The background of adolescent pregnancies in Nicaragua: A qualitative approach

This article summarizes the initial findings of a multidisciplinary study aimed at understanding the complex social, economic, cultural and psychological contexts of unwanted and adolescent pregnancy in Nicaragua. The results come from in-depth and focus group interviews with 29 adolescent and young women and men. Exposure to the risk of becoming pregnant appears voluntary at first glance, but the interviews reveal how economic deprivation, material dependency, and distributed family relations with an unappeased craving for affection influence this behaviour. The "Virgin Mary syndrome"--belief in the pure mother--and machismo also contribute greatly. Actual real access to contraceptives appears to be limited less by pure ignorance than by negative attitudes among potential providers and other key persons in society, especially as regards adolescents' contraceptive use. Lack of political will. religious influence, romanticism and lack of empowerment, especially among adolescent women, are also influencing elements.