Teenage Parenthood

Arua District records a high number of teenage mothers with nearly one in every three households recording a teen that has got pregnant or has had a child (APPCAN report 2013), this was further noted during a visit to Arua Regional referral Hospital maternity ward with over 45% of the deliveries being teenager who were below 18 years and mostly school drop outs due to pregnancy. Teenage mothers and their families continue to face financial stress as they struggle to cater for the health care of the mother and baby and also find themselves at more risk in becoming victims in the country’s high infant and maternal mortality. This makes teenage pregnancy enormously expensive and it is a phenomenon which has caught many families within the vicious circle of poverty. The teenage pregnancies is associated with many social issues, including early forced marriage, lower educational levels, higher rates of poverty, inadequate basic education in the fundamentals of sexual and reproductive health, limited access to affordable contraceptive options and other poorer life outcomes in children of teenage mothers. This has caused  social stigma in many communities ,increased HIV/Aids among these teenagers who get Pregnant ,increased nutritional deficiencies  among the pregnant teenagers, high dropout rates in school, Poor academic performance in  children of teenage mothers, many of them being more likely than average to fail to graduate from primary and  secondary school. This unbecoming trend of increased teenage pregnancies, high school dropout rate of girl children, increased HIV/Aids cases among the teenagers are caused by inadequate sex education by parents, relaxed awareness about the dangers of premarital sex, unprotected sex has caused very high teenage pregnancy and increased HIV/Aids prevalence rate in Arua District. World Action Fund, therefore intend to revert this scenario through Strengthening Rural Education for teenagers (SRET) project in Arua District

Youths nowadays tend to practice sexual activities frequently and this affects the rate of new born babies, abandoned babies and different kinds of negative influences. This paper is to examine lack of understanding regarding human sexuality and the implications of it.

El presente documento busca reflejar algunas reflexiones y aprendizajes de un viaje realizado por el autor al Reino Unido entre noviembre de 2008 y febrero de 2009, con el propósito de avanzar en el estudio y el desarrollo del enfoque de derechos con relación a la situación de padres y madres adolescentes en Uruguay y América  Latina. En este sentido, la visita incluyó el estudio de organizaciones de la sociedad civil, con acciones específicas hacia esta población, y en particular, aquéllas que promueven una mirada de la situación adolescente desde la perspectiva del reconocimiento de derechos y su ampliación. La actividad se desarrolló en el marco de un proyecto financiado por el Programa NGPA (Non Governmental Public Action) con base en Inglaterra, cuyo objetivo principal es la generación de conocimiento sobre el impacto de las acciones no gubernamentales en el reconocimiento y ampliación de los derechos en niños, niñas y adolescentes.

Introduction Expectant and parenting teens experience many challenges to achieving self-sufficiency and promoting their children’s healthy development. Teen parents need support to help them address these challenges, and many different types of programs aim to support them. In this systematic review, we examine the research about programs that aim to support aspects of teen parents’ self-sufficiency by promoting their educational outcomes and healthy birth spacing.
Methods We conducted a comprehensive literature search of published and unpublished literature to identify studies of programs to support teen parents that met this review’s eligibility criteria. The quality and execution of the eligible study research designs were assessed to determine whether studies’ findings were at risk of bias. We then extracted information about study characteristics, outcomes, and program characteristics for studies considered to provide rigorous evidence.
Results We identified 58 eligible studies. Twenty-three studies were considered to provide rigorous evidence about either education, contraceptive use, or repeat pregnancy or birth. Seventeen of these studies showed at least one favorable effect on an outcome in one of these domains, whereas the other six did not show any significant or substantial effects in these domains. These 17 studies represent 14 effective programs.
Discussion Effective programs to support expectant and parenting teens have diverse characteristics, indicating there is no
single approach for promoting teens’ education and healthy birth spacing. More rigorous studies of programs to support teen parents are needed to understand more about how to support teen fathers and the program characteristics associated with effectiveness.

