Teenage Pregnancy in the UK: Factors, Strategies, and Nursing Roles

This report investigates the issue of teenage pregnancy in the UK, highlighting the rising rates and associated health concerns for both teenagers and their children. It explores various factors, including socioeconomic and cultural influences, that contribute to this public health challenge. The report identifies and evaluates current health promotion strategies and policies aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and improving the quality of life for young people. Furthermore, it outlines the crucial roles of nurses across different fields, including adult nursing, child nursing, and learning disability nursing, in addressing the multifaceted aspects of teenage pregnancy. The report also discusses the importance of health communication strategies and campaigns, particularly in schools and communities, to provide sex education and promote informed decision-making among young people. Overall, the report emphasizes the need for integrated action across different sectors to support young women and mitigate the adverse consequences of teenage pregnancy, with a focus on promoting healthier lifestyles and preventing unwanted pregnancies.

Teenage pregnancy in the UK
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Table of Contents
1.) One health issue................................................................................................................3
2.) Two factors may influence the health of the individual and the wider society.................3
3.) Identify and evaluate a current health promotion strategy/policy to prevent illness and
improve quality of life............................................................................................................5
4.) The role of the nurse in terms of attitudes, knowledge and skills applied in the 3 other
fields of nursing......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Teenage pregnancy is known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in females under the age of
20. Teenage pregnancy is become one of the main concern in UK. It is noticed that mostly girls
below the age of 20 get involved in sexual activity and soon get pregnant. This lead to affecting
both teenager’s health and their children health. It is important to educated children so that they
can avoid such types of health concerns and live quality life. The present research will provide
factors that influence teenage pregnancy in UK. Along with this, a current health promotion
strategy/policy to prevent illness will be identified and evaluated. At last, role of the nurse in
terms of attitudes, knowledge and skills applied in the 3 other fields of nursing will be explained.
Further in this report health communication strategy and health promotion campaign will be
described for improving quality of life. Two factors that are socio economic and cultural may
influence the health of the individual and the wider society will be explained.
1.) One health issue
One of the health issues which is identified is related to increase in number of teenage
pregnancy. In England and Wales, there is continuous increase in teenage pregnancy rate from
last 8 years. It is analysed that in 1000 of girls mostly 21 get pregnant in the age of 18. Teenage
pregnancy lead to have poor health outcomes and also increased the chances of living in poverty.
Adolescent childbearing is increasing because of lack of sex education and it is also related with
the increased in risk of poor social economic and health outcomes for both mother as well as
child. The reason as teenage pregnancy is become public health issue is that most of the teenage
girls do not have much knowledge about health issues due to teenage pregnancy (Lemos, 2009).
The reason that teenage pregnancy is public health issue because of integrated action
across different sectors is needed to help young women avoid unwanted pregnancy and deal with
causes of pregnancy whether required or not (JENNIFER 2015).
Instead of different moral perspective about sexual behaviour, it is identified that teenage
pregnancy is both a cause and consequences of social exclusion. Teenage parnets are most likely
to come from deprived or socially excluded backgrounds (England, 2017).
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. There are various teenage pregnancies which are unplanned. Further, to become a teenage
parent can lead to increase in unemployment, poverty and poor health of women’s and their
newly born babies.
2.) Two factors may influence the health of the individual and the wider society
Two health issues which can influence the health of an individual and wider society are
socio-economic and culture factors. Socio-economic factor such as disrupted family structure,
low educational level, family income, poverty etc. can influence health of the individual and
wider society’s. . One of the most suitable factors is lower socio-economic status (Piquero,
Jennings and Gonzalez, 2016). From the five UK studies which are investigated have shown the
link between pregnancy and area of deficiency. Further, it is found that parental socio-economic
status leads to derive adolescent pregnancy. Therefore, lower socio-economic status leads to
increase the risk of early pregnancy (Bellis, Hughes, and Lowey, 2014). Apart from this, most
of the children who do not live with their parents become more involved in sexual activity. As
their first intercourse at the age of 16 years which is significantly associated with adolescent
pregnancy. Mostly parental close supervision, advice and concerns for their daughter or lack of
these all lead to have impact of children and engage them in sexual activity without having much
knowledge. (Mezey, Meyer and White, 2015). Teenage pregnancy can impact an individual in a
negative manner as in society, they do not gain any type social status and they also suffer from
unemployment and poverty. It is also considered as a major threat for their educational career.
Due to this reason, their education can have broken up temporary and permanently.
