Discontinued Intimacy, Denied Paternity

By Nduna Mzikazi and Maseko Vella

Background

  Attachments of emotional intimacy characterised by early sexual exploration in the South African communities is not new; researchers have acknowledged that at about one year after puberty both males and females start engaging in sex, sometimes even younger [1]. Safety is a concept that is understood to mean among other things not being at risk but dangers associated with love relationships that involve sexual expression continue. In Jewkes et al South African study [2] sexual risk taking among young men and women aged 16-23 has been reported in terms of having three or more partners in the past year, inconsistent condom use, higher number of partners, casual and multiple partnering and transactional sex. Most of these were school going people.

  Either formal or informal, peer education is recognized as a means of connecting young people with preventive education, services, as well as psychological support more so in communities with scarce resources and limited professional capacity. This remains an appropriate intervention for addressing an array of issues affecting young people such as alcohol and drug use, sexual and physical violence, addressing intergroup relations and sexuality issues. In light of strengthened safer sex messages through these and increases in self-reported condom use, teenage unintentional pregnancy rates do not show a decline. On the 5 th March 2007 a Gauteng-based Star newspaper reported that t he number of Gauteng schoolgirls who fell pregnant in 2006 doubles that of the previous year: 2 336 schoolgirls were pregnant last year - up from 2004 when 1 373 and 2005 when 1 169 schoolgirls were reported pregnant. This study aims to explore what follows this experience in terms of ensuring that young people's well being is not endangered by such an experience.

  Teenage unintended pregnancies comprise one third of all births in South Africa (National Social Development Report, 1995). Dilger (2003) reported from a sexuality study conducted in the rural Tanzania that young men rarely feel responsible for a pregnant girlfriend or the child and that in the majority of cases they leave their girlfriends. The implications associated with desertion and neglected paternal responsibility has not been explored at all.

  This study conducted by Maseko and Nduna explored the experiences of adolescent girls who got pregnant whilst at high school at a time when they are making strides in realising their identity through advancing educational aspirations.   According to the eight-stage theory of human development as championed by Erick Erickson emotional intimacy, achieved through among other things partnerships in sex, is an important aspect of young people's lives [3] . At the same time according to Erickson adolescence would not be a convenient time to have a child as this interferes with a positive healthy identity. Due to the fact that they themselves are trying to achieve independence this is not a time conducive to prioritising developing human life.

  Government interventions provide social support grants for qualifying young unemployed mothers. Debates countrywide continue around the allowance of maternity leave for pregnant girls and providing post-partum support from schools as interventions to normalise their lives post delivery. This study then becomes particularly pertinent in light of current trends to review legislation around the treatment of pregnant learners in schools, in South Africa. This paper shares findings on relationship experiences of teenage girls who went back to school after childbirth.

Objectives

•  To describe the experiences of adolescent girls who got pregnant whilst at high school

•  To explore the presence of the compounded crisis faced by the adolescent mothers

Methodology

  The study setting was in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the University of Witwatersrand non-medical committee. Access to schools was given by the Gauteng Provincial Department of Education. A qualitative design was employed with the application of content analysis to allow for rich understanding of the material gleaned through the five semi-structured interviews that were used in data collection. Only school going adolescents who had babies one year or younger at the time of recruitment were sampled for the study. Data was analysed inductively. Names used here are pseudo names and the age reported is the actual age of the girl at the time of the interview.

Findings and discussion

  Involvement in sexual relationships by these young people was entirely consensual. This is with age-mates at school or with older working men. In the midst of reported feelings of self-disablement and changed family relationships there was support from significant others that have enabled the young girls to come back to school. In instances where there were pre-existing difficulties with parents the news of the pregnancy exacerbated the problems. Siblings, parents and grandparents seem to play an important role in supporting young girls to go back to school. This support was in terms of looking after the child during the day to allow the young mother to go to school, paying for crèche which costs about R100 ($14) per month, buying necessities for the baby and friends who give words of advice and encouragement.

  Unintended pregnancies affect dating relationships negatively; this study shows that young women meet with challenges ranging from dealing with partner desertion, denied paternity trying out termination of pregnancy, and frustration resulting from discovery of concurrent partnering of other partners. The adolescent fathers were either surprised or disappointed at the news of the pregnancy. The following is an example of the reaction

"... when I told him that I was pregnant he said we will see when the baby is born. Since then he never came to see me, when we meet in the streets its just 'hello...hello, no talking ..." [4]

  This finding is consistent with anecdotal evidence that the first expression of the quotation above is not uncommon as young boys' first reaction, even if they sometimes later change. This is the first point of denying taking responsibility.   On the other hand one may start off by responding positively and later twist around, example below;

"... when I told him that I was pregnant he accepted because he knew I was not on contraception and after all I was his girlfriend ..." [5]

  This young girl, who has been involved with her boyfriend for just over two years before she fell pregnant, was later met with disappointment as

"... then after that he did not want come to see me and did not allow me to visit him...he asked me to have an abortion..." "...I later heard that he was in jail...and when he came he told me that he was in jail...we never got back together ..."[6]

  Discontinued intimacy at the time when it is mostly needed may have negative repercussions of the girls' ability to form reciprocal dating relationships based on trust honesty and positive expression of love.   The girl may continue to harbour feelings of hope that things will get back to normal between her and her estranged partner

"... I wish we could have the kind of a relationship that we had before. I had someone I could talk to. He understood me and never wanted to see me cry or hurt ..." [7]

  The finding regarding partner desertion confirms anecdotal evidence from here and published work from Tanzania (Dilger, 2003). This is not a smooth break up as one of they describe confrontations with their estranged boyfriends.

