Experiences of sexual health literacy among adolescent students with unplanned pregnancy

Abstract

Female adolescent’s unplanned pregnancy leads to negative health and social consequences in young people. It is anticipated that this problem is partly caused by limited sexual health literacy leading to poor sexual health outcomes. This descriptive qualitative study aimed to explore experiences of sexual health literacy among adolescent students with unplanned pregnancy in the Phetchaburi Province in Thailand. Participants were 20 adolescent students with unplanned pregnancy, aged between 14 and 19 years, who volunteered to participate in this study. All participants were primiparous and interviewed at a gestational age from 10 to 37 weeks. A semi- structured in-depth interview was used as the main technique of data collection. Data were analyzed using a process of thematic analysis. The finding revealed that five themes emerged from the analysis. The themes were: a) female adolescents and their sexual health literacy, b) sexual relationship experiences, c) understanding of birth control contraception, d) circumstance leading to an unplanned pregnancy, and e) the pregnancy journeys. Findings would be encouraging nurses to understand female adolescents unplanned pregnancy in respect of individual, family, and society context. Next research will be intervention research for the development level of sexual heath literacy among adolescents leading to prevent unplanned pregnancy. Finally, finding should be utilized sexual education and enabling information as well as service access for adolescents are essential to ensure that adolescents can access, understand, appraise and apply good sexual health literacy in decision-making to benefit their own health.