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Date
2009
Degree
BA (Hons) in Social Science
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights
Items in Esource are protected by copyright. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/copyright holder.
Abstract
CONTEXT: The issue of teenage pregnancy continues to be a growing cause for concern in Ireland today. It is seen by many as both an increasing burden on society and a barrier to achieving education and employment goals. It is the aim of this research project to explore the attitudes of Irish male and female secondary school students toward teenage sex and teenage pregnancy. METHODS: A quantitative survey design was used. Data was collected from 47 female and 54 male school students aged 16 to 18 from four schools in three areas of Dublin to examine attitudes toward teenage sex and teenage pregnancy. 58.4% of participants were from a deprived area and 41.6% were from a non deprived area according to the HASSE Index of relative affluence and deprivation. RESULTS: 63.4% of participants agreed that teenage pregnancy is a problem. 57.4% agreed that pregnancy acts as a barrier to achieving education and employment goals. Attitudes toward teen sex and teen pregnancy according to one‟s socio-economic status indicated a Spearman‟s rho value of .148 which is not statistically significant. There were few differences in attitudes toward teen sex and teen pregnancy according to gender. CONCLUSION: Teenage sex and teenage pregnancy are seen as issues amongst Irish secondary school students in both a deprived and non-deprived area. There were no significant differences in attitude toward teen sex and teen pregnancy according to area. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in attitude to teen sex and teen pregnancy according to gender.
