Introduction and Rationale
Teenage pregnancy is a global health concern that impacts the population of adolescent girls in many countries with different prevalence rates with similar persistence. Teenage pregnancy has been a pivotal public health issue for several decades due to the risks associated with bearing a child in adolescence for both a mother and a newborn child. According to the Office for National Statistics (2021), “the conception rate for women under 18 years decreased from 16.8 conceptions per 1,000 women in 2018 to 15.8 in 2019” (para. 1). Despite such a decrease, the United Kingdom still remains one of the Western European countries with the highest rate of teenage pregnancy (Baxter, 2021). With such a scope of this public health issue, the negative outcomes of teenage pregnancy necessitate additional efforts to prevent this problem.
Indeed, research and statistical data demonstrate the implications of teenage pregnancy. Conception in adolescence leads to deteriorated academic performance (Maemeko et al., 2018); moreover, it endangers the health of Research conducted worldwide on the issues related to teenage pregnancy reveals significant adverse perinatal outcomes, including labor complications, preterm birth, underweight, and other issues (Abebe et al., 2020; Indarti et al., 2020; Karai et al., 2019). Moreover, adolescents “have the highest rate of unplanned pregnancy, and around 50% of under-18 conceptions and 60% of under-16 conceptions end in abortion (University of Bedfordshire, 2021, p. 1). The predetermining factors contributing to teenage pregnancy include insufficient education, low socioeconomic status, and insufficient availability of health care services (Aluga & Okolie, 2021; Mohr et al., 2019; Paton et al., 2020; Wong et al., 2020). Thus, in the UK, the persistence of teenage pregnancy and its incidence imply threats to the health of teenage girls and their babies. This research study aims to focus on the prevalence and causes of teenage pregnancy in Barking and Dagenham Borough focusing on adolescent girls aged 15-17 years. This research will contribute to making informed policy decisions for minimizing threats of teenage pregnancy in the area.
Annotated bibliography
Jones, C., Whitfield, C., Seymour, J., & Hayter, M. (2019). ‘Other girls’: A qualitative exploration of teenage mothers’ views on teen pregnancy in contemporaries. Sexuality & Culture, 23(3), 760-773.
This research study was conducted among adolescent mothers with the aim of identifying their perception of teenage mothers of their peers. The methods used in the study were semi-structured interviews with the following thematic analysis. The study revealed that teenage mothers had positive self-representation but were exposed to social moralization and judgment. The study’s strength is the contribution to the understanding of teenagers’ perception of pregnancy and motherhood, which was lacking in the research discourse (Jones et al., 2019). However, the weakness of the research is its insufficient focus on problem-solving. The gap identified in this article is its failure to integrate the geographical considerations for perception patterns validation. The identified particularities of the reviewed research article justify the proposed study since there is an evident need for investigating the causes of teenage pregnancy on a local level with the prioritization of geographically and culturally motivated factors.
Hymas, R., & Girard, L. C. (2019). Predicting postpartum depression among adolescent mothers: A systematic review of risk. Journal of Affective Disorders, 246, 873-885.
This study was aimed at detecting the risk factors contributing to the development of postpartum depression disorder in teenage mothers. The researchers used the method of systematic review to analyze recently published studies for their coverage of postpartum depression in teenagers. The results of the study showed that the most influential contributors to depression in teenage mothers were low socioeconomic status, insufficient family support, and prior depressive incidents (Hymas & Girard, 2019). The strengths of this research are its contribution to mental health evidence related to teenage pregnancy and the integration of prior research on the topic. However, the small number of studies included in the review is a weakness of the research article since it does not allow for sufficient reliability of results.
The gap in this article is in its lack of articulation of the depressive syndrome in teenage girls exposed to abortion which is a significant issue in the context of mental health for teenage parenthood. The identified characteristics of this research article allow for justifying the proposed study. Indeed, they establish the necessity of deepening the exploration of effective strategies for coping with mental health impairments, as well as physical health risks associated with teenage pregnancy.
Ponsford, R., Allen, E., Campbell, R., Elbourne, D., Hadley, A., Lohan, M., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Mercer, C. H., Morris, S., Young, H., & Bonell, C. (2018). Study protocol for the optimization, feasibility testing, and pilot cluster-randomized trial of Positive Choices: A school-based social marketing intervention to promote sexual health, prevent unintended teenage pregnancies, and address health inequalities in England. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 4(1), 1-15.
