The reality of being a teenage mother in England in 2009 ed 2012 (original) (raw)
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Experiences and aspirations of younger mothers
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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.
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 Youth Studies, 2005
This paper draws on a systematic review of qualitative research to explore the resilient mothering practices that young, British, working-class mothers employ to care for their children. The synthesis of studies of UK mothers under the age of 20 demonstrates how young working-class women must mother in impoverished circumstances, at the same time as being discursively positioned outside the boundaries of 'normal' motherhood. Consequently, they utilize the only two resources to which they may have access: their families and their own personal capacities. Engaging with debates regarding the extent of the transformations of the social in late modernity, the paper discusses the most prominent of the young mothers' practices: investment in the 'good' mother identity, maintaining kin relations, and prioritization of the mother/child dyad. The paper argues that, while the young mothers' practices display reflexivity and individualism, they are also deeply embedded in, and structured by, social inequalities.
Families, Relationships and Societies, 2018
While the numbers of young people who become parents in their teenage years is declining, there remains a stigma associated with young parenthood. Young parents disrupt socially constructed ideas of the family and challenge ideals of childhood. It is common for young parents to have experienced social exclusion and poverty as well as to have relatively low educational achievement prior to parenthood. Less common, though, is the idea that becoming a parent in late teenage years may enable the development of aspiration, promote maturity and responsibility, and potentially lead to enhanced life chances for these young people. This article draws on interview data with 10 young women and 5 young men who were parents and aged between 16 and 19, along with findings from interviews carried out with a range of professionals working in the field of teenage pregnancy. Young people describe the transformative effect of parenthood on their young lives, and challenge accepted views of the negative impact of becoming a young parent.
Changes in the circumstances of young mothers in Britain: 1990 to 2000
Child Care Health and Development
Objectives: To assess changes between 1990 and 2000 in the circumstances of women who became mothers before the age of 18. Design: Two cross sectional probability sample surveys of the general population carried out in 1989–1991 (Natsal 1990) and 1999–2001 (Natsal 2000). Setting: British households. Participants: Women aged 18 to 27 years at time of survey (Natsal 1990: 2575, Natsal 2000: 1757). Main outcome measures: Educational attainment, participation in education/work or training, living in social housing, social class, living as lone adult, parity, ill health, and health related behaviours at the time of the interview. Results: The proportion of women who were sexually active before 18 increased between 1990 and 2000 from 58.9% to 71.3% (p<0.0001). There was no significant change in the proportion who had a child before the age of 18 (4.7% in 1990, 5.3% in 2000, p = 0.390). The proportion who had attained no educational qualifications and were not participating in education...
Motherhood as non-ambition?: young women negotiating maternal subjectivities.
Studies in the Maternal, 2009
In this review article, we explore discursive configurations of motherhood and the ways in which class informs how young women engage with these in the construction of their biographies. Our theoretical starting point is principally sociological; we contend that the meanings and identities associated with 'the maternal' have been transformed by the impact of neo-liberalism, and that these produce dilemmas for young women as they constitute themselves as learners and future workers. This article reviews contemporary literature which engages with the ways in which the maternal is a key feature in the (re)making of classed and gendered identities.