Ai FOREIGN LITERATURE

According to the World Health Organisation (2023), teenage pregnancy is more prevalent in
young people who have less education or who come from low-income homes. Girls are
more likely to become pregnant when they are sexually abused and marry children, even if
they don’t plan to get pregnant. Additionally, a lot of teenagers have trouble accessing and
using contraception, which raises the possibility of unplanned births. A significant
emphasis is being placed on enhancing healthcare for teenagers who are pregnant or
parenting in light of these difficulties. Groups such as the World Health Organisation
(WHO) collaborate with partners to increase public knowledge of adolescent pregnancy,
collect data for practical intervention, and assist nations in formulating policies and
initiatives to tackle this problem.

According to Wong (2019), children of teenage moms confront a number of obstacles, such
as a greater chance of preterm delivery, trouble learning fundamental skills, and poorer
scholastic achievement in comparison to their peers. They also have a higher chance of
becoming adolescent parents themselves, in part because of common experiences like
family instability and poverty. Despite not being genetically predisposed, teenage
pregnancy frequently continues over generations as a result of these causes. Furthermore,
adolescent motherhood can exacerbate pre-existing disadvantages by adding new levels of
difficulty for both the parent and the kid. Because of this, kids born to adolescent moms
frequently begin school later than their peers, which puts them at a disadvantage and
creates lifelong difficulties for them.

Adolescent Pregnancy and Its Outcomes Across Countries (2022) Adolescent pregnancies
frequently take place in environments with difficult social and economic circumstances.
Poverty, restricted access to healthcare and education, and a dearth of career progression
chances are a few examples of these conditions. A adolescent girl’s capacity to pursue
higher education or employment prospects may be severely limited, and her educational
career may be severely disrupted. The ramifications of this disturbance may extend to her
future financial opportunities and general welfare. Adolescent pregnancies may also
indicate more significant issues within the community, such as inadequate resources for
young women, cultural expectations surrounding early motherhood, and a lack of sex
education.

Comprehensive initiatives to increase young women’s access to economic, healthcare,

and educational opportunities are needed to address these underlying problems. Positive
social standards must also be promoted, and pregnant teenagers who want to complete
their schooling and make future plans for themselves must be supported. Societies can
lessen the frequency of teen pregnancies and foster more supportive environments for
young women by addressing these underlying reasons.

Teenage pregnancy is more common when social factors such low family income and
education levels are present (CDC, n.d.). Some adolescent populations are more
vulnerable than others; foster children, for example, have a pregnancy rate more than twice
as high as that of non-foster parents. In addition, there is a greater likelihood that children
born to teenage moms will perform worse academically, drop out of high school, have
health problems, get arrested when still in their teens, become teenage parents, and
struggle with unemployment when they are young adults. The intricate issues that
teenagers and their kids confront are exacerbated by these socioeconomic determinants
of health, underscoring the significance of tackling wider societal disparities in order to
lower the rate of adolescent pregnancies and enhance the prospects of newly formed
families.

According to Andrews (2019), although early pregnancy is a global problem, it is more

prevalent in underprivileged and marginalised groups. There is a lot of pressure on young
ladies to get married and have families. Girls who are denied the freedom to make
decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health frequently become pregnant as
teenagers. This lack of agency can have detrimental socioeconomic effects in addition to
poor maternal and child health outcomes. Approximately 90% of births to girls between the
ages of 15 and 19 occur in early marriages in underdeveloped nations, where power
disparities frequently prevent moms from being able to speak up for their daughters.

Inadequate education or dropping out of school are other factors that contribute to
teenage pregnancies. These include sexual violence, early and forced marriage, which can
both cause and result from teenage pregnancy, sexual violence, and limited access to
youth-friendly services.