The Teenage Pregnancy Pathway of Disenfranchisement: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Socioeconomic and Political Dimensions of Teenage Pregnancy in Selected Urban Poor Communities in Angeles City During the Pandemic

Abstract

The increased precarity in the conditions of urban poor teenage girls during the COVID-19 pandemic has posed the risk of rendering them vulnerable to experiences that act as pathways towards early pregnancy. This research thereby focused on uncovering the structural vulnerabilities and violence experienced by urban poor teenage girls in Angeles City during the pandemic that would precipitate their journey of becoming teenage mothers. Using a phenomenological and feminist approach, the study utilized semi-structured remote interviews with six urban poor teenage mothers and five key informant interviewees in selected urban poor communities in Angeles City. Through espousing the structural violence and intersectionality theories, the research linked the prior life adversities experienced by urban poor teenage girls during the pandemic to the vulnerabilities and pathways that facilitated their experience of becoming mothers. Results of the study reveal heightened vulnerabilities experienced by teenage mothers during the pandemic as a result of their life being subsumed in informality along with the gendered roles they play in the family. Subsequently, four pathways towards teenage pregnancy have been identified, including: (1) their significant lack of ASRH and FP-related information prior to early sexual encounters, (2) their deliberate non-use of contraception methods, (3) resorting to cohabitation as a prelude to sex, early pregnancy, and repeated pregnancies, and (4) the normalization of teenage pregnancy within lives of the teenage girls in the urban poor population. These findings point to the need to strengthen efforts to include the marginalized sectors of the youth, usually those tagged as out-of-school youths (OSYs), in the mechanisms of community interventions for SRH and teenage pregnancy during the pandemic, along with the need for revisions in ASRH or FP-related laws, policies, or programs in the country.