Political prioritization and the competing definitions of adolescent pregnancy in Kenya: Qualitative data set

<b>Background</b>Approximately one in every five adolescent girls in Kenya has either had a live birth or is pregnant with her first child. There is an urgent need to understand the language and symbols used to represent adolescent pregnancy, if the current trend in adolescent pregnancy is to be reversed. Agreement on the definition of a societal problem is an important precursor to a social issue’s political prioritization and priority setting. <b>Methods</b>We apply the Public Arenas Model to appraise the environments, definitions, competition dynamics, principles of selection and current actors involved in problem-solving and prioritizing adolescent pregnancy as a policy issue. Using a focused ethnographic approach, we undertook semi-structured interviews with 14 members of adolescent sexual reproductive health networks at the national level and conducted thematic analysis of the interviews. <b>Findings</b>We found that existing definitions center around adolescent pregnancy as a “disease” that needs prevention and treatment, socially deviant behaviour that requires individual agency, and a national social concern that drains public resources and therefore needs to be regulated. These competing definitions contribute to the rarity of the topic achieving traction within the political agenda and contribute to conflicting solutions, such as lowering the legal age of consenting to sex, while limiting access to contraceptive information and services to minors. <b>Conclusion</b>This paper provides a timely theoretical approach to draw attention to the different competing definitions and subsequent divergent interpretations of the problem of adolescent pregnancy in Kenya. Adolescent reproductive health stakeholders need to be familiar with the existing definitions and deliberately reframe this important social problem for better political prioritization and resource allocation. We recommend a definition of adolescent pregnancy that cuts across different arenas, and leverages already existing dominant and concurrent social and economic issues that are already on the agenda table**研究背景**：肯尼亚每五名青春期少女中，即有一人曾生育活产儿或正怀有第一胎。若要扭转当前青春期妊娠的高发趋势，亟需厘清用于指代青春期妊娠的话语与符号。对社会问题的定义达成共识，是该社会议题获得政治层面重视与优先级设定的重要前提。 **研究方法**：本研究运用公共场域模型（Public Arenas Model），评估将青春期妊娠作为政策议题进行解决与优先级排序的相关环境、定义、竞争态势、遴选原则及当前参与主体。本研究采用聚焦式民族志方法，对14名国家级青春期性与生殖健康网络成员开展半结构化访谈，并对访谈资料进行主题分析。 **研究结果**：本研究发现，现有定义将青春期妊娠划分为三类：一是需要预防与治疗的“疾病”，二是需个体自主干预的社会越轨行为，三是消耗公共资源的全国性社会关切，因此需加以规制。这些相互竞争的定义，导致该议题难以进入政治议程，并催生了相互矛盾的解决方案，例如降低法定性行为同意年龄，同时限制未成年人获取避孕信息与服务。 **研究结论**：本研究及时提出了一种理论路径，以提请学界关注肯尼亚青春期妊娠问题的各类竞争性定义及其后续衍生的多元解读。青春期生殖健康相关利益攸关方需熟知现有定义，并主动重构这一重要社会问题，以实现更优的政治优先级排序与资源分配。本研究建议采用能覆盖不同场域的青春期妊娠定义，并依托已纳入议事日程的主流及并行社会与经济议题展开相关工作。