CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Early is a stage in life in which the individual (male or female) begins to develop sexual characteristics. It is usually between the ages of 13-19 years. At this stage in life, sexual desires are often at their peak. Early years are in what Bible calls “ the bloom of youth” a time when their sexual organs develop and they become capable of having children.
Pregnancy begins at the moment a single spectrum fertilized a matured ovum (egg). In a normal ejaculation during sexual intercourse, about 200, 400 million sperm are deposited into the upper vagina, of this number; a few thousand remain within the virginal and die within 3 days. Only a few manage to make their way into the body of the uterus and move upward to the fallopian tubes where fertilization occurs. Only one sperm penetrates the membrane of the ovum to unit with the egg. When this occurs, a zygote is formed. The fertilized egg then makes its way down to the fallopian tube to the uterus for implantation. The journey to the uterus may result ton pregnancy.
Moreso, the fact that most parents pay less attention to their children, coupled with the fact that earlyrs today are growing up in a culture in which peers, television and motion pictures, music and magazine often transmit either covert or overt message that unmarried sexual relationship (specifically those involving earlyrs) are common accepted and at times expected behaviour have contributed immensely to the moral decadence rampant among our earlyrs. Education about responsible sexual behaviour and specific clear information about the consequences of sexual intercourse (including pregnancy, sexual transmitted disease and psychological effects) are frequently not offered in the home, at school or in the community settings. Therefore, much of the sex education earlyrs receive filters through misinformed and/or unified peers.
All these of course lead earlyrs into early dating behaviour (which lead to premarital sex) and early use of alcohol or other drugs, including tobacco products, which could lead to pregnancy. Research has shown that early dating at age 12 is associated with a 91% chance of being sexually involved before age 19 and dating at 13 is associated with a 36% probability of sexual involvement during adolescent or early (Mominic Marchiono, 2002). He went further to say that a sexually active early who does not use contraceptive has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant with in 1 years. My boyfriend was a cute guy, he had money and we could go places and have fun. When I missed my period, I realised something was wrong. How was I to tell mom? How could this happen to me? I was only 126 years old, and I didn’t know what to do “Nicole”.
However, to be pregnant is a right that is supposed to be shared with ones life partners unfortunately, due to various reasons, it has been abused by our earlyrs today. Statistically four in ten girls become pregnant before 20 over 900-1000 earlyrs pregnancies annually in united states, but reflects some of the realities faced by pregnant earlyrs all over the world. And about 40% of early mothers are under 18 years of age (Awake, October 8 2004). This is as a result of various factors, such as the effects of broken homes, ignorance of the conservancies of sexual activities, lack of sdelf-respect on the part of some earlyrs to experience sex, as well as their failure to take necessary precautions (for sample, having sexual intercourse without adequate contraception.
This in turn has lead to a high rate of school drop out, cycle of poverty, destitution, increased rate of abortion, emotional depression high level of delinquency, high mortality rate, reduced labour force as well as drop in the standard of living of the earlyrs involved =, their families and the society in general. It should be noted that both early mother and father may suffer economic hardship and fail to achieve their education and career goals, for example, at Texas in united states, early pregnancy and early marriage are reported reasons for leaving school, among many others, which are correlated to different specific aspects of social, economic and psychological needs that were not fulfilled (Galimbertti, Percy Anthonio, 2005). The related literature suggests that many students who dropout of school do not return.
Chase-Lansdale and Coley (1998) suggest that if they decide to dropout, 30% return and eventually graduate. Those who could not complete their high school (secondary school) education often find themselves in a cycle of poverty out of which is hard to break. Previous studies have also found that by dropping out of school, thus disrupting their education, the school leavers face restrictions and disadvantages in the labour market. Low wages would diminish their likelihood of improving their standards of living (Galimbertti, Percy Antonio, 2005).
Despite the continuous concern over the issue of early pregnancy and inspite of its captions in Egor Local government Area, only very few research investigations have been carried out to provide relevant social science and orthodox data or information for designing appropriate intervention policies and programmes to address the problem. It is therefore, imperative to advice earlyrs to abstain from sex and should be encouraged to postpone sexual involvement until marriage or until they are mature and skilled enough to handle sexual activities in a responsible manners as well as educate them on the adverse effects of sexual relationship/intercourse at early age. They should also be provided with information on pregnancy prevention if they become sexually active.