Teenage Pregnancy and Academic Performance of Female Undergraduate Students in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka

The study investigated teenage pregnancy in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Three specific objectives guided the study. The study adopted the survey research design. The population for the study was 22,895 female teenagers in University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select six departments from the 17 faculties in the university. The sample size for the study was three hundred (300) female students. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study showed that sexual violence and abuse (3.52 ± 0.33), lack of information about sex education, (3.42 ± 0.38), lack of proper family training, (3.12 ± 0.45), peer pressure, (3.60 ± 0.32), negligence of parents on female education (3.11 ± 0.47) are social factors that cause teenage pregnancy. Again, inability of parents to provide basic needs (3.41 ± 0.39), poor economic status of parents (3.26 ± 0.43), hawking of goods by girls from low-income families for survival (3.38 ± 0.40) are economic factors that cause teenage pregnancy. The findings further revealed that teenagers who get pregnant in school perform badly ranging from not having a result at all, pass degrees, third class and second-class lower division. The ways of curbing the menace of teenage pregnancy include sex education to girl child by parents (3.42 ± 0.43), parent should teach the girl child not to depend on men for meeting their needs (3.53 ± 0.36), and teenagers should dress properly to cover sensitive parts of the body to avoid sexual harassment (3.30 ± 0.44.). In conclusion, teenage pregnancies have influences academic performance negatively. Based on the findings, the study recommends that emphasis should be on the inculcation of family life and sex education in the University as general studies (GST) and organizing seminars and workshop by government in collaboration with NGOs for teenagers and the intervention of university administration and parental support is necessary.