CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN BORNO STATE OF NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELLING

Abstract

The study was a survey that investigated the causes and consequences of teenage pregnancy in Borno State, Nigeria. A total of 1,500 parents participated in the study from 15 high, medium and low density residential areas of Maiduguri Metropolis. The sample consisted of 874 (58.27%) males and 626 (41.73%) females. A questionnaire tagged Causes and Consequences of Teenage Pregnancy (CACOTEP) developed by the researchers was used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques of frequency counts, percentages and rank ordering. Chi-square (x²) was also used to test the null-hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Results of the study indicated poverty, experimenting sex, early sexual debut, single parenting, broken homes, street hawking, lack of moral education, rape, peer influence and exposure to pornographic films as some of the causes of teenage pregnancy while abortion, expulsion from school, loss of self-esteem, risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, VVF, RVF, premature labour/birth and premature death were some of the consequences of teenage pregnancy in Borno State, Nigeria. Significant relationship does not exist between gender and teenage pregnancy as revealed by the study. Sex education/reproductive health education, moral education, discouraging street hawking and inculcating positive social values by counsellors, parents, community and religious leaders using both print and electronic (visual and blind) media, hand bills and staging dramas on the negativities of teenage pregnancy were some of the implications for counselling proffered. It is recommended that the Borno State government should stop girls from hawking, introduce females’ entrepreneurship centers and build counselling centers to engage services of certified counsellors with a view to halting the menace through moral/religious counselling.