INVESTIGATING THE COPING STRATEGIES TO TEENAGE PREGNANCIES

Abstract

Many third world countries are swimming in the pool of complicated development issues without knowing what to do or how to come out of them. The research deals with Teenage pregnancy as an identified development problem on the increase in recent times thus calling for collective efforts of governments, parents, clergies, stakeholders, youth and every concerned citizen to help address this social problem the earlier the better. One cannot afford to see our youths, who are the upcoming leaders, to be destroyed through teenage pregnancy their dreams and aspiration for the future are completely thwarted as a result of action. As a concerned citizen and a youth development worker I am adding my voice to the masses to address this social blight which is invading our society rapidly. The research focuses on the investigating of coping strategies to teenage pregnancy as a development issue calling for the necessary attention across the board. Research Objectives focuses on causes of teenage pregnancy among the household based in Dagoretti North constituency, Nairobi County, analyzing the effects of teenage pregnancy to the household development, investigating the coping strategies to teenage pregnancies, Analyze the sustainability of the strategies in relation to development and recommend other strategies for coping teenage pregnancies.As a qualitative research that involves use of a case study, this principal design is appropriate when dealing with community development issues, the context considered in most cases. Both primary and secondary sources of information were used. The researcher used questionnaires, unstructured in-depth interviews and participatory rural appraisal. This made work easier with the assistance from village elders and chiefs getting a list of people from a legal office who gave guidance. Through their assistance, the list of people in the sampling area was obtained to help in systematic sampling. The obtained information was transcribed, coded to obtain themes and categorize it to get the intended hypothetical solution. Traveling too as organized by the researcher to interview sampled population within the targeted area was equally applied. The data collected was analyzed using tables, pie charts and concept mapping. The findings implied a big percentage of female gender, secondary level of education and the age between 25 and 45 being the population fully interested in the study. Findings depict the need to cope with the teenage pregnancy as a development issue among many households.