Table of Contents
Murima (2013) in his/her study defined and applied The Social Ecology Model. This four-tier model shows how each level is interdependent on the other, and how each level can have an effect on health behaviours including sexual behavior. By using the Social Ecology Model, this study seeks to present the relationship between the different levels of influence and the individual. Teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards teenage pregnancy are interrogated using the different levels of influence of the Social Ecology Model to understand how teenagers identify themselves with the wider community. The Social Ecology Model’s emphasis on systems thinking allows the researcher to present interventions and identifys influential factors at multiple levels and discussing their interactions (Murima, 2013).
Individual Level
The individual is the first level of the model, and deals with the basic individual factors that have the potential of influencing behaviour such as beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and personality traits (Murima, 2013). Intrapersonal factors usually are located within the realm over which the individual has control. For example, Murima brought up an interesting comparison. Shepherd et al. (2006) found that lack of nutritional knowledge, attitudes towards certain healthy foods. These researcher suggests that individuals’ perceptions of being already fit acted as a barrier permitting them to not eat healthy and exercise (Shepherd et al., 2006). Therefore, Murima believes that teenagers’ attitudes and perceptions towards contraceptive use may hinder them from using contraceptives properly (Murima, 2013). An understanding of teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions is best understood through an analysis of their individual characteristics before an analysis of the community they come from as a whole (Murima, 2013),
Institutional Level
The third level of the model is the institutional level, which is defined as the various organisations that exist in a community such as churches and schools that may promote or constrain adoption of certain behaviour (Murima, 2013). An example of this would be a school. A school provides an environment where students are afforded an opportunity to imitate, learn and practice positive health behavior. Although school may be an ideal environment where teenagers can be taught about safe sexual health; schools are also a place where teenagers can learn negative and/or risky behaviors (Murima, 2013).
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Community Level
Community is fourth level of the model and includes social networks and norms among individuals, groups and institutions. The community is viewed as a result of interconnected and transactional relationships that have an influence on an individual’s health (Murima, 2013). In this level, a teenager who would like to start using contraceptives may receive conflicting messages from his or her community such as the church, school and health service provider, thus exposing the teenager to risk of teenage pregnancy.
Policy Level
The final level of the model is the policy level, which encompasses polices that affect individual’s behavior. These policies may stem from local policies right to national policies that are affected by both local and central government (Murima, 2013). Murima gave an example of a teenager who just found out she was pregnant. She had not chose to use contraceptives. She had her hopes on getting a an abortion , because policies and laws put in place allow her to do so. The policy level also incorporates the local and national polices that regulate or support healthy actions for the prevention and support (Murima, 2013).
The Social Ecology Model allows for greater depth of understanding of the research problem; teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards teenage pregnancy. This is because the Model engages the processes that have an influence on individual’s health decision making behaviour and provides appropriate context to otherwise simplistic results (Murima, 2013). Murima reported the model incorporates other disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology to understand human health behavior and its influences. However, the use of different approaches make it difficult for intervention implementation and monitoring (Murima, 2013).
Ethical Considerations
Shoffner (2008) studied violence directed by an intimate partner toward the pregnant woman and her fetus, or during the first year after delivery, is often either not recognized by professionals or suspected but not addressed. There is no typical abused woman; in fact, intimate partner violence occurs across all social, economic, educational, and professional settings. Shoffner indicated that physical or sexual abuse may be readily observed and are often difficult to assess without some aspect of damage (Shoffner, 2008).
Utilizing this research method, I would be assessing personal accounts and perceptions by interview. Retraumatization is a concern. Also, dealing with girls who have been abused, the adminstator would have to be aware of trauma effects. Meaning, adminstators would need to be comptent in effective ways to deal with transference; a participant identifying similarties between the admin and abuser. Also, counselors also have a duty to report any suspensions of abuse. As a mandated reporter it is my obligation to report any suspensions of abuse to the appropriate authorities. However, this would be difficult due to the confidential participation in the study by each participant.
Methods
Qualitative research is ideal for exploring teenagers’ meanings of pregnancy. Using a qualitative interpretive research method, this study will seek to understand the meanings teenagers attach to teenage pregnancy, perception of dating and partner violence . The participants would complete the Attitudes towards Dating Violence to assess dating violence, and an interview will be conducted to assess sexual behaviors. Additional interviews will be conducted with sexually active adolescent females, with known history of IPV, about violence, sexual experiences, use of conceptives and related behaviors.
Teen Attitude Pregnancy Scale (TAPS) The sixteen‐item was developed for this purpose. It is based on a model of (a) Future Orientation, (b) Realism About Child Rearing, (c) Personal Intentions, and (d) Sexual Self‐efficacy. Overall, the TAPS demonstrated good internal consistency and concurrent validity for the samples considered here. Additionally, exploratory factor analysis revealed evidence of validity for this four‐factor model of teens’ attitudes toward pregnancy.(Price & Byers , 2017).
Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales consists of three scales that assessed, respectively, attitudes toward psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence by boys (Price & Byers , 2017).These scales are called the Attitudes Towards Male Psychological Dating Violence Scale (AMDV-Psyc; 15items), the Attitudes Towards Male Physical Dating Violence Scale(AMDV-Phys; 12 items), and the Attitudes Towards Male Sexual Dating Violence Scale (AMDV-Sex; 12 items). AMDV is measured on a likert-scale. Response options on all scales ranged from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (5). For each scale, higher scores indicate a greater acceptance of abusive behavior (Price & Byers , 2017).
Discussion
Qualitative research involves an interpretive, natural approach to its subject matter, it attempts make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them Qualitative research is designed to assist the researcher to have a better understanding of the research participants’ world view thus allowing for a better understanding of complex and under researched areas such as teenage pregnancy. Utilizing TAPS would be great in this study, because it measures exactly wha the reseach question is looking to answer. Also, Teen Attitude Pregnancy Scale has a good report for being a reliable instrument. However Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales consist of mulitple scales making it difficult to analyze data.
I’m interested in applying the Social Ecology Model. a teenage girl who is sexually active may not be using contraceptives, probably, because at the individual level she has attitudes, beliefs and knowledge issues towards contraceptive use. It may be that she does not have enough information on how to use contraceptives; she may have negative perceptions towards contraceptives. At a community level, She may have come from a poor family this could effect the decisions she makes. At the policy level, there could be an absence of clinics or limited policies that advocate for teen pregnancy. It’s so many advantages and viewpoints that support the research.
