Factors associated with teenage pregnancy and fertility in Nigeria

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy and fertility are often debated in literature as reasons of health concern and as a social problem. In understanding the issues that are related to teenage fertility and pregnancy in Nigeria, the paper uses the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey Data. A subset of women age 15 to 19 is extracted from the women data. The article sets to find out the variables that predict the odds of a teenager being currently pregnant, have borne a child in the five years preceding the survey as well as either currently pregnant as at the time of survey or having had a child in the last five years before the survey.  The results show that apart from the age of the teenager, marital status is another strong predictor of the likelihood of being currently pregnant or having a child in the 5 years preceding the survey. An increase in age was associated with increase in the odds of being pregnant and of having born a child. Ensuring that female teenagers remain in school is vital to mitigating the negative outcomes of teenage pregnancy and child bearing.  The treatise in this paper shows that teenage pregnancy and childbearing is a severe policy mediation area if the trend of population growth rate will be curtailed.

Keywords: Teenage Pregnancy, Fertility, Nigeria, Demographic, Health Survey