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How Teens View Teen Pregnancy, Prevention and Sexuality

Ashley Lewis, Alexandra Meyer, Kathryn Moulsdale, Tiffany Notigan, Rion O'Connell, Christina Overton, Payal Patel, Danielle Piha, Carolyn Ray, Jennifer Rivera Faculty Advisors: Dr. Judith W. Herrman, RN, ANEF, Dr. Barry Milcarek School of Nursing, University of Delaware
Methodology Purpose
The purpose of the study was to determine teens' thoughts on sexual activity, pregnancy, and prevention.
This research study was based on a questionnaire given to high school students state-wide enrolled in a health class. All students provided assent and parental permission. Sixteen schools participated in the study. There were 856 respondents with a 95% response rate. The questionnaire, distributed by the principal investigator, contained 75 items and collects demographic data. This study analyzes page one, the demographics, and page four, teens views of sexual activity, pregnancy, and prevention.

Data Analysis
The survey was completed by 856 youth; characteristics of the sample are noted in Table 1. The survey included 31 items. These items were analyzed to determine significant differences in answers with responses being clustered as strongly agree/agree, neutral, and strongly disagree/disagree. For three items participants responses were largely neutral and were omitted from the analysis. For the remaining 28 items, variables were compared with neutral responses hidden such that comparisons may be drawn between agreement and disagreement with items. Of these 28 items only three did not demonstrate significance in differences. For the remaining 25 items, participants agreed with 16 items and disagreed with 9 items. These items demonstrated significant difference with p < .0.50. These are noted in Table 2.

Discussion and Nursing Implications


1.Teens believe that teens are having sex, they are informed on sex, have access to birth control, and still some will get pregnant a. Intervention: explain the impact of teen pregnancy on a teens life and have a teen mother come in to talk to the teens about the impact of having a child as a teen. 2. They have adults in their lives they respect and rely on for information, but the group was fairly mixed on whether adults are truthful about sex. a. Intervention: Have a parent/teen discussion group in order for all of the teens and parents to be on the same page with the same information. 3. Telling teens to abstain is not effective and telling teens about sex or giving birth control does not increase sexual activity a. Intervention: Instead of telling teens to abstain from sex explain the benefits of abstinence but also explain that if the teen does not wish to remain abstinent, what are some measures the person could do to prevent themselves from teen pregnancies, i.e. birth control, condoms. 4. They appear to be skeptical about the effectiveness of condoms but would access condoms at school if they were available a. Intervention: Provide education about using condoms and how they work and then give access to condoms in class. 5. They believe teen pregnancy is an important issue and that having a baby as a teen has negative consequences a. Intervention: Parents and public needs to be aware and supportive of teens level of knowledge 6. They do not believe most teen sexual activity or teen pregnancies are planned, teens are not thinking of having a baby when having sex, but some are desired. a. Intervention: Focus on interventions that help teens to engage in thought and critical thinking during an impulsive time. Individualize interventions to help teens understand their desire for teen pregnancy

Background/ Significance
In 2008, Delaware ranked sixth in the nation for teen pregnancy rates and among the highest in the nation with regard to history of teen sexual activity, multiple sexual partners, frequent sexual activity, and young age of initiating sexual activity. Through research in the recent years, it has become apparent that todays adolescents are undereducated and uninformed of the repercussions of sex. Many teens understand that having a baby will alter their daily lives, but dont comprehend the non-immediate strains it will place on their lives and the lives of their families. In fact, research has shown that some teens believe that conceiving a baby will fix problems in their family and relationship. Teen perceptions of sexual activity, pregnancy and prevention are unknown. By understanding an adolescents views on sex, contraceptives, and teenage pregnancy, our community will be better equipped to adequately educate our youth on practicing safe sex to decrease the number or teen pregnancies and STDs.

Study Results Table 2

Review of Literature
Traditionally, research has shown that teen pregnancy and birth has a largely negative impact on the lives of the teen parents. Studies have found negative effects on various areas of the teens lives such as in development, relationships, and social activity. More current studies find that having a teen birth, especially impacts the teen mother attempting to complete her education and has a profoundly negative impact on the ability of the teen parents to obtain and maintain employment. On the other hand, there have been a few studies which have shown that adolescents may view teen pregnancies as having positive outcomes for their lives. These more recent studies propose that some adolescents may view teen pregnancy as a way into receiving more financial support, gain maturity, and as a way to cope with their economic disadvantage. To that effect, some studies have shown that teen mothers do regard some positive effects of their teen pregnancies and feel it afforded more respect from peers, greater sense of maturity, and a more positive self of sense. The research has yet to show the feelings of non-parenting adolescents taking into account their economic status, history of teen parenting in the family, religion and various other social factors. Knowing the different perceptions of non-parenting adolescents from various backgrounds would allow for more targeted and effective pregnancy prevention programs. This study addresses that gap in the literature. REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Sample Demographics Table 1

Conclusion
This robust sample revealed important findings concerning teen perceptions about sexual activity, pregnancy and prevention. The size of the sample was powerful enough to detect significant differences in beliefs. Due to the large sample size these findings may be meaningful for nursing interventions.

Limitations
This study is constricted by the following limitations: gender data was not collected for all of the participants due to placement of the item on the tool the length of the tool may have decreased its reliability such that many participants either left items blank or answered neutral a few schools revised the tool which altered its reliability the item related to financial assistance was phrased such that it was unclear to some participants confounding variables such as the time of say or peer incentives may have influenced reported results participants may have shared results with one another which may have decreased the validity of the results

Recommendations
create a survey that is more reliable conduct a qualitative study to get a deeper perception of teens views data collection methods should be more structured to prevent user revision

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