School trajectory and teenage pregnancy in three Brazilian state capitals.
This paper describes the relationship between school trajectory and incidence of teenage pregnancy. A cross-sectional residence-based questionnaire was applied, interviewing 4,634 youth ages 18 to 24 years, selected through a stratified three-stage sample. For the present study, young people ages 20 to 24 years (65.6%) were chosen, with teenage pregnancy rates of 29.5% for females and 21.4% for males (in relation to their partners). Sexual debut was reported by 87% of women and 95.3% of men. The majority of young people reported irregular school trajectory, with 39% enrolled in school at the time of the study. Nearly half of those who had interrupted their studies at least once reported a teenage pregnancy. The main reasons for interrupting their studies were pregnancy and children for women and work for men. School dropout due to teenage pregnancy was mentioned by 40.1% of women for whom the outcome of pregnancy was a child. However, 20.5% had already dropped out of school before becoming pregnant.
Almeida
Maria da Conceição C
Mda C
Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brasil. mcca@ufba.br
Aquino
Estela M L
EM
de Barros
Antoniel Pinheiro
AP
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012741:Sexual Maturation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*