Chinese General Hospital Colleges

Bachelor of Science in Nursing

A.Y 2020-2021
COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING 2:
Population Groups and Community as Clients

RESEARCH JOURNAL: Health Statistics

Submitted by:
Samantha Danielle S. Perez
BSN – 3C
Submitted to:
Ms. Vilma P. Albo, RM, RN, MAN
A. Title of the Article: Socio-cultural and economic factors influencing adolescents’ resilience
against the threat of teenage pregnancy: a cross-sectional survey in Accra, Ghana

B. Author: Collins K Ahorlu, Constanze Pfeiffer and Brigit Obrist

C. Study Population:
Three out of the 11 sub-metros were randomly selected. These were: Ashiedu Keteke; La and
Okaikoi North with a total population of 117,525; 96,790 and 117,590 respectively. The study
applied a cross-sectional survey approach focusing on female adolescents aged 15–19years. A total
of 820 young girls were interviewed. Out of them, 692 were never pregnant girls and 128 were
pregnant girls or young mothers.

D. Methodology
A cross-sectional survey approach was used to interview 820 adolescent girls aged 15–19 years in
Accra, Ghana. A minimum sample size of 775 was calculated for the study. To attaint the required
sample size for the study, taking into account the adolescent population and teenage pregnancy rate
in Accra, 18 enumeration areas (EAs) (six in each sub-metropolis) were selected. Every residential
dwelling in the18 EAs was visited to identify respondents for the study. At the end of fieldwork,
only four girls refused participation, mainly because their caretakers refused to give consent.

E. Summary of the Research

The main focus of the study was to examine how social capital (various kinds of valued relations
with significant others), economic capital (command over economic resources, mainly cash and
assets), cultural capital (personal dispositions and habits; knowledge and tradition stored in material
forms and institutionalized) and symbolic capital (honor, recognition and prestige) contribute to the
development of competencies of adolescents to deal with the threat of teenage pregnancy and
childbirth. Out of 820 adolescents interviewed, 128 (16 %) were pregnant or mothers. Adolescents
in both groups (62 % never pregnant girls and 68 % pregnant/young mothers) have access to social
support, especially from their parents. Parents are taking the place of aunts and grandmothers in
providing sexual education to their adolescent girls due to changing social structures where
extended families no longer reside together in most cases. More (79 %) pregnant girls and young
mothers compared to never pregnant girls (38 %) have access to economic support. Access to
social, economic and cultural capitals was associated with high competence together prevent or deal
with pregnancy among adolescent girls.

F. Recommendation
To the future researchers, it is not advisable to use quantitative approach because it did not cover
local constructions of categories mentioned by adolescent girls themselves. A longitudinal study
that follows adolescents’ overtime, preferably from age 10 to 19 years, may provide a better
understanding of the resilience of adolescent girls against teenage pregnancy.

G. Nursing Implications
Teenage pregnancy is one of the big problems that each country is facing right now, here in the
Philippines there are at least 40 to 50 children aged 10 to 14, give birth every week and we all know
that teenage pregnancies has many harmful effects not only on the teenage mother, but as well as
for her baby. As a future health care practitioner, it is our main responsibility to render a holistic
care to our patients. And by giving this holistic care, it includes engaging and supporting your
patients, providing the best care and giving them a proper health teaching. As a nurse, there are
various ways and methods that we can do in order to prevent teenage pregnancy and help in
lowering the cases here in our country. Since most of the teenage pregnancies is resulted from lack
of proper education about these issues, we could give them a proper health teaching and offer them
a broad range of birth control options to choose. By giving them a comprehensive education on
sexuality, they will have an idea on what are the do’s and don’ts that may result in lowering the
curve of our teenage pregnancy cases. Other teenagers don’t have access to different health
services, we could call on governments to strengthen national health systems and provide easy
access to teen reproductive health services that are convenient, confidential and low cost or free,
aside from that increasing the availability of contraceptive clinics for teens is associated with
decreased pregnancy rates. Lastly, this teenager has lack of communication and support from their
parents, so as nurse, we need to also need to encourage parents to speak with their teens regarding
sex and pregnancy prevention. We could educate the parent on educating their teens and providing
them helpful information. We could them that it is important for parents to use everyday
opportunities to talk to their teens about sex and tell them to Let their child know that it is okay to
discuss sex education with them. With this different nursing interventions, we could not just help to
prevent the teenage pregnancy in our community, but it is also one way to provide a holistic care to
our patients that may help them to live a health life.