Zambia faces a persistent challenge: 29% of young women are married before age 18. This in-depth study moves beyond statistics to examine the underlying gendered social norms that create an "enabling environment" for these outcomes.
Globally, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death among adolescent girls aged 15–19 years. In Zambia, nearly three in ten adolescent girls have begun childbearing, with rates as high as 35% in rural areas.
The objective of this narrative review of the literature was to present a detailed understanding of unintended adolescent pregnancies and explore the factors associated with these pregnancies, their consequences, and any gaps identified in the extant literature.
Despite recent policy reforms, such as Education Circular No. 2 of 2021 and the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Programme (SEQUIP) initiative, aimed at facilitating school re-entry, adolescent mothers continue to face considerable emotional, financial, and institutional challenges.
Condom education campaigns that aim to prevent early and unintended pregnancies can be undermined by local gender norms, religious edicts and ineffective sexuality education policies. In some schools in Ghana, both condom education and abstinence only education run concurrently.
Gender is crucial in understanding the sexual behaviour of adolescents regarding their condom use and sexual experiences.
Unintended pregnancy compromises many women’s and girls’ ability to pursue the lives that they want. The conditional unintended pregnancy rate (CUPR) is a measure of unintended pregnancy among women who wish to avoid getting pregnant.
This study investigated the factors predicting resilience among teenage mothers reintegrated into schools in Zimbabwe.
Adolescent parenthood is a significant issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, which can have adverse effects on mothers, their children and families.
Historically, adolescent pregnancy has been conceptualized as an outcome of child marriage, but in Southeast Asia, the contexts and drivers of adolescent pregnancy are less well-understood.