This toolkit supports viewers in discussing how to overcome barriers to accessing education, develop conflict resolution skills, understand reproductive health choices and minors’ rights to medical care, promote cultural competency and cultural sensitivity, and examine gender roles and expectations. Includes background information on Iu Mien History. Can support learning about youth advocacy services, parenting skills, adolescent healthcare providers, and immigrant community issues.

FILM SYNOPSIS of Kelly Loves Tony (1998): She's a straight-A student; he's trying to leave gang life behind. A camcorder becomes both witness and confidante for these markedly singular yet utterly typical teens as they self-document the trials of growing up too fast and too soon in urban America.

Many factors at the individual, relationship, family, and community or environmental levels could predict repeat teen pregnancies or births, but research on certain factors is limited. In addition, few studies have examined whether these factors can accurately predict whether teen mothers will have a repeat pregnancy.
This study examined theoretically selected predictors of repeat teen pregnancy among 945 pregnant and parenting teens (mean age=17) most of whom were Hispanic/Latina (86 percent). Logistic regression with 47 predictors measured at baseline was used to predict repeat pregnancy. Predictors were selected based on backward selection that aimed for a balance between model performance and model complexity. A random forest model was also used to determine how accurately repeat pregnancy could be predicted based on all predictors.
Significant predictors of repeat pregnancy were: the teen mother having a parent with a serious drinking or drug problem when she was a child, being older, not living with a mother figure, not intending to abstain from sex or use a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC), and having lower resiliency skills. However, predictors explained limited variance in repeat pregnancy, and their accuracy in predicting repeat pregnancy was low.
More research is needed to identify accurate predictors of repeat pregnancy because this could inform program providers or developers about areas that warrant more focus in programming for teen parents, and it could help identify teen mothers at higher risk of a repeat pregnancy so they could be the focus of specific programming.

Parenting styles (PS) are parents' attitudes towards their children's overall development and education. By establishing the family's environment and parents' behaviours, PS have been the focus of developmental psychology and family studies, namely in relation to child outcomes. This cross-sectional study analyses the impact of perceived PS by adolescents regarding their school achievement. 110 boys and 118 girls in years 5-9 of schooling (M= 12.60, SD= 1.82) from a state school in Lisbon answered a demographic form and the Parental Authority Questionnaire for both parents. Their grades and the number of retentions were analysed. Results show that authoritative parenting correlates to higher grades and better school achievement. Permissive and authoritarian styles correlate to worse school results (grades and number of years held back). Although PS may vary according to cultural contexts, these results are in line with previous international research findings that show that parents' authoritativeness is associated with better children outcomes and school achievement. Age and school level have a significant effect on PS. Older and more educated parents are perceived as less permissive and authoritarian. No level of agreement between the PS of mother/father-teenager was found, suggesting that the parents perceive themselves differently than their children. The results contribute to parenting styles' knowledge within the Portuguese cultural context. They are also useful for organizing future, evidence-based interventions regarding parenting programmes and school underachievement and dropout preventing programmes. Introduction Authority Parenting Styles (PS), a tripartite construct initially developed by Baumrind (1971) based on the control and responsiveness dimensions that result in different standards of educating and rearing a child, has been pointed out as a relevant variable for child and family health. Darling and Steinberg (1993) define it as childrearing standards adopted by parents in the relationship with their children that create the emotional climate in which parents educate their children. Baumrind's tripartite model establishes that permissive parents are very responsive to their children's needs but do not monitor their children's behaviour; authoritarian parents have opposite educational standards (high control/demandingness and low responsiveness) seen often as harsh and strict. Authoritative parents encourage children autonomy/independence, allow them to explore but set up rules and limit their activity, using control whenever it is needed, and are affectionate and responsive to their children's development, characteristics, needs, and interests. Later, as a result of the combination of dimensions, PS led to other forms of PS (neglected, indulgent; inconsistent) (Maccoby, & Martin, 1983). The effects of different PS on children (positive and negative outcomes) are not constant across cultures and ethnic groups. Considering this, in 1993 Darling and Steinberg presented a contextual model of parenting that includes both individual and contextual aspects (Spera, 2005). Education and child rearing should always be studied in context, namely across groups and culture specifications and values and not from an ethnocentric viewpoint.

