Teenage Pregnancy in Nigeria: Causes, Effect and Control

Teenage Pregnancy, a case of under-aged girl usually within ages of thirteen to nineteen years becoming pregnant, is a serious cankerworm that has eaten deep to the fabric of our societies in this contemporary period. The term in every day speech usually refers to women who have not reached legal adulthood to become pregnant. This study focused on the prevalence of this act among the teenagers in Nigeria. The study investigated the general causes, effect and the way out of this social menace in our societies. The study adopts descriptive method to identify basic factors and their effects as they affect our societies. Some of the root causes identified are poverty, peer pressure and media influence while the effects include: school drop-out, inadequate care for the child born by teenage mother, health problems and a host of other vices. The study suggested adequate parental care, eradication of street hawking and inculcation of moral values through religious bodies as ways of reducing teenage pregnancy in Nigeria.