Name: Jessabelle O.

Arias Subject:RDL 2
Grade/Strand/Block: HUMSS 12-03

Research Title: The Effects of Teenage Pregnancy to the Behavior of Senior High
HUMSS Learners

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the relevant literature and studies that the
researcher considered in strengthening the importance of the present
study.It also presents the synthesis of the art to fully understand the
research for better comprehension of the study.

Teenage pregnancies that are unplanned may lead to impulsive decision-

making, and pressure from parents, peers, society and school may have
an impact on the decisions teens make (Wirkus & Maxwell, 2012:5).
Their inability to see future consequences for their behaviour as well as
psychological immaturity puts them at risk (Mokwena, 2003:49).
Adolescents who have suffered the death of a loved one, separation or
divorce of their parents or a major change such as moving or changing
schools may have depression and a subsequent increased vulnerability to
teen pregnancy (Varga, 2003).Severe emotional disturbance (SED) has
been defined as the display of behavioural difficulties in pregnant
adolescents, sometimes as a result of internal distress (feelings of
sorrow, anger, anxiety, frustration, disappointment), that are persistent
over time and disrupt learning (Yampolskaya, Brown Greenbaum,
2002:65).

When pregnancy interrupts an adolescent‟s education, a history of poor

academic performance usually exists (Jonathan, Klein, MPH & the
Committee on Adolescence, 2005:57). Jonathan et al. (2005) further
state that having repeat births before 18 years of age has a negative
effect on high school performance and completion and that factors
associated with school performance and increased high school
completion for pregnant teenagers include race, being raised in a smaller
family, presence of reading materials in the home, employment of the
teenager‟s mother, and having parents with higher education.

In the Daily News (23 July 2011) Allen quotes a statement by

Thompson (2009) that “Teenage pregnancy is associated with poor high
school performance and decreased earnings later on in life”. Mpaza
(2006:25) maintains that once the baby is born, the teenage mother
needs more time.parenting the baby and much of the responsibility is
carried out during the night, which leaves the teenager with less time to
study and do homework – the ultimate consequence of this being a
teenage mother failing to concentrate in the classroom because she
would be feeling drowsy and exhausted, leading to poor performance in
school subjects and failure. This study tried to establish whether or not
educators perceive teenage pregnancy as having a negative effect on
school performance.According to Kearney (2008:451), teenage
pregnancy and its complications often predispose school non-attendance,
dropout and permanent leaving of school. Teenage parents are more
likely to drop out of school, continue to have non-marital pregnancies,
change jobs more frequently, be on welfare,and have mental and
physical health problems (Malhotra, 2008:89)

Children of teenage parents are at a high risk of courting problems

ranging from lower intellectual and academic achievement to
behavioural problems, and are less likely to graduate from high school
(Wirkus & Maxwell, 2012:5). O‟Hollaran (1998) states that
earlychildbearing contributes to lower levels of educational attainment
for the adolescent mother and her child, high rates of single parenthood,
larger family size and increased reliance on public assistance. Mohase
(2006) conducted his study about teenage pregnancy and school
performance in Soshanguve secondary schools, Pretoria, where he found
that learners who have children do not perform better in general terms
than those who do not have children. Mohase (2006) used quantitative
method.