Introduction To Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy can be defined as a teenage girl, between the ages of thirteen and nineteen, who has fallen pregnant. Researchers define teenage pregnancy as a social problem which has economical, educational and health implications. According to a retrospective study of women who attended a primary care clinic, women who are exposed to abuse, violence and family conflict during their childhood are more likely to fall pregnant in their teens (Howard, 2008:2). There are a lot of factors that contribute to teenage pregnancies. Teenage girls get pregnant for various reasons, for example: Contraception failure, getting drunk, not thinking, getting caught up in the heat of the moment, believing that they couldn’t get pregnant, feeling uncomfortable

BSc Sport Sciences

Teenagers, who are confident in who they are and how they look, want to show off, but some of them don’t know how to do this. This could lead to sexual attractions coming from both genders and also sex. People who are active are more likely to make impulsive decisions and when a situation occurs where sex is an option, this could be one of the decisions that they choose. When a person’s hormone levels are too high it is a better to go outside and be active in order to get rid of the testosterone. Sometimes athletes have intercourse before a race to increase their adrenaline levels.

BA Human Movement Science and

Measures that have been taken to date, such as abstinence, sex education, and contraceptive use, need to be supplemented to have significant results. In a survey done by the Women’s Sports Foundation; Sabo, D., et al (1998); the effect of physical activity on the behaviour of the young participants was compared to their non-athletic counterparts. Professor Dr. Diane H. Jones-Palms and Professor Dr. Jürgen Palms published a paper based on the research done by the Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000 and Gerlach, 1996 on the impact that physical activity has on health behaviour among adolescents. They found evidence that youth participating in sports programs are more likely to be aware of their overall wellbeing; eat more healthy foods, are less likely to smoke, are less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour, have lower overall alcohol use and are less likely to use illicit drugs or get engaged in violent activities. Solomon, N.M. (2002), also noted the positive interrelation between sports participation and teen pregnancy