Abstract

Premarital sexual activity of adolescent girls is one of the consequences of urbanization and social change. Its direct implication, teenage pregnancy, has a considerable impact on the population growth in the South Saharan countries. At the same time it creates a number of economic, social, educational and health-related problems. This Cameroon project is part of two networks put in place in African countries to research the common problem of teenage sexuality. It will provide explanatory information on its impact on education, mainly enrolment and leaving school; on maternal and infant mortality; and birth control. It will assist social welfare authorities in finding solutions to the early fertility problem within the adolescent population of Cameroon.

Post-Project Summary

The study had two components: an analysis of existing data from national surveys, and a complementary study (using questionnaires and interviews) designed to gather socio-demographic and cultural data. Comparison of data from the 1976 census and from a 1988 complementary survey of adolescents, which covered a representative sample of Cameroonian households, indicated that the fertility rate among adolescents had fallen slightly, from 0.82 in 1976 to 0.75 in 1988. The study showed that adolescents were fairly familiar with the idea of contraception and with traditional contraceptive methods, but still made only limited use of them. Although the impact of early fertility on maternal mortality could not be shown, because of the small size of the sample and the reluctance of those surveyed to supply the necessary information, its impact on morbidity was evident. The results of the research were disclosed to the scientific community at a regional seminar, and to the general public through roundtable discussions on the radio. Given the complexity of the phenomenon and the difficulty the Cameroonian team experienced in conducting exhaustive analyses, the research did not yield concrete solutions to address the situation. However, the study did succeed in alerting numerous national institutions to the problem of teenage pregnancy. The departments of Education, and Social Affairs and the Status of Women, and the Institute for Population Research and Training sought copies of the findings in order to make specific analyses.

Recipient Institution(s)