EVALUATION FOR TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION PROGRAM

Evaluation Plan for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program



Evaluation Plan for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

The contemporary societies are faced with the complex issues such as early childbearing and teen pregnancy and this issue has gained a tremendous amount of attention from educators, service providers, and policy makers in the past few years. Various experiences and researches clearly show that there are numerous factors and variety of reasons that are held responsible for the teen pregnancies, and it is not only associated with the consequences of teenagers involving into unprotected and unsafe sexual intercourse at an early age. There are many young people, for whom the matter of childbearing and early pregnancy comprises of much wider economic, social, psychological, and cultural factors, and these may encompass school failure, poverty, and sexual abuse (Lerner, 2004, 185). Moreover, a more complex matter is that, there are a large number of adult men who are usually the fathers of children born to teenage women.

The complicated issues become reasons to posing various challenges to the pregnancy prevention program planners. It does not have to be accepted that there does not exist any "magic solution" to the solution of teen pregnancy nor will a single intervention work for all teens. It is no use for the societies and communities to look and aim for a quicker solution to the lower birth or pregnancy rates during a short time period. This paper will discuss and present an evaluation program for the teenage pregnancy issue.

Teen Pregnancy

The concept of teenage pregnancy relates to the prevalence of pregnancy condition in the female who fall in the age bracket of 20 years and below (when the pregnancy ends). This condition of pregnancy may occur as early as two weeks before menarche (the first menstrual period), and this signals the probability of fertility; however, it generally takes place after menarche. In those girls who are well-nourished and healthy, the menarche generally begins during the age segments 12 or 13. The beginning of the biological fertility and its outcome as teenage pregnancy relies upon numerous societal and personal factors. The rates of the teenage pregnancy have varying trends in different countries and geographical regions due to the dissimilar patterns in the sexual activity levels, the provision of general education regarding sex and access to easier and affordable contraceptive options (St. Pierre, Mark, Kaltreider, & Aikin,1995, 69). The rates of teenage pregnancy vary from 143 per 1000 in some sub-Saharan African countries to 2.9 per 1000 in South Korea globally.

The pregnant teenagers counter most of the similar obstetrics issues which are faced by the women in their 20s and 30s. However, there exist various added medical issues and complexities that are countered by the mothers who are younger than 15 years of age. There are more socioeconomic risks than other biological risks that are present for the mothers who are in the age bracket of 15 and 19 years. However, it has been depicted by various researches and investigative studies that ...