A Survey on Adolescent Pregnancy and Sexual Perceptions and Behavior of Young Women in Metro Manila

Abstract

Biologically speaking, since puberty, adolescent females are ready to reproduce, therefore ready to start sexual life. However, that is not true. Emotional aspects besides social, economic, cultural and many other factors play major influence in the sexual initiation of each individual. Today, this initiation is happening more and more prematurely. More and more adolescents precociously start to initiate their sexual lives as consequence of diverse factors. And most of the time the repercussions are not always positive More and more young women engage in early sexual intercourse or premarital sex. While only a little more than half of the sexually active population of young women get pregnant before the age of 21, the number is still alarming also when you consider the number of young women who resort into abortion practices as a way of resolving their unplanned pregnancy. Identifying patterns of behavior among sexually active young females, from those who have not had any form of sexual experience up to those who have had abortion, is a great undertaking; considering its entire contribution not only to the understanding of young females but also to the intervention of looming social crises that are the effects of sexual behavior, e.g. spread of sexually transmitted diseases and increase in adolescent pregnancies among many others. Key Words: adolescent pregnancy, young female sexual perceptions and behavior, premarital sex, influential factors among adolescents, patterns of behavior.