Full Length Research Paper
Abstract
The study explored community perceptions and experiences of the stakeholder’s role in teenage pregnancy prevention, using the community-as-partner model. The study was contextual with an exploratory strategy. The research design is both qualitative and quantitative designs. The sample size for the study was determined by saturation of data and consisted of 75 participants who were teenagers, parents, teachers, professional nurses and community leaders living in the study area. The qualitative data gathering method was self-report using a semi-structured interview. Template analysis style was combined with content analysis using open coding according to Tesch’s approach for data analysis. The findings revealed that although teenage pregnancy initiative was in existence in the community, the majority of participants, especially the teenagers were not informed about it. All the participants (n = 75) viewed teenage pregnancy as a common occurrence in the community. Majority of the parent sample (10 of 15) in the study discouraged the use of contraceptives by teenagers for pregnancy prevention. The study provided evidence of the applicability of the “Community-as-Partner” Model in the prevention of teenage pregnancy. The findings of the study gave an insight to the level of community participation in teenage pregnancy prevention. The evidence generated from the study could serve as a departure point for the development of community-specific interventions in teenage pregnancy prevention.
Key words: Teenagers, teenage pregnancy, community stakeholders, community-as-partner model, contraceptives, termination of pregnancy.
Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0