Agency under constraint: Adolescent accounts of pregnancy and motherhood in informal settlements in South Africa

Gillespie, Bronwen; Allen, Haddijatou; Pritchard, Matthew; Soma-Pillay, Priya; Balen, Julie; Anumba, Dilly

doi:10.1080/17441692.2021.1981974

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…Similar findings were also reported in South Africa by Gillespie, et al (25) who explored adolescents' perspectives of falling pregnant and motherhood in informal settlements. Gillespie et al (25) found that adolescents' agency to prevent unintended pregnancies was compromised by limited adolescent-friendly SRH services and a lack of communication on SRH practices including issues of safe sex and contraception. Some adolescents reported that they were not comfortable to access SRH services in their community due to fears of being judged and limited privacy at the clinics.…”

Section: Agency and Autonomysupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Agency and autonomy were also linked to uptake of SRH services. Limited access to adolescent friendly SRH services restricted girls' agency to prevent unintended pregnancies (27) or to take up SRH support (25).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recognising the influence of the social environment in examining these interactions is key, given the important roles that culture, religion and traditional norms play in shaping risk and protective SRH behaviours in African contexts (27,(38)(39)(40)(41). Many AGYW are hindered from accessing SRH services due to experiences and fears of being condemned, feeling judged and not being able to engage in open dialogue about sex and sexuality with relatively older health care workers (25,27,42,(44)(45)(46). In this regard, we support Desmond et al (21) who argues that we need "to understand how individuals and groups understand their environment, how they interact with and change their environment, and how these understandings and interactions shape behaviour [and access to support or intervention]".…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although most papers FIGURE 1 were recently published, no studies focused directly on the COVID-19 pandemic. As shown in Tables 1, 2, the majority of the articles made use of quantitative approaches (n = 5) (29-33), followed by qualitative-(n = 4) (25)(26)(27)34), and one mixed methods study (n = 1) (28). Of the studies using quantitative methods, one (n = 1) used a randomized evaluation design, three (n = 3) used a randomized control trial (including the mixed methods study) and two (n = 2) used a cross-sectional design.…”

Section: Descriptive Profile Of Papersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hope, agency, and adolescents' sexual and reproductive health: A mini review

Groenewald

Isaacs²,

Qoza³

2023

Front. Reprod. Health

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Availability of and access to services that promote sexual and reproductive health (SRH) amongst adolescent girls have become a global priority. Yet, while researchers have explored factors that influence the uptake of SRH services in low-and-middle income countries, the roles that “agency” and “hope” play in adolescent SRH is less understood. To study this, this mini review systematically reviewed the literature across three databases, EBSCO-host web, Pubmed and South Africa (SA) epublications, for the period of January 2012 to January 2022. Findings showed that a paucity of studies identified the link between agency, hope and adolescent SRH respectively. Our review included 12 articles and found no studies that focused on hope and its role in adolescent SRH or seeking SRH services. However, the literature revealed the complexities of adolescent SRH agency and autonomy where female adolescents had limited autonomy to make SRH decisions. Limited access to adolescent friendly SRH services was also found to restrict girls' agency to prevent unintended pregnancies or to take up SRH support. Given the paucity of research, empirical studies are needed to further understand the extent to which hope, agency and other subjective factors implicate adolescent SRH in the African context.

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Section: Agency and Autonomysupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Descriptive Profile Of Papersmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Hope, agency, and adolescents' sexual and reproductive health: A mini review

Groenewald

Isaacs²,

Qoza³

2023

Front. Reprod. Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Aspects of the interview guides focusing on the causes of adolescent pregnancy, the impact of motherhood, and the gender roles involved, pertaining to interviews with young men and women residing in the informal settlements, were reported in a separate but related paper ( Gillespie et al, 2021 ) and therefore not repeated here.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting Social Norms and Adolescent Girls’ Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Information in a South African Township

et al. 2022

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Despite policy on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and education, teen pregnancies remain common in South Africa. Social norms and cultural resistance are a well-documented challenge for SRH program implementation in South Africa, and beyond. To gain insight on the complex picture of adolescents’ access to SRH information and services in a peri-urban township, we explored this topic from a diversity of perspectives, carrying out 86 interviews to capture perceptions of adolescents, their parents, community members, and health professionals. Our research shows that despite the taboo nature of the issue of adolescent SRH, individual positions on adolescent access to SRH services and information are shifting and diverse, and are influenced by factors other than cultural norms. This research serves as a reminder to avoid simplistic reference to “culture” as a way of explaining health-related behaviors and people’s responses to health challenges.

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