Apart from this, due to losing out their career and education make them suffer from pain
of disgrace it leads to make increase their health issues as they suffer from stress. Due to poverty,
parents avoid providing education to their children and lack of education make them move
towards the different path (Cook and Cameron, 2017).. Lack of sex education increases the
chances of pregnancy which can affect their health at the teenage. Marriage at the early age is
also one of the socio-economic factors which can affect health of pregnant women. Apart from
this cultural factor which can influence teenage pregnancy. For instance, imitating parents can
increase risk of teenage pregnancy. Most of the girl’s mothers got pregnant at the age of 17 years
which influence their children too to get pregnant at early age. Support of friends and colleagues
influence them to involve in sexual activity and get pregnant. As no one condemned them for
their actions that influence them toward sexual activities.
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There are various family, individual and community characteristics which have been
connected to teenage pregnancy. For instance, a teenage who are involved in the educations and
engaged in learning do not like to become father or mother at teenage. As they have positive
attitude toward the educations. However, at the family level when mother gave birth at the
teenage and have only high school degree then their children are more get married at teenage and
have baby before the age of 20 years. Furthermore, at the community level, adolescents who live
in wealthier neighbourhoods with strong level of employment do not like to become pregnant as
compared to those whose revenue and job opportunities are more limited. At present, those
people who are living in poverty are mostly often involve in live sexual activity. It is because;
families need to live in small house where parents do not get privacy and children who grow up
in such condition soon start engaging themselves in sexual activities. Hence, it can be stated that
girls who live in poor socio-economic condition are more likely to fall in early age pregnancy.
Teenagers mostly rely on information provided by peers and it leads to make them fall to teenage
pregnancy. There are many teenagers who carried out unhealthy and risky activities in order to
grab attention of peers and to show they are enough elders. At last, it can be said that lack of sex
education related to safe sex from the side of educators or parents lead to increase the chances of
pregnancy at early age.
3.) Identify and evaluate a current health promotion strategy/policy to prevent illness and
improve quality of life
Teenage pregnancy and early childbearing is considered as complex issues which lead to
provide an inordinate deal of consideration from health care providers, educators and policy
makers. Health promotion is known as the process which help in enabling people to make
improvement in their health and control them. There are various health promotion strategies
which can be applied in order to prevent illness and improve quality of life (Islam, A., Islam and
Hossain, 2016).
It is important to provide proper education related to the issues which can be occur due to
getting pregnant at the teenage. Along with this, children should be provided proper education
facility so that they get less involve in sexual activities. Proper health communication lead to
include verbal and written strategies which help in influencing and empower individuals,
communities and population in order to make healthier choice. Along with this health related
communication mostly lead to involve components of multiple models which help in promoting
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positive change in attitude, behaviour (Taffa and Obare, 2017). Health communication is similar
to the social marketing which lead to involve the development of activities and interventions
designed. Through using a variety of communication channel that can allow health message
through which an individual can easily influence Aim of health communication strategies is to
develop knowledge, attitudes, behaviours etc. For instance, it leads to increase risk perception,
influence social norms, influence social norms, empower individual to change and improve their
health issues. Health promotion campaign can be organised in schools, colleges and community
where younger age people can easily received information regarding sex education and make
aware their children. In order to make health promotion and diseases prevention strategies
successful it is important to implement policies, systems and environments which is supportive
of health (Ahorlu, Pfeiffer and Obrist, 2015). Policy is considered as a tool that help in
accomplishing health promotion and diseases prevention goals. Environmental change strategy is
also effective which lead to involve the physical, economic and social surroundings which can
affect health outcomes. Increasing availability related to the safe sex and provide resources
available help in promoting health related to teenage pregnancy. It is evaluated that providing
sex education help in improving the quality of life and make more aware related to the safe
sexual activities.
4.) The role of the nurse in terms of attitudes, knowledge and skills applied in the 3 other fields
of nursing.
Adult nursing
The role of the adult’s nurse in term of attitudes, knowledge and skills applied while
providing care to adults. Role of adult nursing is to the involve the physical and psychological
care to people from the early adulthood onwards or through the aging process. To provide care to
adults is one of the challengeable, rewarding, diverse (Cook and Cameron, 2017). In order to
respond the nurses, physical, mepronil and social needs, nurses should develop strong working
partnership with other healthcare professional and with multi-professional teams. It is important
to treat adults with proper care and fulfil their requirements that can help them in recovering their
health issues. It is important for nurses to learn practical skills and procedures which help in
providing benefits to the patients. An adult can suffer from one or more health issues such as
injuries from an accident, heart disease, diabetes etc. It is important for nurse to build a strong
relationship with patients with the aim of improving the quality of life. A nurse is accountable
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for a number of patients, each with different needs, therefore to highly organised, flexible and
able to prioritise them in effective manner (Acharya, Bhattarai and Chapman, 2014). It can be
stated that a good nurse is mostly highly observant and they can easily measure patients and take
responsibility in order to determine course of action for them. A nurse must have listening and
communication skills, caring, judgement and managing. Along with this, it can be stated that
communication and interpersonal skills are high important as because nurse to need to make sure
advice patients and their relatives in a circumstance which they are not able to deal with patient.