This research study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a proposed intervention to mitigate teenage pregnancy in UK schools. In particular, the study used surveys, optimization, and feasibility testing to measure the outcomes of a proposed marketing intervention to educate students and ultimately minimize teenage pregnancy rates (Ponsford et al., 2018). The study’s results indicated that the implementation of such multidimensional interventions is capable of tackling the factors contributing to teenage pregnancy and filling the knowledge gap, thus structuring teenage sexual behavior. The strength of this research is the articulation of a practical solution to the problem. However, the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of the proposed solutions is a weakness of the research study. The gap in research is related to the limited attention to particular causes of teenage pregnancy with the generalization of the problem for the overall teenage population. Therefore, this gap justifies the proposed research study since it is required to validate the effectiveness of suggested strategies based on evidence and experts’ evaluation.
Aim and Objectives
This research is proposed to expand the understanding of the factors contributing to teenage pregnancy in a distinctive area of the United Kingdom. Therefore, the aim, objectives, and research questions of the proposed research study are aligned with the necessity to fill the research gap detected during the literature review phase. Indeed, the recent studies in the sphere of teenage pregnancy focused on generalized factors without precise attention to local determinants and their relevance to strategies for minimizing adolescent conception. Thus, this research is designed to incorporate data to facilitate evidence and knowledge capable of tackling the problem on a local level.
Aim: The aim of this research is to understand the causes of teenage pregnancy among 15-17-year-old girls residing in Barking and Dagenham Borough.
Objectives:
- To investigate teenage pregnancy rates in Barking and Dagenham Borough;
- To identify factors contributing to teenage pregnancy in Barking and Dagenham Borough;
- To determine effective interventions to mitigate teenage pregnancy.
Research questions:
- RQ1: What causes teenage pregnancy?
- RQ2: What is the prevalence of teenage pregnancy?
- RQ3: What strategies are effective in tackling teenage pregnancy?
Proposed Methodology and Methods
The research methodology for the proposed study is aligned with the research aim and goals and prioritizes improvement of understanding of the problem of teenage pregnancy. In particular, the research design of the proposed study is exploratory due to the necessity of collecting and analyzing data on the rate, causes, and strategies applicable to teenage pregnancy in Barking and Dagenham Borough. According to Nattrass (2020), “exploratory research is an important component of scientific endeavour especially when it comes to understanding society” (p. 4). The research approach within the context of the proposed study is a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative approaches due to the emphasis on the characteristics of causes and the rates of teenage pregnancy. The quantitative approach will be essential in measuring the rate of adolescent pregnancy, while qualitative data will be collected to inform causes and strategies.
The method of the interview will be used for this research. The planned sampling will be a non-probability or non-random sampling method, which will be used to select hospital representatives in Barking and Dagenham Borough (Pace, 2021). Overall, the representatives of 10 hospitals’ gynecologist departments in the area will be selected for the study. The process of data collection will be conducted via individual interviews with open-ended questions for the specialists. Moreover, the method of document analysis will be used to research and analyze statistical data on teenage pregnancy in the researched area. The data will be analyzed using interview transcripts, and thematic analysis conducted manually by repeated reading and listening to the interviews and thematic systematization of the answers. The data will be presented in the form of graphs and diagrams with descriptions of the most prevalent themes identified among the participants’ interviews and document analysis results. The credibility and validity of the research will be ensured through the use of methodological triangulation using both interviews and document analyses.
Practicalities
The anticipated limitations of the proposed study might be the subjectivity or bias in the interviewees’ answers to questions. However, the combination of interviews with document analysis will ensure the objectivity of information. Moreover, the validation of participants’ expertise and qualification as part of the sampling procedure will allow for guarantee the reliability and credibility of their statements. In addition, a relatively small sample of 10 hospital representatives might jeopardize the generalizability of the findings. However, given the scope of the proposed research being a small geographical area, the sample deems sufficient.
