The Factors Associated with Adolescent Marriages and Outcomes of Adolescent Pregnancies in Mardin Turkey

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, adolescent pregnancy has become an important life-threatening issue worldwide. One in every 10 births in the world today is to a mother who is still a child herself, and complications of pregnancy and childbirth claim the lives of approximately 70,000 teenage girls each year (Khabir, 2004). Although the fact that registration rates differ widely between countries, the rate of adolescent pregnancy in Islamic countries is high. The birth rate per 1000 females (15-19 years old) is 168 in Ethiopia, 114 in Saudi Arabia, 122 in Oman, and 43 in Turkey (UNICEF, 1998). In addition to religion, the interaction between race, social deprivation, and adolescent pregnancy is very strong. In the US in 1997, the pregnancy rate for Hispanic teens was 97.4 per 1000, while the figure for black teenagers was 88.2; the rate was sharply lower for non-Hispanic white American teenagers, 36.0 pregnancies per 1000 (Stephanie & Ventura, 2000). However, pregnancy in adolescence is...

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