Available fully open source!  In 2003, Wendy Luttrell posed an important question: what might result if we were able to turn questions of judgement about pregnant and parenting teenagers into questions of interest about their sense of self and identity-making? This book takes up the challenge, offering a re/assemblage of what is, can be and perhaps should be known about teenage pregnancy and parenting in the context of the twenty-first century. The collection presents original contributions from leading commentators in four key contexts: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland, all sites of elevated incidence of and/or concern around what is commonly articulated as the «problem» of teenage pregnancy and parenting. In offering a multi-disciplinary reading of the narratives of young men and women, this volume engages with the ambiguity shared by all of us in confronting the life transition that is pregnancy and parenting.

Parenthood among adolescents who are homeless is poorly studied. Understanding how these adolescents perceive parenthood is important for providing effective health care, public policy, and social services. Fifteen fathers and 16 mothers, ages 18 to 22, from a shelter in Philadelphia participated in semistructured interviews. Coding and analysis involved standard qualitative methodologies. Participants identified parenthood as an important turning point that produced motivation to change behaviors and life circumstances but noted multiple barriers to actualizing change including stigma, shame, and old patterns of behavior. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and to determine ways to support these youth in actualizing change.

In this open forum piece we bring together our lived experiences and intersectional identities as young Black women to make sense of the question: What is Blackwom?nhood? We explore a variety of topics ranging from identity, feminist activism, the environment, and decoloniality by focusing on the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, location, and language. The gendered and racialised identities given to Black women by culture and society greatly impact on their ability to produce knowledge and live a pleasurable life in the home, university, and, particularly, the workplace. In acknowledging that Blackwom?nhood is not a singular experience, this paper explores the multiple ways that women of colour choose to represent themselves in a world dominated by a racist, capitalist, patriarchal system. This piece is a provocation of thoughts on Black women’s representation, expression and sexual exploration, and the possibilities it has for producing critical feminist theories. In the current age of decoloniality, the question of what Blackwom?nhood is and means becomes increasingly important in understanding Black women’s role in activism, academia, and the workplace. We attempt to (re)imagine and (re)configure how Blackwom?nhood has resisted and evolved despite reductionist definitions and tropes.

keywords: Blackwom?nhood, intersectionality, decoloniality, feminist activism, representation

This poster presentation (November 2015, www.ncfr.org 2015 conference, Vancouver, Canada) offers an account of literature review (till 2015) on  transition to parenthood (TtP), a demanding and complex life experience for couples who set a goal for a quality relationship. This work uses family theories and describes issues couples face in TtP, based on demographic and relationship characteristics. Marital quality (MQ) in couples’ relationship over time is viewed via current research of couples in the U.S.A. and European countries. The scholarship is unanimous that MQ declines in up to 70% of couples postpartum (Gottman & Notarius, 2000; Kluwer, 2010; Kluwer & Johnson, 2007; Mitnick et al., 2009). Therefore, the goal of the poster was to highlight the issues in the problem and show how couples could increase their capacity to overcome hardships of TtP by engaging in educational interventions that were found to be more effective when they incorporate prenatal and postnatal components, last more than five sessions, and had professional personnel leading the training versus semiprofessionals (Halford et al., 2010; Pinquart & Teubert, 2010a, 2010b; Schulz et al., 2006). Such interventions according to empirical evidences (Pinquart & Teubert, 2010a) build up capacity against relationship decline in TtP.

Women’s inability to easily access quality health care, most specifically contraception, exacerbates the cycle of poverty. This inability causes women to have more children per household and begin childbearing at much younger ages, consequently creating barriers to higher education and, therefore, better employment opportunities. By making contraception accessible to at-risk young women, we would enable them to escape the vicious cycles they are born into.
            Keywords: contraception, poverty, women’s health care, family planning

Scholars and practitioners have struggled with the question of why and under what circumstances women are most likely to utilize contraception. It seems logical to predict that as access to reliable birth control increases, women will be more likely to take advantage of it and, therefore, of educational and work opportunities. However, the relationships among access, utilization, and participation in the public sphere are interactive and complex. Our findings suggest that normative cultural patterns operate as intervening variables in these relationships.