Ethical Considerations
Conventional ethical considerations of prioritizing privacy and confidentiality of private data will be preserved in the context of the proposed study. Since the issues f teenage pregnancy and abortion are considered sensitive, it will be guaranteed that no personal data about the individuals addressed in the study will be revealed (Baldwinson, 2018). In addition, the names or personal data of interviewees will be kept confidential according to the ethical protocol. Participation in the study will be validated by written consent obtained from all participants prior to conducting the interviews.
Significance of Research
The proposed research study is likely to become a significant contribution to the body of contemporary scholarly literature on teenage pregnancy. Given the focus of the proposed study in the area of Barking and Dagenham Borough, it will allow for facilitating locally relevant strategies for minimizing teenage pregnancy. Thus, the benefits for public health introduced by this study include addressing adolescent pregnancy risks, providing evidence for effective strategies, and overall elimination of this problem in the future.
Conclusion
In summation, teenage pregnancy is a significant public health issue endangering the well-being and health of young mothers and their children. The UK remains one of the leading countries in Western Europe with high rates of teenage pregnancy despite a recent decline. The proposed study aims at filling the research gap of insufficient localization of the problem by conducting mixed-method interview-based research in Barking and Dagenham Borough.
References
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Aluga, D., & Okolie, E. A. (2021). Socioeconomic determinants of teenage pregnancy and early motherhood in the United Kingdom: A perspective. Health Promotion Perspectives, 11(4), 426-429.
Baldwinson, R. (2018). Ethics for rhetoric, the rhetoric of ethics, and rhetorical ethics in health and medicine. Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, 1(3), 213-238.
Baxter, A. J., Dundas, R., Popham, F., & Craig, P. (2021). How effective was England’s teenage pregnancy strategy? A comparative analysis of high-income countries. Social Science & Medicine, 270, 113685.
Hymas, R., & Girard, L. C. (2019). Predicting postpartum depression among adolescent mothers: A systematic review of risk. Journal of Affective Disorders, 246, 873-885.
Indarti, J., Al Fattah, A. N., Dewi, Z., Hasani, R. D. K., Mahdi, F. A. N., & Surya, R. (2020). Teenage pregnancy: Obstetric and perinatal outcome in a tertiary centre in Indonesia. Obstetrics and Gynecology International, 2020, 1-5.
Jones, C., Whitfield, C., Seymour, J., & Hayter, M. (2019). ‘Other girls’: A qualitative exploration of teenage mothers’ views on teen pregnancy in contemporaries. Sexuality & Culture, 23(3), 760-773.
Karai, A., Gyurkovits, Z., Nyári, T. A., Sári, T., Németh, G., & Orvos, H. (2019). Adverse perinatal outcome in teenage pregnancies: an analysis of a 5-year period in Southeastern Hungary. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 32(14), 2376-2379.
Maemeko, E. L., Nkengbeza, D., & Chokomosi, T. M. (2018). The impact of teenage pregnancy on academic performance of grade 7 learners at a school in the Zambezi region. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 6(09), 88-100.
Mohr, R., Carbajal, J., & Sharma, B. B. (2019). The influence of educational attainment on teenage pregnancy in low-income countries: A systematic literature review. Journal of Social Work in the Global Community, 4(1), 2.
Nattrass, N. (2020). In defence of exploratory research: A reply to critics. South African Journal of Science, 116, 1-36.
Office for National Statistics. (2021). Conception in England and Wales: 2019.
Pace, D. S. (2021). Probability and non-probability sampling-an entry point for undergraduate researchers. International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods, 9(2), 1-15.
Paton, D., Bullivant, S., & Soto, J. (2020). The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence. Health Economics, 29(7), 790-807.
Ponsford, R., Allen, E., Campbell, R., Elbourne, D., Hadley, A., Lohan, M., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Mercer, C. H., Morris, S., Young, H., & Bonell, C. (2018). Study protocol for the optimization, feasibility testing and pilot cluster randomized trial of Positive Choices: A school-based social marketing intervention to promote sexual health, prevent unintended teenage pregnancies and address health inequalities in England. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 4(1), 1-15.
University of Bedfordshire. (2021). Teenage pregnancy a short briefing.
Wong, S. P., Twynstra, J., Gilliland, J. A., Cook, J. L., & Seabrook, J. A. (2020). Risk factors and birth outcomes associated with teenage pregnancy: A Canadian sample. Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, 33(2), 153-159.