Teenage pregnancy and its prevention: meanings attributed by a group of school adolescents

Objective: to identify and analyze the meanings attributed by school adolescents to teenage pregnancy and its prevention Method: Qualitative approach, in approximation with the ethnographic method. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews, in total 20 adolescents of both sexes participated. The analysis was carried out according to the meaning interpretation method. Results: two themes emerged: “information for preventing teenage pregnancy” and “repercussions of teenage pregnancy”. In general, the adolescents reported that the information they had access to came mainly from their mothers and they considered that getting pregnant and having children as a teenager brings difficulties, with an emphasis on the consequences for the teenage mother. Conclusion: Teenage pregnancy did not appear to be of significant importance among peers in the context studied, in terms of culturally learned roles. On the other hand, the information process on sexual and reproductive health was weakened, as was the use of contraceptive methods. It is believed that these teenagers took advantage of all the information they had access to and were encouraged to adopt some form of contraception, motivated by future desires and dreams.