Social, cultural and economic causes of secondary schoolgirls pregnancies implication for counselling in Pokot South Sub County of West Pokot County, Kenya.

Abstract

Pregnancies among secondary school girls are on the rise globally and in Kenya. As a social problem, it has adverse effects on the girls‟ academic performance, and career development as it results in girls dropping out of school and some are forced to early marriages. Despite efforts to prevent girls dropping out of school due to pregnancies, there is still evidence of high prevalence of pregnancy among girls in secondary school. This study therefore sought to establish social, cultural and economic causes of secondary school girls‟ pregnancies: Implication for counseling in Pokot South Sub County of West Pokot County, Kenya. The researcher adopted ex-post-facto survey research design. There were 18 public Secondary Schools in Pokot South-Sub County which had target population of 2436, constituted 18 head teachers, 18 head teacher counselors and 2400 students. Six girls‟ schools were purposefully chosen with population of 462 forms twos and threes who were enrolled by March 2017. A sample size of 210 students, in addition of 6 head teachers and 6 head teacher counselors to a total of 222 who participated in the study. A similar questionnaire for all respondents and oral interview schedule for teacher counselors and head teachers was used to generate the data. Reliability value obtained was 0.82. The content validity of the instrument was ascertained with the assistance of the supervisor and experts from the Department of Psychology, Counseling and Educational Foundations of Egerton University. Data collected was analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program and presented in tables of frequencies and percentages. The study established, Social causes of pregnancy in the area of study as peer influence, media influence, neglect by parents, dating early and low self-esteem. Cultural causes as silence behaviour, it is taboo to talk about sex and sexuality matters, polygamous families and preserving tradition. Economic causes as poverty, unemployment, girls living high lives, for their parents to meet, bride wealth and infrastructure as among the factors predisposing Secondary School girls to pregnancy. The study recommends that the government, the Ministry of Education, School administrator, teacher counselors, parents and the entire community to have collective responsibility and realistic policies to address the surge of adolescents pregnancies. This implies that a combination of strategies with stakeholder involvement is needed to come up with a comprehensive solution to these early pregnancies.