Child nursing
Child nursing is considered as rewarding and demanding career in which nurses need to
shows sensitivity, empathy and appropriate communication skills for getting succeed (Cook and
Cameron, 2015). While providing care to children it is important involve self awareness which
can be patient enough related to kids and considering the child psychologically at the time of
their developmental stages. Mostly it happens that children do not share their feelings when they
are sick. Therefore, careful assessments and experience clinical eye is required while providing
care to nurses.
Learning disability nursing
Learning disability nurses lead to focus on managing their clients for the longer period of
time in order to accomplish creative results (Whitaker, Hendry and Rycroft-Malone, 2016). For
nurses who provide care to disable people need to keep patience and have flexible ad highly
developed communication skills. to provide care to disable people is stressful and demanding as
because sometime nurses need to be assertive to make people with learning disability without
making any discrimination (Lara, Decker and Brindis, 2016). It is essential for nurses to plan
activities, social events etc with service users which help them in improving their quality of life.
At the time of providing care other health care professional need to be involved in it so
that effective care can be provided. Other health care professional who can involve are health
care assistance, supervisor and experts who are highly are skills and have knowledge related to
the disease from which service user suffers.
Conclusion
From the above report it is concluded that there are various factors which can influence
health of individual. Socio-economic factors are those which influence an individual to involve
in teenage pregnancy. It is important to provide proper knowledge regarding sexual activities to
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children which help in avoiding teenage pregnancy. People who have possess less education are
mostly suffer health issues because they do not possess much knowledge about health concerns.
Further it s concluded that parents should ensure that their get appropriate knowledge and they
become more aware about teenage pregnancy and its impact on health. At last there are different
nurses who perform their roles and responsibilities in different fields. Health promotional
strategies are considered as effective strategy in order to make community, children and other
aware about health issues and way they can affect quality of life.
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References
Acharya, D.R., Bhattarai, R., and Chapman, G., 2014. Factors associated with teenage pregnancy
in South Asia.
Ahorlu, C.K., Pfeiffer, C. and Obrist, B., 2015. Socio-cultural and economic factors influencing
adolescents’ resilience against the threat of teenage pregnancy: a cross-sectional survey in
Accra, Ghana. Reproductive health, 12(1), p.117.
Bellis, M.A., Hughes, K., Leckenby, N., Perkins, C. and Lowey, H., 2014. National household
survey of adverse childhood experiences and their relationship with resilience to health-
harming behaviors in England. BMC medicine, 12(1), p.72.
Cook, S.M. and Cameron, S.T., 2015. Social issues of teenage pregnancy. Obstetrics,
Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine, 25(9), pp.243-248.
England, P., 2017. Households, employment, and gender: A social, economic, and demographic
view. Routledge.
Islam, A., Islam, N., Bharati, P., Aik, S. and Hossain, G., 2016. Socio-economic and
demographic factors influencing nutritional status among early childbearing young mothers
in Bangladesh. BMC women's health, 16(1), p.58.
Lara, D., Decker, M.J. and Brindis, C.D., 2016. Exploring how residential mobility and
migration influences teenage pregnancy in five rural communities in California: youth and
adult perceptions. Culture, health & sexuality, 18(9), pp.980-995.
Lemos, G., 2009. Freedom’s consequences: Reducing teenage pregnancies and their negative
effects in the UK.
Piquero, A.R., Jennings, W.G., Diamond, B., Farrington, D.P., Tremblay, R.E., Welsh, B.C. and
Gonzalez, J.M.R., 2016. A meta-analysis update on the effects of early family/parent
training programs on antisocial behavior and delinquency. Journal of Experimental
Criminology, 12(2), pp.229-248.
Whitaker, R., Hendry, Mand Rycroft-Malone, J., 2016. Intervention Now to Eliminate Repeat
Unintended Pregnancy in Teenagers (INTERUPT): a systematic review of intervention
effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, and qualitative and realist synthesis of implementation
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online
JENNIFER K. K..2015. The socio-economic factors associated. with teenage pregnancy in
makoeni division., [Online] Available through:
<http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/16043/Liku_The%20socio-
economic%20factors%20associated%20with%20teenage%20pregnancy%20in
%20Makueni%20division.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y>
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