Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to critically determine the impact of communal child-rearing
approach on the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Vhembe District, in order to develop
facilitation tools from which the parents can be empowered on the constructive parenting
approaches, specifically for a girl-child and teenage girls against the prevalence of teenage
pregnancy. This study further empowers the teenage girls in particular growing-up in Vhembe
District with the chance of healthy development and future favourable womanhood. A
combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches was used to conduct the study, with a
quantitative description and exploratory study design. A total of 400 participants, mainly
teenage girls, participated in a quantitative approach. Then 16 pregnant teenage girls, 19
teenage mothers, 6 key informants and 23 parents of pregnant teenage girls and mothers
participated in a qualitative approach. The participants for the quantitative approach were
sampled using the stratified random sampling technique because of the age-specific (13-19
years). Close-ended questionnaires were administered to them. The participants for in-depth
interviews were sampled using the purposive and snowball non-random sampling technique.
They were high school principals, teachers, and community leaders, pregnant teenage girls and
teenage mothers, and their parents.
Data collected through close-ended questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme. Frequencies tables were created to categorize variables
and cross-sectional frequencies tables were further created to show associations between the
variables. The data collected through structured interviews, matrices were created using content
thematic analysis. The responses were grouped thematically and, with the emergence of subthemes,
broad categories were generated to differentiate and explain the thoughts expressed by
the participants. The study findings suggest that the prevalence of teenage pregnancy is purely
a social behavioral problem develop through critical parenting practices and approaches. The
study concluded that the total blame for the prevalence of teenage pregnancy is in the way
parents raise the teenage girls, whether influenced by their socio-economic status, cultural
values, availability or absence of the other parent, etc. the primary lack of sensitive parenting
recognition of the prevalence of teenage pregnancy, critically placed the teenage girls in
Vhembe District in the prevalence of teenage pregnancy.
