The research results below are grouped into the categories of living conditions, way of living, and lifestyle. The various domains proposed by Jaime Breilh on the theoretical approach of social determination were also analyzed (See Table 4), such as the general, specific, and singular domains.
Table 4
Predefined and Emerging Categories in the Study
General domain
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Specific domain
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Singular domain
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Life conditions
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Way of living
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Lifestyle
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Politics as deception
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New role of youth, toward a standardized way
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Responsible decision-making
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The Internet and technological barriers
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Healthcare
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The economics of the rural model
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Care and concern for adolescents
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Planning methods
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Healthcare
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Primary, secondary, and higher education
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Culture in managing beliefs about sexuality
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Child protection
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Relationships at an early age
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New couple relationships
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Peacebuilding in the disarming of the armed actor, and the perception of new violence
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Violence in the plains
Insecurity
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The need for solidarity and community ties
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In the general domain, regarding the category of living conditions, young people demanded social, political, economic, and cultural opportunities (See Table 5). For them, opportunities depend on the social relationships of land production and the precarious conditions that it generates, affecting their way of living with an early start in their sexual lives, dropping out of school, and the tradition of adolescent pregnancy with a high level of responsibility for women and not for men.
Table 5
Key findings and testimonies by dimension: Category of living conditions
Key findings
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Testimonies
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In terms of the economy, many young people are forced to migrate from their homes to cities such as Cali and Palmira to seek employment, as opportunities are limited to the agricultural sector, and many young people do not want to work as cheap labor in planting and processing sugar cane, an activity located in Valle’s plains, nor want to perform horticultural work on the hillsides of the Amaime river basin.
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"“Economically there are deficiencies since it depends on what they sow and how much they can get for that, they cannot set the price; they depend on how much others want to pay". (Interview, Young1)
“The people of the Amaime River are a bit humble; it is quite complicated in the field of education because there are areas that are very remote, and it is difficult for them to get around. Many do not have the possibility of being well due to lack of work or lack of opportunities”. (Interview, Young2)
“There is no help for everyone in health, education; the peasant is unprotected." (Participant FG 3).
“The living conditions of the communities are negative due to the lack of work, and the problem of education. For example, I was studying, and now more than anything, the issue of education has become difficult for me. I have not focused on thinking about pregnancy as a teenager, my goal is that I have to educate myself”. (Interview, Young3)
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Regarding political opportunities, young people feel that their parents are used in the electoral process and that politicians are not interested in their voice, generating a type of symbolic violence or State neglect.
The study results indicated that families remain employed in domestic and horticultural work in rural areas, while those who inhabit the plains closest to Palmira and El Cerrito generally work in various labors. In this case, many of the young people remain alone in their homes for much of the time, except when they are at school. Young people demand cultural and sports spaces, claiming they need to use the streets to socialize and interact with others. Many state that there are few cultural offerings, and that parties and consuming alcohol are promoted.
For their part, social leaders express social resentment because of the State’s lack of presence as an institution that solves socioeconomic deficiencies and as an entity that participated in the war against FARC-EP without making social investments in the area. They also perceived the existence of high social stigma for having been in the middle of the armed conflict.
As for the way of living (See Table 6), young people are characterized by their simplicity and humility, particularly determined by the shortcomings of their environment and limitations in achieving their dreams. With regard to perceptions about the community, family, and institutional framework, we found that they act as negative social forces because they repress young people’s freedom in terms of being informed, educating themselves, and being able to experience the right of sexual and reproductive life in an enjoyable manner.
Table 6
Key findings and testimonies by dimension: Category way of living
Young people enjoy partying, going out to dance, going to the movies in Palmira, or going out to eat, as well as walking, swimming in the river, playing soccer or riding horses, and in some cases, standing along the sides of the main roads.
Among families, there is a lack of knowledge about how to approach the subject of sexual education, and it is considered a taboo subject, which is discussed after the pregnancy has already occurred.
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“Today, teenage pregnancy is a reflection rather of going out to dance; because before one used to get together with friends to share, now it's going to dance. Before the neighbors met, they were more concerned with sharing and uniting in community; now they have been more inclined to communicate with technology”. (Interview, Social Leader 1).
“I speak from my own experience, I got pregnant when I was 14 years old, my parents supported me and then they told me to take care of myself from now on. I stopped studying, and they continue to help me; I work and live with my parents; the father did not answer, the boy is 10 years old and little by little I am taking him forward”. (Participant FG 3).
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The accounts of the study’s informants indicated that youth health services do not provide adequate coverage by health authorities in El Cerrito and Palmira, as the area has a highly dispersed population throughout the Amaime river basin. Therefore, there is no access to information and education. Thus, this becomes an additional burden that is dependent on the will and discretion of teachers within educational institutions.
According to the participating social leaders, the community is ignorant of health issues and adolescent pregnancy issues, and it is not interested in young people. These communities come to play a leading role when pregnancy appears, developing opinions from their prejudices and especially from the beliefs of assuming the issue as a tragedy and, particularly, recriminating women.
The research study revealed that the issue of community organizational support is weak because of the dispersion of the area that prevents closer relationships among neighbors, and because it could have become fractured in the armed conflict.
Regarding the characteristics of the area to understand diversity and identity, the study’s participants consider that the territory provides them with water and very good land, as it is a moorland zone. Nevertheless, the geographical characteristics, limited access due to public transportation shortcomings, a political–administrative division between two municipalities, and scarce institutional governmental presence determine the presence of adolescent pregnancy.
