Lived experiences of school-going early mothers in Swaziland

This study explored the lived family and community experiences of Swazi school-going early mothers (N = 15; age range 13–22 years). Participants responded to family and community relationship experiences focus group discussions. The data were content thematically analysed. The findings suggest that early mothers experience strained relationships with their fathers, and receive emotional and material support from their mothers. The young mothers perceived themselves to be discriminated against by teachers in educational support. Early motherhood appeared to cause feelings of happiness, regret and anxiety in many, and a personal sense of satisfaction and accomplishment in some.     

Dad2K: An Adaptation of SafeCare to Enhance Positive Parenting Skills With At-Risk Fathers

Positive father involvement in the lives of their children is critically important. This article describes pilot data from the Dad2K program, an adaptation of the evidence-based SafeCare Parent-Child Interaction module, which targets positive parenting skills and the prevention of child neglect and physical abuse. Dad2K includes a unique approach to intervention delivery utilizing computer software, and instruction and practice with a home visitor provider. The development process of the Dad2K program is described, and data are presented from four fathers of young children who completed the program. The article concludes with describing the next steps in the examination of the Dad2K program, which includes a large randomized control trial funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.     

Language development of pre‐school children born to teenage mothers

An Erratum has been published for this article in Infant and Child Development 10(4) 2001, 241. This paper compares the language development of pre‐school children born to teenage (n=22) and comparison mothers (n=20) and examines the extent to which differences in language development can be explained by social background, child and parenting factors. Mothers and children were assessed at home using a range of measures, including a structured interview, the language scales of the Child Development Inventory, the HOME Inventory, and videotaped mother‐child interaction. Results showed that children of teenage mothers perform significantly poorer than children of comparison mothers on measures of expressive language and language comprehension. Subsequent analyses showed that these differences are largely explained by differences in the parenting behaviour of teenage and comparison mothers. Specifically, maternal verbal stimulation and intrusiveness accounted for the relationship between teenage motherhood and children's poorer language comprehension, while maternal intrusiveness and involvement with the child account for the relationship between teenage motherhood and children's poorer expressive language development. These findings highlight the importance of early mother–child interaction for children's language development. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Young Rural Males in South Africa Speak on Teenage Pregnancy: “It's Really Her Problem”

The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of school-going rural males in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on teenage pregnancy. Two methods of data collection were used, namely, a quantitative survey with a sample of 294 male youth from 10 schools. This was followed by focus group interviews with three groups, each comprising ten males, from three of the schools. Quantitative data examined self reported knowledge, behaviours, beliefs and attitudes of participants relating to teenage pregnancy. Qualitative data from the focus groups generated both an individual and ‘group think and provided insights into the relational construction of these beliefs and behaviours. Although the analysis revealed some mixed reactions, the majority response pointed to ‘dominant male-submissive female’ views of sexual relationships. Most participants supported the notion that the burden of pregnancy fell on the female, with males frequently denying paternity and criticizing females for careless sexual behaviour. Attributions for teenage pregnancy by boys are important for intervention to curtail impact on survivor girls.     

The role of frequent personal religious practice in Buddhist teen religiosity

A quantitative study explored the relationship for teen Buddhists in Britain between the frequency of personal religious practice (PRP), affective religiosity (as measured by Thanissaro’s 24-item Scale of Attitude to Buddhism), individual differences in attitudes and Psychological Type (as measured by the Francis Psychological Type Scales). Those with frequent PRP (18% practising daily and 54% monthly) were more likely to want their children to grow up Buddhist and felt school was helping them prepare for life. Only daily PRP was associated with Buddhist worldview whereas less frequent PRP was associated with collectivist and traditionalist attitudes. Daily PRP was found to be positively linked with affective religiosity for heritage Buddhists, males, females and 17-to-20-year-olds, but linked with diminished affective religiosity for convert Buddhists. Daily PRP was associated with a Sensing preference in terms of Psychological Type, rather than psychoticism predicted by some previous meditation research.     

The fathers of Destiny: Representations of fatherhood in a popular South African magazine

This study utilised textual analysis to characterise the representation of fatherhood in the eight issues of Destiny Man magazine published in 2014. Stories that pertained to fatherhood and that were related to aspects of contemporary family construction, work, and identity formation were included for detailed text analysis. Our findings suggest that fatherhood is defined by access to wealth, and is inextricably linked to features of modern-day neoliberal capitalism with its bias towards wealth accumulation and economic standards of identity. Additionally, matters such as race and origin seem to be the primary classification criteria when it comes to self-identification as a father figure. From these data, we conclude that the notion of fatherhood is fluid; it changes continuously depending on the social class position of the incumbent male.     

‘You've got to grow up when you've got a kid’: Marginalized young women's accounts of motherhood

Teenage motherhood has been a source of considerable debate in policy and media circles in recent years. This paper explores the meanings of teenage motherhood for young women who were mothers before the age of 21, who were living in economically deprived areas of England and most of whom had been in residential or foster care. Qualitative interviews were carried out at several sites across England, with a total of 33 young women taking part in group interviews and one‐to‐one interviews. The accounts of the young women suggest that they talk about motherhood in three main ways: as ‘hardship and reward’, ‘growing up and responsibility’ and ‘doing things differently’. It is argued that these ways of talking about motherhood present a different picture of teenage motherhood from that of dominant discourses. Furthermore, the young women are active in negotiating and constructing their own identities as mothers, carers and women. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Community-based Peer Groups: an Intervention Programme for Teenage Mothers

This paper assesses the use of community-based peer groups as an intervention strategy to provide teenage mothers with an opportunity to share common experiences, receive social support and identify links between personal and social problems. The method utilized in a recent community project on teenage pregnancy is outlined. Over a period of 8 weeks a group of 10 teenage mothers met weekly to share their experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. The facilitators used various games and audio-visual aids to build rapport and to enhance willingness to discuss sensitive topics. The final session comprised a 1-day training workshop to enable the participants to act as co-facilitators for similar groups in the future. The evaluation indicated that the participants felt empowered by the opportunity to discuss common experiences and to have their perceptions affirmed by their peers. The potential value of this programme within the broader mental health context of South Africa is briefly discussed, and also the possibility of adding a consciousness-raising element to such groups.     

Family structure and community connectedness: Their association with teenage pregnancy in South Africa

This study aimed to examine the relationships between family structure and community connectedness on the one hand, as well as risk for teenage pregnancy on the other. Data were from the South African General Household Surveys 2011, 2012, 2013; N = 279 042, female teenagers = 9.9%, age range 10 to 19; black teenagers = 81%. We applied multilevel binary logistic regression to predict risk for teenage pregnancy by family structure and community affinity variables. Findings suggest teenage female teenagers from single-headed households and with higher numbers of male relatives are at elevated risk for teenage pregnancy. Similarly, female teenagers from families with parental divorce were at higher risk for pregnancy as were those from communities with lower coherence.