Teenage Pregnancy: Social, Economic & HIV Risks - Essay Sample

Introduction

Teenage pregnancy is associated with negative social and economic consequences such as low educational achievement, lower-income, and low-status jobs (Yazdkhasti, Pourreza, Pirak, & Abdi, 2015). It has also been established that adolescent motherhood is linked to an increased likelihood of unemployment, involvement in crime, and household stress. Another adverse outcome related to teenage motherhood is increased predisposition to HIV (Christofides et al., 2014)- implying that adolescent mothers have higher HIV prevalence than non-adolescent mothers. Parsons et al. (2015) have also reported that adolescent motherhood leads to low income, high unemployment rates, high illiteracy, and school dropout. Teenage mothers are also more likely to be dependent on welfare and to live in poverty than non-teenage counterparts (Odu, Ayodele, & Isola, 2015).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Welsh (2016) also found out that motherhood in adolescence leads to stigmatization. Although past studies have reported many social and economic consequences of teenage motherhood, there are no studies that have sought to examine the same issues in low-income neighborhoods. It is vital to address this knowledge gap because it helps to explore the unique social and economic experiences of adolescent motherhood in low socioeconomic neighborhoods. Findings of the proposed study will help in shaping policies aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy in low-income areas. Additionally, an understanding of the socio-economic problems of teenage mothers in low-income communities will help to develop appropriate strategies for tackling such problems.

Research Questions

• What is the educational experience of adolescent mothers who gave birth to their first child while in school?
• What is the employment history of teenage mothers regarding the types of jobs held and the duration of employment so far?
• How do teenage mothers describe their remuneration or salary throughout their employment history?
• How do teenage mothers describe their work experience following the birth of their children?
• How do participants describe the financial costs of teenage pregnancy?
• What are the household living conditions of teenage mothers?
• How do adolescent mothers describe family support following the birth of their children?
• What is the relationship between adolescent mothers and their peers/friends following their early motherhood?

Research Method and the Design That Best Align With Research Questions

The proposed study will employ qualitative research method. This is because it aims to gather participants' experiences regarding the phenomenon of interest to the study- the social and economic experiences of teenage mothers in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. It is worth noting that experiences cannot be quantified or numerically expressed; hence qualitative research method is appropriate for the study. Instead, participants' experiences can only be expressed in words.

Additionally, qualitative method is appropriate for the study because it yields rich, detailed data, and in-depth data in the explanation of a social phenomenon such as consequences of teenage pregnancy (Chandra & Shang, 2019). Moreover, open-ended research questions are best addressed using a qualitative research approach (Klose, 2019). In the present study, these questions start with 'what' and 'how' implying that there is no definite answer to these questions. Because of this, it is expected that each of the respondents will provide her detailed meaning of social and economic experiences of teenage pregnancy.

Phenomenological research design is the most appropriate for addressing the research questions. Phenomenology is a qualitative research approach that is focused on the commonality of a lived experience in a specific group of individuals. It is aimed at describing the nature of a phenomenon of interest to a study. This design best aligns with the research questions because experiences of a particular issue can only be addressed using open-ended questions.

An Explanation of Why the Qualitative Method and Design Are Appropriate Strategies

It is crucial to emphasize that qualitative research method is the most appropriate strategy because respondents' experience of a particular phenomenon (e.g., teenage pregnancy) can only be described in words and not measured using numbers. Additionally, when investigating the socioeconomic experiences associated with adolescent pregnancy, only a purposeful sample is suitable. That is, the researchers choose participants for a study based on their ability to provide illuminative and in-depth information related to the issue being explored (Spalding University Library, 2019). In the proposed study, only teenage mothers from low-income communities can best provide data suitable for addressing the problem statement.

Moreover, it is crucial to note that the qualitative research method best addresses the problem statement and research questions because it is naturalistic. The term 'naturalistic' means a study of real-world situations as they occur naturally without manipulations and control (Silverman, 2019; Wadsworth, 2016). That is, the researcher shows openness to anything that emerges in the data or does not show an inclination towards specific results (Roth, 2019).

Furthermore, it is worth noting that the phenomenological research design adequately addresses the problem statement and research questions because it seeks to unearth participants' experiences of social phenomena (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2017). Consequently, open-ended questions are suitable for phenomenological research design because they do not limit participants to specific responses but allows them to describe their understanding and experience of every phenomenon addressed in the research questions (Deloach, 2016; Withey, 2015).

References

Brymer, E., & Schweitzer, R. (2017). Phenomenology and the extreme sport experience. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Chandra, Y., & Shang, L. (2019). Qualitative research using r: A systematic approach. New York, NY: Springer.

Christofides, N. J., Jewkes, R. K., Dunkle, K. L., Nduna, M., Shai, N. J., & Sterk, C. (2014). Early adolescent pregnancy increases the risk of incident HIV infection in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: A longitudinal study. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 17(1), 18585. https://doi.org/10.7448/IAS.17.1.18585

Deloach, S. D. J. (2016). An answer to disenfranchised students: High school credit-recovery and acceleration programs increasing graduation rates for disenfranchised, disengaged, and at-risk students at nontraditional alternative high schools. Irvine, CA: Universal-Publishers.

Klose, M. (2019). The Customer Journey in Omnichannel Retail. An exploratory requirements analysis for a customer journey modelling and analysis tool. Munich, Germany: GRIN Verlag.

Odu, B. K., Ayodele, C. J., & Isola, A. O. (2015). Unplanned Parenthood: The socioeconomic consequences of adolescent childbearing in Nigeria. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(31), 15-19. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1083405.pdf

Parsons, J., Edmeades, J., Kes, A., Petroni, S., Sexton, M., & Wodon, Q. (2015). Economic impacts of child marriage: A review of the literature. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 13(3), 12-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2015.1075757

Roth, W.-M. (2019). Empowering students as self-directed learners of qualitative research methods: Transformational practices for instructors and students. Leiden, Netherlands: BRILL.

Silverman, D. (2019). Interpreting qualitative data. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Spalding University Library. (2019). Spalding university library: Edd-904: understanding & using data: characteristics of qualitative research. //library.spalding.edu/c.php?g=461133&p=3153021

Wadsworth, Y. (2016). Everyday evaluation on the run, third edition. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Welsh, E. C. (2016). The negative effects of the stigma on adolescent pregnancy and motherhood. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ahmed_Alif/publication/301729188_A_Proposed_Method_to_Study_Immigrant_Obesity_Rates_in_New_York_City/links/5724339408ae262228aa7b47.pdf#page=17

Withey, D. P. (2015). The relationship between chaotic events and credit union leadership practices: Solutions to chaotic events in organizational cultures. Bloomington, IND: AuthorHouse.

Yazdkhasti, M., Pourreza, A., Pirak, A., & Abdi, F. (2015). Unintended pregnancy and its adverse social and economic consequences on the health system: A narrative review article. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 44(1), 12-21. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449999/