Teenage Pregnancy and Academic Performance in Nigeria: An Overview

Teenage pregnancies are a public health challenge in both developed and developing countries. According to global records, nearly 21 million teenage girls become pregnant each year, 10 million of them unintentionally [1]. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 95% of the world’s adolescent population [2]. Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa [3]. An estimated 45% of girls aged 15–19 are sexually active[3] and 23% of this group already have a child [4]. In addition, 1.3 million adolescent girls in Nigeria drop out of school every year [5]. A significant 7.3 million girls are excluded from access to education in Nigeria each year [6].

Some of the causes of teenage pregnancies in Nigeria are limited access to sexual health services, low knowledge of contraceptives and their use, unequal distribution of health infrastructure and services, and inadequate knowledge about sexual and reproductive health [7–9]. Teenage pregnancies are considered a leading cause of maternal and child deaths, school dropout, unemployment, and poverty among teenage mothers worldwide [1, 10, 11]. Studies have linked neighbourhood poverty, negative peer influence, weak parental control and relationships, lack of sexual health knowledge and risky sexual practices to causes of unwanted pregnancies [12, 13].

For example,Brahmbhatt et al. found that living in a poor residential environment, where access to basic amenities was a luxury, encouraged negative peer influence leading to early sexual debut among respondents. Socio-economic status was identified as an indicator of poverty in the neighbourhood. This makes teenage girls vulnerable to early social independence and may promote negative peer pressure [14]. The lack of sexual health facilities and recreational activities or community tasks to engage teenagers in the environment also exacerbates the consequences of risky sexual behaviour and increases the risk of unwanted pregnancies [14–16].

Pregnant students’ decisions to continue or discontinue their studies may depend on their academic performance [17]. Like all other adolescents, pregnant female students face the same challenges as other students because they are students first and expectant mothers second. Unfortunately, pregnant female students are treated with hostility, stigma, and ridicule by both teachers and their peers, which reduces their motivation to learn [18]. These and other difficulties increase the likelihood of school dropout among this target group. It is likely that the lack of adequate social and environmental support for pregnant teens may negatively affect their academic success.

Undoubtedly, getting pregnant as a teenager is difficult; therefore, the combination of pregnancy and school and lack of support can exacerbate the experience and discourage female teens from continuing their education. And because the United Nations considers education a basic human right, the lack of support for academic achievement or improvement can be seen as a violation of that right [5]. In addition, young girls and the female population continue to be denied their rights to social and economic prospects due to teenage pregnancies [5].

This has consistently exposed women to the dangers of domestic violence, lack of sexual autonomy, child marriage, unemployment, and poverty [6, 19]. In Nigeria, teen pregnancy-related school drop-out rates continue to increase the illiteracy rate of women [20, 21]. Despite the enormous resources devoted to preventing teen pregnancy, more females become pregnant each year. Which begs the question, “Should teenage pregnancy continue to deny females their fundamental right to education?“ Noting that if the causes of this pregnancy are not addressed, it may be more difficult for them to achieve academic success.

This supports the need to investigate factors that may affect the academic performance of pregnant adolescent students. These students can be motivated to pursue academic success by exerting effort in this area. Furthermore, this can improve the social and economic prospects of adolescent mothers and their children. Considering this, research has identified several variables, including peer attachment and sexual attitudes, as predictors of academic progress among expectant adolescents. Girls experience rapid physical, cognitive, and psychological development during their adolescent years [22, 23]. These abrupt changes frequently impair their capacity for reasoning, feeling, interacting, and making decisions [24, 25]. This makes them more likely to engage in sexual activity or seek external validation from peers [24, 25]. The trajectory of their peer associations can be a major determinant of how they respond to sexual health issues and their academic engagement [24, 25].

Current studies examining the effects of adolescent sexual activity on educational outcomes primarily argue that early romantic relationships are time-consuming and may impose significant emotional costs on adolescents, particularly if they are female [24, 26, 27]. Evidence from studies suggests that, sexually active adolescents’ girls are significantly less likely to invest in their own education [24, 26, 27].

Early sexual debut among adolescents in secondary school is considered a predictor of academic achievement. Frisco believes that early sexual debut can influence dropping out of the academic year or even hinder advancement to earn a diploma following post-secondary education [24]. The author linked unsafe sexual activity such as the lack of contraceptive measures at first sexual debut and teenage motherhood status to this claim [24].

