The influence of phone usage in prevention of teenage pregnancies among adolescents in Kamwokya, Nakawa Division, Kampala District

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that Influence of Phone Usage in Prevention of Teenage Pregnancies among Adolescents in Kamwokya, Nakawa Division, Kampala District. The main objective of the study included; To assess the influence of phone usage on prevention of teenage pregnancy among youth aged 15-19 years and Specific objectives were To identify the different ways teenagers, use social media to get information about pregnancy, To assess the ways social media influences teenage behavior towards pregnancy and the third objective was To highlight ways of making social media more effective in the prevention of teenage pregnancy. The researcher generated research questions under which the data collection tools were developed and these were as follows; What is the relationship between social media and teenage pregnancy? What potential does social media have for public health communication? What best practices can be employed to make social media an effective tool in the prevention of teenage pregnancy? During the study, A cross sectional research design was used in the study since it gives room for providing information while assessing the influence of social media on the prevention of teenage pregnancy among youths aged 15-19 years. This also allowed the researcher to collect data at the single point in time. Cross tabulation of data was also done by the research and it gave validity of the results. Literature was reviewed from previous studies and journals. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentage counts, categorical responses were then cross tabulated to analyze relationship between variables and to further ascertain their significance of association chi square tests were conducted and presented using frequency and percentage, cross tabulations. Qualitative data was thematically presented and reported in a narrative way. The study indicated that females were the major people interviewed with 74.3% while males were at 25.7%. the study also revealed that majority of respondents strongly agreed that social media influences teenage behaviours towards pregnancy in Kamwokya represented by 28 (44.4%), 23 (36.7%) of the respondents agreed to the research question, and those who disagreed represented by 12 (19%). Peer behavior can have a significant and negative impact on phone use and teenage sexual behavior. For teenage boys the peer pressure is linked with discourse of masculinity. The discourse of masculinity contributes to teenage boys exerting pressure on their female peers to then also become sexualy active and this has also contributed to teenage pregnancy in Kamwokya.