| dc.description.abstract | Girls denied the right to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and well-beingface
psychological pressure to marry early and become mothers while they are still children themselves. Girls must be able to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures, understand the effects of teenage
pregnancy and have access to appropriate health services and comprehensive health care services, and
comprehensive sexuality education. It is therefore worth noting the importance placed on teenage pregnancy. Despite the numerous interventions put in place to address the challenge of teenage pregnancy among secondary school students, this problem continues to be witnessed in Kenyan secondary schools, particularly in Tharaka Nithi County. The low effectiveness in combating teenage pregnancy can be attributed to many factors among them parental influence. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate parentalinfluence on teenage pregnancy among secondary school students in Tharaka Nithi County. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Data was collected from a total of 15 secondary schools using the Cluster sampling procedure in the year 2023. Clusters were based on the school national ranking. Cluster sampling was used to draw 15 secondary schools of all categories as National, Extra County, County and Sub – County schoolsto participate in the study. The target population was 11,936 form three students in Public and Private secondary in schools in Tharaka Nithi, County. A sample size of 410 respondents comprising 30 teachers, and 380 students (300 girls and 80 boys) was used. The instruments for data collection used were structured questionnaires and personal interviews. Experts from the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences of Tharaka University validated the instruments and pilot testing was done in two schools in Meru County. The overall reliability coefficient of instruments using Cronbach's alpha obtained was 0.754. Data wereanalyzed by use of descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Chi-square). Data analysis was undertaken with the help of the Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 software. The Chi- square analysis for both students and teachers χ2 (16, 405) =26.620, p=0.046 obtained indicates that there is a positive significant social-economic status influence on teenage pregnancy among secondary school students. The study recommends that the National and Tharaka Nithi county governments should engage parents in workshops to train them on comprehensive sex education and provide them with educational materials and guidelines. In addition, the Ministry of national security needs to strengthen policy
aimed at curbing cultural policies that predispose girls to teenage pregnancy. The research findings of the
present study can shed light on secondary schools administrators, the Ministry of education policymakers,
teachers, parents, and other stakeholders on teenage pregnancy among secondary schools in Tharaka Nithi
County, Kenya. This knowledge can inform appropriate measures to mitigate the influence of parental social-economic status on teenage pregnancies. The findings of this study add to the body of knowledge and act as a basis for further research. | en_US |
