EXPLORING UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AMONGST UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Authors

  • P Naidoo Department of Student Counselling on the Westville Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa
  • M Kasiram School of Social Work and Community Development, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15270/42-3-304

Abstract

Unplanned pregnancy poses a multiplicity of problems for students and academic institutions.Using an ecosystemic framework one can uncover the range of costs incurred when a student’sacademic life is disrupted as a result of an unplanned pregnancy. The academic programme isderailed with serious financial costs incurred by the institution, the family and the individual.Through-put targets of the institution may be affected, leaving a trail of deficits that are difficult tomanage, together with a bruised public image that impacts negatively on student intake. At apsycho-social level the individual and family lose standing in the community because of the shameof an unplanned pregnancy and an illegitimate child, or trauma upon learning of a positive HIVdiagnosis accompanying pregnancy. These concerns provided the motivation for this study, whichwas to identify factors that contributed to unplanned pregnancy to reduce its impact and informproactive planning. No such study had been conducted on the University of KwaZulu-Natal’sWestville campus previously. The research was conducted on the Westville Campus of theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal under the auspices of the Department of Student Counselling fromAugust 2003 to December 2003 to investigate why an increasing number of students werepresenting with unplanned pregnancies. This increase is reflected in the statistics below

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Published

2014-07-02

How to Cite

Naidoo, P., & Kasiram, M. (2014). EXPLORING UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AMONGST UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 42(3). https://doi.org/10.15270/42-3-304

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