Psychological and socio-economic challenges faced by teen fathers: A narrative review

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study was to explore the psychological and socio-economic challenges faced by teen fathers. Methodology: This was a narrative literature review study, wherein researchers relied on secondary data from peer-reviewed published articles. Published articles were purposively sampled from different search engines such as Google scholar, South African National ETD portal, Jstor, Sabinet and EBSCOhost. The selection criteria were also determined by restricted data from the year 2003 to 2020 with a 17 years’ projection. The collected data was analysed thematically. Main Findings: The study found that teenage boys are not immune to the challenges of parenthood. More like their counterparts, teen fathers experience psychological and socio-economic challenges as far as parenthood is concerned. Application of the study: The lack of research on teen fathers creates an imbalance and leads people into believing that only teen mothers experience parenthood challenges. However, this study underpins that due to the lack of research on teen fathers, teen fathers experience various social ills such as stealing and dropping out of school due to the challenge of parenthood. Novelty/Originality of the study: This study contributes positively to the arena of social service and assists social workers with guidelines to address teen fatherhood. By the virtue of their educational background, social workers can advocate for voiceless teen fathers and challenge the imbalances that invade their dignity and manhood.

Parenting Self Efficacy Among Teen Mothers : A Scoping Review

Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) is the ability of parents to influence children's behavior and development positively. Psychologically, Teen mothers are considered less competent to become parents than adolescents on controlling their emotions and actions. This scoping review aims to review the literature on PSE on teen mothers. This scoping review technique uses the Arskey and O'melley 2005 approach, namely identifying.research. questions,.identifying.relevant.studies, selecting articles, charting.data and compiling, followed by reporting.results. From 19.articles that have been reviewed, 7 articles describe PSE's success factors and PSE barriers among teen mothers.

Post-Pregnancy Factors Predicting Teen Mothers’ Educational Attainment by Age 30 in Two National Cohorts

Women who begin childbearing as teenagers attain lower levels of education than women who delay childbearing until age 20 and later. Little is known about post-pregnancy factors that predict educational attainment among teen mothers. The current study examined whether teen mothers’ environment and experiences 2 years after their first birth contribute to their educational outcomes by age 30, net of selection factors associated with teenage childbearing. Data were from two cohorts, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 ( N = 241) and 1997 ( N = 378). Multinomial logistic regression modeling was used to assess associations of post-pregnancy factors with teen mothers’ educational attainment. Having child care was associated with increased odds of attaining a high school diploma and of attending college in both cohorts. Providing regular and subsidized child care for teen mothers is an opportunity to support teen mothers in achieving higher levels of educational attainment.

A comparison of the relationship between parental efficacy and social support systems of single teen mothers across different family forms in South African low socioeconomic communities

Background Teenage parenting is recognised as one of the greatest health and social problems in South Africa. Research in South Africa has shown that by the age of 18 years, more than 30% of teens have given birth at least once. Teen mothers may feel disempowered because they are ‘othered’ and consequently, may develop forms of resistance which in most cases may inhibit their ability to parent. Social support is therefore, an imperative intervention for successful teen parenting but this is not clearly understood in South Africa. This study aimed to compare the relationship between parental efficacy and social support systems of single teen mothers across different family forms. Methods A quantitative methodology with a cross-sectional comparative correlation design was conducted with 160 single teen mothers who resided with a family in a low socio-economic community. The participants completed a self-report questionnaire that comprised of the Social Provisions Scale, and the Parenting Sense of Competence scale. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation were used to investigate the data. Results A significant positive relationship between social support and parental efficacy was found. When comparing different family forms, single teen mothers’ residing with one parent reported greater levels of parental efficacy and single teen mothers’ residing with two parents, re-counted high levels of social support under the subscales; guide, reliable and nurture. However, when computing for guardian-skip generation, results show that there is no significant relationship between parental efficacy and social support. As well as no correlation across subscales of social support. Conclusion The positive relationships between social support and parental efficacy are important for planning and applying parenting programmes amongst single teen mothers and facilitating awareness regarding the importance of social support and family forms when considering parenting practices.

Christchurch City Libraries ‘Ready for Reading’

This paper reports on the experiences of the Evaluation Team, comprised of experienced librarians from the Christchurch City Libraries and primary teacher educators (from Canterbury University) as they planned and implemented interventions working with the children of teen mothers (one marginalised cohort within a wider study). In particular it focuses on the Christchurch City Libraries’ (CCL) use of the Ready for Reading kit (R4R) to provide an intervention for a group of non-library users. It explores the diversity of strengths within the Research Evaluation Team and describes the challenges faced, and resilience required as they focused on motivating non-library using parents to support their children’s literacy development. Strengths of a multidisciplinary team are explored and how the ingredients of community connections and passion for literacy, together with clear knowledge of the reading process, were needed to develop interventions that would meet the needs of the target groups by supporting children’s transition into school.

Trends in Childhood Viable Pregnancy and Risk of Stillbirth in the United States

The objective of this study was to assess trends in childhood viable pregnancy over the previous three decades as well as the risk of stillbirth in these highly vulnerable child mothers. We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study that used Birth datasets, Fetal Death datasets, and the US population census data: 1982-2017. To assess the association between various socio-demographic and maternal comorbidities and stillbirth, we generated adjusted hazard ratios (AHR) from Cox Proportional Hazards Regression models. Overall, there were declines in the stillbirth rates in both teens (15-19 years old) and child mothers aged ≤ 14 years, but the rate remained consistently higher among child mothers. Compared to teen mothers, childhood pregnancy was modestly associated with elevated risk for stillbirth. Childhood pregnancy is a risk factor for stillbirth. These findings further underscore the need for sustained efforts and policies to prevent pregnancies in the early years of reproductive development.

The Stigmas Associated With Teen Parenting: How Gender-Stereotypical Expectations Contribute

One hundred three students from a small liberal arts college rated statements about potential stigma associated with unmarried teen parents. After reading a scenario describing an unmarried teen couple’s pregnancy and early parenting experiences, participants indicated their level of agreement with 11 statements for either the mother or the father. Multivariate analysis of variance comparisons of the items indicated that the focus of attention was on the mother, in both positive and negative ways. Compared to unmarried teen fathers, unmarried teen mothers were seen as more sexually promiscuous, and too young to be a parent. On the other hand, mothers were also rated significantly as spending more time with their child, and assumed as more responsible. Unmarried teen fathers were seen as significantly more ambitious, whereas respondents thought it was more important for mothers to continue their education. Results reinforce the idea that unmarried teen mothers are expected to bear a disproportionate amount of the burden of care for their child. Knowledge of these results could lead to greater sensitivity toward unmarried teen parents and lend to more helpful support, which could assist them, and their children, to succeed despite their circumstances.