Teenage Motherhood and the Crises of Child Abuse/Child Neglect in Rural Southeast Nigeria: Tracing the Dark Figures and its implication to Community/Sustainable Development

Resumen

Adolescent motherhood and its interaction with child neglect and child abuse is yet to be empirically explored in the developing nations such as Nigeria, especially among the rural communities where culture, illiteracy, poverty and religion trigger and sustain them. Although there are pockets of information scattered in the National Demographic Health Survey, National Bureau of Statistics, National Population Census, etc., the problem of teenage pregnancy and teenage motherhood especially among unmarried youths, and their socioeconomic implications including child neglect and child abuse crises are yet to receive empirical attention in order to build appropriate policy framework to meet up with sustainable development goals in this area of social problem in southeast Nigeria and other developing nations. In view of the importance of the aforementioned research gap, the present study investigated adolescent motherhood, child neglect and child abuse in rural communities in southeast Nigeria. The study involved 540 adolescent mothers between <15+years from rural communities in the region. The study applied survey design and utilized the perception scale for abusive behaviour (PSAB) and the perception scale for neglectful behaviour (PSNB) questionnaire instrument in collecting data from the adolescent mothers. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics, and the findings demonstrated high prevalence of child neglect and abuse among the adolescent mothers. The study demonstrated a strong negative correlation between teenage motherhood and child neglect (r = -0.106) and a strong negative correlation between teenage motherhood and child abuse (r = -0.170). Child neglect and abuse among the teenage mothers are predicted by age, education, number of children, family pressure, and average monthly income among the teenage mothers. Conclusively from the study, there is need to capture adolescent motherhood for policy intervention through appropriate public institutions in Nigeria and other developing nations, thereby developing a pragmatic policy approach to the issue.