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Stigmatization And Alienation Of Unmarried Teenage Mothers In Sub-culture
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What are their experiences
like during pregnancy and how did they resolve the challenges that
emanated from their unintended pregnancies? What socio-cultural factors
are responsible for their enablement to live out of the stigma?
An
exploration of the phenomenon of unintended pregnancy and their survival
strategies will not only improve our understanding of `their world',
but will also be relevant in policy formulation and working out
effective programmes that may better improve the socio-economic status
of unmarried teenage mothers in Agege area of Nigeria.
These are some
of the issues addressed in this study. Hence, this study explores the
experiences of unmarried teenage mothers with unintended pregnancies and
how they addressed their psychological and social consequences of their
pregnancy and motherhood, strategies adopted in resolving the stigma in
Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The
social stigma associated with being an unmarried teenage mother is so
much that it may lead some women to attempt or commit suicide. In our
social setup, pregnancy outside marriage is considered a humiliation
that will affect not only the mother but also her family. It is no
longer news in our society that young girls are being given out in
marriage at early ages by their parents or family members due to
pregnancy, financial difficulties or other reasons like cultural
inclinations.
Onigu (1978) pointed out that this causes decline in
the childhood as these girls become pregnant mothers in their teens.
Unintended teenage pregnancy threatens the objectives of the millennium
development goals (MDGs) as posited by Mathur (2003) which include;
eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal basic
education, promotion of gender equality and empowering the women,
reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria other disease; United Nations (2007).
Bayinsenge
(2010), is of the view that early marriage occasioned by unintended
pregnancy cut-¬off educational and employment opportunities and chances
of personal growth. A large proportion of unmarried teenage mothers face
emotional, physical, psychological, and social problems after pregnancy
and childbirth, such as obstetric complications, lack of education, and
stigmatization by parents, brother and sisters, relatives, etc. in
their communities. Another critical issue is that the responsibility of a
child born outside marriage rests solely on the mother. The lack of
support from family, relatives, society, etc. makes her living quite
hard and sometimes unbearable. Today we are faced with the erroneous
notion that unmarried single mothers are considered as `available' or
`someone easy to gain access to'. In this study the problems of
stigmatization of unmarried teenage mothers in Agege Local Government
Area will be looked into.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study attempts to examine Stigmatization And Alienation Of Unmarried Teenage Mothers In Sub-Culture (Agege Lga Of Lagos State). The study adopted a qualitative approach. While a total of 90 respondents were selected using simple random sampling, the research instrument was a structured questionnaire having both open and closed ended questions. Also, three hypotheses were tested in the course of the study. The finding reveals that Western culture fuels the pressure of unintended teenage preg ... Continue reading---
