Prevalence of Teenage Pregnancy in Schools: An Ecosystemic Approach

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the prevalence of teenage pregnancy<strong> </strong>in schools. The teenage pregnancy is a complex issue which does not only involve and affect one aspect of the child’s life, but involves and affects multiple system variables which interact with each other whilst influencing and being influenced by one another. This article examines, using the literature review, the occurrence of teenage pregnancy, synopsis of teenage pregnancy, factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy, implications of teenage pregnancy and existing efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy in schools.<strong> </strong>The results indicated that individuals, families, communities, organisations and nations are all ecosystems, and although none is an informationally closed system, the extent to which each level is connected to larger systems is associated with the degree of health exhibited by the ecosystem. To add, the findings shows that teenage pregnancy contributes to maternal and child mortality world-wide. This study concludes that the ecological framework is an approach that emphasises the processes of human development and occurs when the individual interacts biologically and psychologically with elements of the social and physical environment.