Consistently Ventrina, also buttressed that sexual heterosexual engagement and non-use of contraceptive equally among adolescent students significantly predicted academic performance [28]. According to Ventrina sexual active students struggled to balance sexual engagement with academic concentration, and this affected their commitments towards their academics [28]. In addition, Kumar confirmed that adolescent students with average academic performance did not engage in any form of sexual activity, while students with poor academic performance engaged in sexual activity [26]. This suggests importance of sexual attitude on academic performance. Sexual attitude especially in case of sexual engagement and non-use of contraceptives can predispose teenagers to academic risks by reducing their motivation to learn, as well as their feeling of connectedness to academic performance.

Peer attachment is one of the most important determinants of academic achievement because puberty is a time when adolescents seek validation and acceptance from peers[25, 29, 30]. Therefore, the quality of peer relationships is critical, as it can determine success or failure. Thus, interactions with peers can be characterised as positive or negative, and both directions can determine to some degree the influence on adolescents’ academic performance [31]. An adolescent girl who maintains a circle of friends with negative influence who engage in risky sexual health and behaviours such as truancy, substance abuse, and unprotected sex is likely to experience peer pressure because she is seeking validation and acceptance from peers [25].

Maintaining such a circle of friends can reduce self-motivation to attend school or learn well, which in turn can affect academic performance[25]. In comparison, Liu et al. found in their study that students’ academic achievement was moderated by peer influence, meaning that students who were in a circle of friends with high academic engagement had high academic achievement compared to students who were in the company of a negative influence with low academic achievement [32]. Accordingly, Llorca et al. also found a direct relationship between peer attachment quality and self-efficacy related to positive academic achievement, while low efficacy related to academic achievement was directly related to negative peers [33]. In summary, the role of positive peer attachment in improving teenage girls’ academic achievement is important.

According to human ecology theory, a child’s environment and social interaction can determine their development. For example, the quality of a child’s environment in terms of access to school, a quality and accessible health system, and community activities to engage young adults can predict academic performance, onset of early sexual activity and other health risk behaviours [34–36]. The quality of a teenage girl’s environment, as mentioned earlier, can also determine the nature of her peer relationships, which can lead to negative or positive peer influence, which in turn can affect her attitudes towards sexual activity and academic success [34–36].

The neighbourhood environment plays an important role in shaping the personality and behaviour of the adolescent. The environmentalist believes that no child is born a genius, a slacker, or a criminal [37–39]. It is the environment that decides the outcome of a child. An adolescent girl’s propensity for deviant behaviour (risky sexual behaviour) depends on the type of peers she surrounds and associates within her environment [40, 41]. In an earlier study by Crane [42], school dropout and pregnancy among adolescents were found to be caused by a bad neighbourhood [42]. The study found that a bad neighbourhood predicted peer pressure and that this significantly influenced the acceptability of teenage pregnancy and school dropout among neighbourhood adolescents. In comparison, [43] found that negative peer influence and unhealthy peer relationships significantly influenced teenage sexual initiation, risky sexual behaviour, and pregnancies. However, studies have shown that individual health modifications can alter the negative effect of poor neighbourhood environment, unsafe sexual behaviour, and negative peer influence in adolescent girls. Behavioural control can alter the perceptions of individual and environmental consequences of negative peer influence on unsafe sexual practices. Improved sexual behaviour can foster self-efficacy, self-confidence, and self-esteem and in turn influence positive academic outcome.

Despite numerous studies on the causes and consequences of teenage pregnancy, teenage pregnancies continue to rise and pose a threat to the education and academic integration of pregnant teenage female students. The question arguably remains whether teenage pregnancy should continue to threaten the educational progress of this vulnerable population knowing that this will further increase female illiteracy and make women vulnerable to gender inequality, domestic violence, unemployment, and poverty. It is important to examine the impact of individual and environmental factors on the academic performance of pregnant female students in Nigeria as there is limited evidence on this topic. Studies in this direction can provide new insights that can guide policy makers in developing social intervention strategies for the integration of teenage students into the academic space. The current study examined the relationship between individual and environmental factors and assessed the relationship between individual factors and the academic performance of pregnant female students. The effects of these factors on academic performance can serve as a guide for policymakers and key stakeholders such as governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in developing culturally tailored interventions and policies that will benefit pregnant adolescent students. It can also improve the target group’s social opportunities. Furthermore, the findings may overlap with Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 6, which aim to improve women’s education, equality, and quality of life.