Beyond Risk Behavior: Psychosocial Vulnerabilities among Unmarried Pregnant Adolescents in Institutional Care in Malaysia
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Abstract
Background/ problem: Pregnancy among unmarried adolescents is a psychosocial and public health concern. Existing research has emphasized individual risk behaviors, with less attention to relational contexts and distinctions between social influence and experiences involving coercion, exploitation, or substantially constrained voluntary choice. Evidence from adolescents in institutional care in Malaysia remains limited.
Objective/ purpose: This study explored psychosocial vulnerabilities and social influences among unmarried pregnant adolescents in institutional care.
Design and Methodology: A qualitative case study involved nine adolescents residing in a government-operated protection institution in Malaysia. In-depth interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, while interviews with four institutional officers provided contextual perspectives and data-source triangulation.
Findings: Five themes were identified: adverse family and relational contexts; sexual coercion, exploitation, and violence; peer and partner social influence; digital contexts of relationships and interpersonal exposure; and behavioral and social challenges. Participants’ accounts reflected differing degrees of voluntary choice, from interpersonal persuasion and peer-facilitated situations to force, non-consensual sexual activity, inability to escape, and loss of consciousness.
Conclusion and Implications: The findings contribute to a behavioral science understanding of pregnancy among unmarried adolescents by highlighting diverse relational and social contexts and distinguishing social influence from coercion, exploitation, and circumstances in which voluntary choice is substantially constrained. The social influence theory provides a bounded interpretive lens for interpersonal influence where some capacity for voluntary choice remains. Trauma-informed support should address family and relational support, peer and partner influence, digital safety, and protection from sexual exploitation and violence.
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