is rapid increase in cases of teenage pregnancy. Starting
from the causes that included poverty, early marriages e.t.c. To the negative effects
such as ; Overpopulation and poverty e.t.c. And lastly the solutions that were
suggested by people e.g Provision of family planning kits, Arresting of all
perpetrators of sexual violence. E.t.c

Therefore, there is a problem in Wusakile Township and it needs quick

intervention by government and other well-meaning and concerned stake holders,
if the future of a girl child is to be protected.
 RECOMMENDATIONS.
I recommend the following measures to be put in place if the matter at hand is to
be solved;
 Abolishment of early marriages.
 Arresting of all culprits involved in sexual violence and security should be
enforced in the area.
 The government should sensitize communities about teenage pregnancy .
 Fund the ‘Go back to school’ campaign in the community.
 Building up of recreational facilities to keep the youths busy and away from
sexual activities .
 Condoms and other family planning kits should be provided to the
community
 Employment should be provided to the residents of Wusakile Township.
 SAMPLE OF A QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME: …………… AGE: …. SEX: …….

1. Do you think that there is an increase in teenage pregnancy cases in

Wusakile Township?

If yes, what do you think are the causes?

______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_______________________.

2. What are the negative effects of teenage pregnancy in Wusakile?

______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________.

3. What do you think should be done in order to prevent teenage

pregnancy in Wusakile Township?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
________.