“Everyone my age doesn’t know what it’s like”: a mixed-method study of young mothers and social support in Australia (original) (raw)
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Review: “You don’t know half the story”: deepening the dialogue with young mothers in Australia
Journal of Research in Nursing, 2015
Young people, including teenage mothers, are often regarded as vulnerable, and reporting in this way by the general and academic media reinforces prevailing attitudes towards younger parents. The study reported aimed to give young women a voice – enable them to be heard. In doing so, it opens the discourse arising from young women themselves based on their experiences, their understandings and their sense making. The importance of this contribution is that it provides a counterbalance to pre-existing discourses informed by media and thus provides an opportunity to assess how far dominant attitudes can hold up to real-world experiences. The qualitative literature highlighted by the authors indicates evidence of the transformative opportunity that young mothering can offer, opening chances for a positive step change in a life course. However, this may not be realised when young mothers are living within societies where policies direct attention towards deficits and individual responsi...
Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 2015
Objective: This study aimed to further our understanding of the daily experience of being a young mother for Australian young women who have preterm infants. Background: Both preterm birth and adolescent childbearing are associated with increased risk of poor maternal and infant health outcomes. However, little research has explored how having a preterm infant influences the experience of being a mother for young women or whether it differs from having a full-term infant. Methods: This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study analysed interviews with 14 young women (15-19 years; 10 preterm and 4 full-term) who were interviewed 3 times over the first 12 months of parenting. Results: Preterm birth did not detract from the joys associated with becoming a mother, which was central to all mother's stories. Instead, preterm birth exacerbated challenges faced by all young women, such as transportation difficulties and negative judgement from others. Unique challenges included lack of embodied interaction with their infants and navigating the hospital system. Young women frame the experience of being a mother in terms of immediacy and daily demands. Conclusion: This research further challenges the view that early motherhood is detrimental to young women, by demonstrating how the polemics of enjoyment and challenge coexist in the experience of mothering on a day-to-day basis. Using global categories such as age or birth status to assess risk may not be appropriate as they do not provide nuanced criteria for establishing which mothers need assistance.
The impact of young motherhood in Australia
The poor socio-economic outcomes of women who have their first child when young are well documented. However, the policy implications of this association depend upon the causal mechanisms that underlie it. Recent studies in the US and UK have used miscarriage as an instrument to identify the direct causal impact of young childbearing -with US research suggesting that early child-bearing may even have a beneficial impact upon mother's outcomes. This paper examines this issue using a new Australian panel of young women.
Experiences and aspirations of younger mothers
2010
This qualitative research study explores the experiences of 49 younger mothers, who were below the age of 25 when they had their first child and in receipt of Centrelink income support payments. The findings show that younger mothers aspire to complete education or training, find a good steady job, and provide all the opportunities they can for their child. Many do not know how to access appropriate support services to help them achieve their goals or overcome the multiple barriers that stand in their way. Younger mothers are most inclined to engage with a service when there are no feelings of stigma and there is a clear reason to do so that is linked to their child’s wellbeing.
Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 2015
Objective: This study aimed to further our understanding of the daily experience of being a young mother for Australian young women who have preterm infants. Background: Both preterm birth and adolescent childbearing are associated with increased risk of poor maternal and infant health outcomes. However, little research has explored how having a preterm infant influences the experience of being a mother for young women or whether it differs from having a full-term infant. Methods: This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study analysed interviews with 14 young women (15-19 years; 10 preterm and 4 full-term) who were interviewed 3 times over the first 12 months of parenting. Results: Preterm birth did not detract from the joys associated with becoming a mother, which was central to all mother's stories. Instead, preterm birth exacerbated challenges faced by all young women, such as transportation difficulties and negative judgement from others. Unique challenges included lack of embodied interaction with their infants and navigating the hospital system. Young women frame the experience of being a mother in terms of immediacy and daily demands. Conclusion: This research further challenges the view that early motherhood is detrimental to young women, by demonstrating how the polemics of enjoyment and challenge coexist in the experience of mothering on a day-to-day basis. Using global categories such as age or birth status to assess risk may not be appropriate as they do not provide nuanced criteria for establishing which mothers need assistance.
Child & Family Social Work, 2010
Although knowledge of how social support can mediate stress is now well known, finding ways to enable isolated parents to access social resources that could make a positive difference for children during their critical early years remains difficult. This paper reported on the findings of a telephone survey aimed at understanding levels of social capital and social support experienced by isolated parents raising young children on their own in Canberra, Australia. Specifically, it discussed a successful methodology for reaching isolated parents, those whom services find hard to reach. The survey found that despite the relative affluence of Canberra's population, there is a significant group of parents who are isolated from both formal and informal support and the social capital that can help them cope with the stresses and demands of raising young children. These parents were unsure where to get parenting information and had a strong sense that they were judged by their local communities and services. We identified lost opportunities by general practitioners and other widely used systems such as public housing and security to take more proactive roles and connect parents to formal service support systems. Flexible, affordable child care was identified as an unmet need for these parents, not only as a source of relief from extreme isolation but also to enable them to work or prepare for work through study.
2020
Australian women are not faring well in their paid and unpaid work, and this becomes problematic during the perinatal period (beginning at conception and continuing through to 12 months after birth). Despite legislation being in place for 35 years prohibiting genderbased employment discrimination, a gender pay gap commences early in women's working lives and increases over time. Further, when Australian women become pregnant, they encounter widespread and systemic discrimination, which has a detrimental impact on their attachment to the labour market, financial security and wellbeing. The prevalence of perinatal depression in Australian women is higher than in comparable high-income countries. Despite the Australian federal government investing in interventions to prevent v Publications included in this thesis No publications included.
Social Exclusion of Australian Childless Women in Their Reproductive Years
Social Inclusion, 2016
Research suggests Australian childless women are at risk of pronatalism-driven social exclusion. This exploratory, mixed methods, cross-sectional study described and explored the social exclusion of Australian childless women aged 25 to 44 years, and asked: what are the nature and extent of social exclusion of childless women; and do the nature and extent of exclusion vary for different types of childless women? A total of 776 childless female Australian residents aged 25 to 44 years completed a self-administered questionnaire. Quantitative data were collected on childlessness types, indicators of exclusion and perceived stigmatisation and exclusion due to being childless. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, One Way ANOVAs and Kruskal Wallis Analysis of Ranks. Qualitative data on childless women’s experiences were inductively thematically analysed. Findings suggest societal-level pronatalism drives exclusion of Australian childless women. While exclusion occurs in all d...
Gender Issues, 2016
Pronatalism in Australian society constructs women as mothers, and places women who do not conform to pronatalist norms of stereotypical femininity because they have no children, at risk of stigmatisation and social exclusion. This paper explores the nature of pronatalism-driven social connection and exclusion in Australian society of women aged 25-44 years with no children. A total of 636 female Australian residents aged 25-44 years with no children provided qualitative data during a mixed-methods study conducted in 2014. A self-administered online questionnaire employed the critical incident technique to collect qualitative data on participants' experiences in different domains of life. The data was analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings suggest pronatalism in Australian society influences the experiences of women with no children, manifesting in a continuum of connection within, exclusion within, and exclusion from, all domains of life, with nuanced experiences dependent upon the nature of women's 'deviance' from pronatalism. Emergent themes elucidating the experiences of women with no children include: woman = mother; idealised childed; stereotyped, judged and invalidated childless; private issue on public trial; childless incapabilities; subordinated childless; hegemony of the childed; and exclusion from normative life. These findings emphasise the importance of challenging pronatalist norms of femininity and building a society in which women's motherhood status is irrelevant to judgements of their character, value, completeness and success.