Assessment Of Factors Contributing To Underage Motherhood In Mwiki, Kasarani Constituency

Abstract

The terms „underage mothers‟ in this study are used to refer to girls under the age of 18 who have birthed and are involved in parenting the child. The study investigated the factors contributing to teenage pregnancy. It was based on the following objectives: to analyze the characteristics of underage mothers, to examine the push and pull factors that led to underage pregnancy, to analyze the attitudes of the teenage mothers towards motherhood and to analyze the parenting habits of the adolescent mothers. This study adopted a descriptive survey design. The location of the study was Mwiki, Kasarani Constituency. A sample of 57 teenage mothers from the 23 districts in Mwiki was used. Data collection was done using interviews, observation as well as questionnaires prepared by the researcher. The research findings indicated that 57. 89 percent of the teenage mothers birthed aged between 11 years and 15 years while the remaining 42.11 percent birthed aged between 16 years and 18 years. Financially, all of the respondents depended on family members and friends for support. 51.79 percent of the mothers depended on their parents and another 41.9 percent on their guardians. Of the total teenage mothers interviewed, 2.8 percent, said that their friends supported them financially. On the push and pull factors, the research findings indicated that while most of the respondents were from destitute backgrounds, none of them benefitted financially from having children as 63.16 percent got pregnant for their older boyfriends who they met in social gatherings. 28.07 percent of the underage mothers were sexually abused and the remaining 8.77 percent revealed that the babies‟ fathers were their biological relatives. In addition, the study found that 38.61 percent of the girls witnessed physical abuse while growing up, 29.82 percent had witnessed sexual abuse while 38.61 percent had witnessed emotional abuse. Only 43.86 percent of all the interviewees had not witnessed any of the three forms of abuse in their childhood. This study established that though peer pressure and dysfunctional families do play a role in contributing to underage pregnancy, the main factor is poverty which was articulated by their characteristics such as economic dependency and inability to afford a good education. It is the recommendation of this study that schools, churches and other communal institutions hold forums that engage teenage girls on how to cope with poverty and dysfunction in their homes. Moreover, The Department of Children Services should hold awareness creation campaigns in the media to publicize the rights of children, the responsibilities of parents to their children and the measures taken against fathers who abdicate their duties.