"... he does not care about me anymore...we fight all the time ..." [8]

  This is an important factor as it speaks to a probable risk factor for psychological distress for not only the pregnant girl but her child later in life. A vicious cycle of lack of love from the man who ran away might spill over to children to affect positive expressions of intimacy in their own lives. The scenario described here resulting in internal stigma and self loathing on the young girls.

  Fending for the individual's needs, acceptance back into peers and practical logistics of looking for a child are some of these dilemmas. Also most importantly is the impact that this life changing experience has on the adolescent's identity crisis as a result of pregnancy. They do not appropriately fit in Erick Erickson's psychological theory of development. Surprising is that there was no mention of post-partum counselling on contraceptive use at the clinics and this is a missed opportunity for preventive counselling. None of the girls reported any direct reproach, exclusion or isolation by their teachers. This is in agreement with the Department of Education stance to promote girl education. Learning to be responsible for ones actions is one important lesson that these girls learnt but we do not know about the impact that this has on males.

  One of the important emerging support is that offered though peer support from other mothering learners; they often stick together and share about their experiences supporting one another. This could be seen as a school proving a safety net for the girl's social development. Apart from this, there was not professional support reported to be received by these girls.

Conclusions

  Findings from this study agree with previous research that young people's engagement in intimate sexual relationships is typically voluntary. These findings speak to the ease of getting basic levels of support that is necessary for the young learners to realise their right to education notwithstanding the challenges. One most important areas of consideration coming from this study is the consistency neglected area of denied paternity coincides with partner desertion after learning about the pregnancy. This becomes of utmost importance because acceptance of paternity is a gateway to access to maintenance by the father of the baby. Clearly failure to provide paternity testing in public hospitals still remains a missed opportunity to respond to the challenge of making sure that sexual expressions among young people do not entrap them in the circle of poverty.

  This research has produced a provocative piece of work which highlights the crisis faced by many adolescent girls who fall pregnant whilst at school. Erick Erickson's theory recognises that young people's development requires a sense of 'selfsameness and continuity in time, to be safe [9]. Experiences such as these shatter that sense of ones capacity 'to do well' according to both her standards and the standards of those who are significant to her. She not only failed to look after herself but also failed to keep her relationships.  

  Even though pregnancy is an obvious sign of failure to use a condom, these findings are however salient about the role of the male partner in taking responsibility for failure to use condoms by supporting their children both financially and in making a contribution to parenting. The limitation of this study is that those who had to leave school or made a decision to leave school as a result of the pregnancy were not included in the ample. This issue, which should clearly be there often, is missing in interventions advocating for male involvement in the fight against gender-based violence.

References

1. Dilger H. (2003) Sexuality, AIDS, and the lures of Modernity: Reflexivity and morality among young people in rural Tanzania . Medical Anthropology 22: 23-52
2. Dunkle K, Jewkes R K., Nduna M., Levin J., Jama n., Khuzwayo N., Koss M., Duvvury N. (2006) Perpetration of partner violence and HIV risk behaviour among young men in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa . AIDS, 20: 2107-2114
3. Jewkes R., Dunkle K., Nduna M., Levin J., Jama N., Khuzwayo n., Koss M., Puren A., Duvvury N. (2006). Factors associated with HIV sero-status in young rural South African women: connections between intimate partner violence and HIV . International Journal of Epidemiology. Advance Access September 28.
4. Ntlabati P., Kelly K., Mankayi A. (2001) The first time: An oral history of sexual debut in a deep rural area . Paper presented at the AIDS in Context Conference, History Workshop, University of Witwatersrand.
5. Peltzer K. (2000). Factors affecting condom use among junior secondary school pupils in South Africa . Health SA. Vol. 5 No. 2 pp37-44
6. Santrock J. W. (2005) Psychology. 7 th edition. Berkshire , McGraw-Hill International
7. Thomas R M (1992). Comparing theories of chilld development. 3 rd edition. Belmont Califonia, Wadsworth Publishing Co.
8. Weiten W. (2001). Psychology: Themes and variations. 5 th edition. Wadsworth Thomson Learning

* Mzikazi Nduna lecturers in the Department of Psychology, University of Witwatersrand. She is a member of the AIDS consortium, a board member of GenderDynamix and collaborates with the Medical Research Council's Gender and Health Unit. She is also a Fellow at the ARSRC.

* At the time of conducting this research Ms Vela Maseko was a Masters in Clinical Psychology student at the Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of Witwatersrand.

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