This article was originally published in July 2017.
While the rate of births to teenage parents continues to decline in Australia, adolescent pregnancy and parenthood remain a social and public health concern. A new working paper from Life Course Centre researchers Ms Heidi Hoffmann and Dr Sergi Vidal describes the context of Australian teenage pregnancy and parenthood, and outlines some of the challenges and barriers teenage parents face before and after childbirth. They identify and describe existing programs that work to support pregnant and parenting teenagers to reconnect with and further their education.
Rates of teenage pregnancy and parenthood in Australia are highest in remote and rural areas, and among adolescents who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. Adolescent parenthood is related to complex disadvantage, across multiple forms, and is a risk-factor of teenage pregnancy and parenthood. These disadvantages can persist over the mother’s life, and may be transmitted to their children.
Australian research highlights the relationship between disadvantage, teenage pregnancy and parenthood, and low educational goals and achievements. Their report is part of preparatory work for the Pathways to Parenthood (P2P) project, which is a collaboration between the Life Course Centre and community service providers seeking to support teenage mothers’ to reconnect with education. To build an evidence base, Hoffmann and Vidal reviewed and evaluated existing international programmes aimed at supporting adolescent parents.
They concluded that programmes should seek to cater for the specific strengths and needs of the individuals, and recognise the differences among teenage parents. To achieve the most success, programmes should include an element of supportive case management, should endeavour to include fathers, must consider the provision of child care, and should include culturally specific and sensitive approaches. They also highlight the lack of rigorous evaluations of Australian programmes, and call for further research to continue to build evidence in the Australian context.
You can read the working paper here.