As for the lifestyle category (See Table 7), there is a more singular determination appropriately related to the affective field and self-confidence. Many young people showed emotional gaps and lack of communication at the family level. Many remain isolated and are distrustful of engaging in sex education topics with families, teachers, or friends.
Table 7
Key findings and testimonies by dimension: Category of lifestyle.
Pregnancy at an early age is conducive to this rural context, as it begins with friendship, courtship, recognition of one’s body, and young people are not aware of the risks of pregnancy, highlighting the fact that both men and women agree that it is the man who applies the most pressure to have sex.
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“… Many young people… on the subject of sexual health are very open, it has been presented that the first time they see each other they are already dating, and everything happens. On the sexual issue there are more things; some are very cautious, other people are responsible; but there are others who are not, mainly men.” (Interview, Social leader 2).
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Thinking about a life project creates challenges for young people in the rural Amaime river basin area because of the limitations and restrictions that prevent them from having a strong self-concept. Communication problems do not allow the self-determination process to appropriately take place in young people so that they can handle the circumstances of sexuality and adolescent pregnancy, and of sexuality and non-pregnancy. Thus, sexual activity occurs in a physiological moment, where an existential vacuum emerges. Conversely, a couple that has sexual activity more consistently allows the affective aspect between them to develop. Moreover, lifestyle is globally determined by standardized forms of interaction typically marked by online social networks as rural areas are not left out of this phenomenon. Additionally, other domains that mark social behaviors with trends, gender, and sexual life distortions are created.
It is noteworthy that, from an early age, many young people envision their life project as a couple. This is related to the lack of encouragement of family and people in the context. Thus, in many cases, adolescent pregnancy is culturally determined by a rural tradition of dropping out of school and couples beginning at an early age, where women postpone their life plan for the ideal image of life as a wife.
Thus, early pregnancy is considered to be determined by a social assignment of the role of being a woman as many men in the Amaime river basin abandon their responsibility of fatherhood, establishing a practice in which it becomes difficult to understand gender equity and equality relationships, where the family forces the woman to assume that responsibility, with a low occurrence of cases in which responsible fatherhood is constructed. Once again, families end up raising grandchildren who are the result of their daughters’ pregnancies, considering it a normal or routine way of living.
Regarding the issue of the perception of pregnancy as such the participants, and especially those with personal experience, highlighted positive and negative aspects. More positive aspects are reported in rural areas as compared with areas near the cities of Palmira and El Cerrito. For example, they state that it depends more on youth culture, and in rural areas it is determined by the tradition of patriarchal culture, in many cases through deception and by idealizing pregnancy. Pregnant women are perceived by the community as strange individuals, who experience changes in their bodies, emotional problems, and who are isolated.
From the perspective of health representatives, this is determined by the elements of culture, education problems, poverty, and social resentment. When women become pregnant, they look to meet other pregnant women when they begin stages of medical oversight. They consider each other peers and experience the instinct of being mothers, building the bond between mother and child, downplaying the issue of fatherhood in the midst of sadness, fear, and the challenge of giving birth with various risks. This is where the connection of responsible fatherhood is lost.
When asked about violence, the actors focused on the issue of the armed conflict, confirming demobilization as a factor that makes them feel more secure to move freely through the area nowadays. They feel like they were manipulated by the various agents of the armed conflict. It is evident that they have experienced other forms of violence, such as theft, verbal violence through the misuse of vocabulary in soccer matches, and consumption of psychoactive substances among young people.
It is easier for young people to talk about peace than for adults, particularly for women. However, as actors who were related to the war, they have proposals for building a culture of peace. While there is a potential decrease in the anxiety of living with armed actors, there are still emotional gaps arising from the war, with expressions of sadness and pain in the midst of a negative perception of a true peace agreement and real compliance with the agreements being far off. In both men and women, there is a need for mourning processes, in which psychosocial care is required to recreate violent situations.
Based on their perception, people experienced the symbolic violence exerted from invisible barriers in times of armed conflict between the middle rural area and the upper area, which made communication with each other impossible, in addition to invisible borders in the populated areas near Palmira and El Cerrito as a result of urban violence.
Cultural violence issues in terms of gender violence remain hidden, and there is a lack of awareness and a need to educate people on the subject. The participants recalled gender-based situations of violence with horror. They consider these to be isolated cases, and, in their perspective, they do not see adolescent pregnancy as a product of this issue. They focused more on topics related to psychological and cultural violence because of gossip, a result of the judgments and prejudices among people, especially in the areas closest to the cities of Palmira and El Cerrito that lead to discussions and entanglements.
There is denial of adolescent pregnancies caused by actors in the armed conflict. The community claims that the pregnancies occurred between armed actors and women of legal age. The actors’ perceptions show fears and memories of the armed struggle for the control of bodies and the area. Despite the demobilization process, there is distrust in the peace process that results in uncertainty regarding the fulfillment of agreements and subsequent investment that is necessary from the State. The peace process’s contribution to peace in the area is acknowledged, although they consider it an imperfect peace as a stronger presence of government institutions in rural areas is necessary. The peace imagined by the key actors in the research study involves transforming complex conflicts, such as drug trafficking, reincorporating ex-combatants, and security for the entire population, and increasing opportunities and continuing education in the culture of peace.