Teenage Pregnancy Research Report - 3p Consulting

Research limitationsThis research project was subject to limitations in twoways-by the nature of the subject and by the inability toimplement all aspects of the proposed methodology.Specifically this research explores the experiences of 25teenage parents all of whom were contacted through theservices that they were engaged with. The research didnot capture the experiences and issues facing teenageparents who are disengaged from all services and whomay be vulnerable across a range of factors.Further, teenagers and teen parents respond tocircumstances depending on their individual set of lifeexperiences and as such the findings contained in thereport are based on generalities that may or may not beapplicable to all.In addition to the above general limitations specificallythis research is limited by the:1. Inability to access all relevant dataThere is no recorded data of the actual number of teenagepregnancies across the State and/or by region, rather thenumber of pregnancies that proceed to birth• There is no recorded data about the number ofteenage pregnancies that proceed to termination inTasmania.• There is no recorded data of the number and type ofpresentations of teenagers relating to sexual activityincluding contraception advice and prescription,pregnancy and STD testing• There has been no attempt to access data on thenumbers of teenagers who have withdrawn fromeducation and then proceeded to parenthood whilestill of school age2. The surveyThe survey distribution methodology originally proposedwas not able to be implemented due to an inability tocirculate the survey in northern secondary and seniorsecondary schools. The comprehensive survey resultsprovide useful information on the respondent’s sexualaptitude and attitude. However an un-even spread overthe male-female gap should be taken into account.Though the results are balanced proportionally betweengenders, the age gap between the average male andfemale respondent was up to four years in favour of thefemale respondents. The survey participants were alsospread across an unmeasurable geographical and socioeconomicbackground. In some ways this gives meritto the findings: there is no bias towards any possiblecontributing influences. In other ways separating findingsinto sub-categories may have provided insights to thephenomenon that are not yet apparent.3. Focus groups and individual interviewsIt was anticipated that there would be both ageographical and gender spread in the focus groups.However convening focus groups was problematic.The researchers found that young parents preferred toparticipate in individual interviews rather than in groupsettings. As a result, fewer fathers were interviewed thananticipated and input from rural areas in the region waslimited to George Town.4. Literature reviewInternational and national academic research is coupledwith experiences from Australian service providers andother civil society groups to provide a framework forthe report. An effort was made to focus on researchconducted in the last 5-10 years, identifying the mostrelevant case studies while ensuring lesser issues werenot ignored. The authors were conscious of surveyingliterature across different social, cultural, ethnic andgeographical groupings in their research.The authors of this report made a concerted effort tosurvey a broad spectrum of academic publications in theliterature review. The literature review includes reports froma number of countries which focus on a number of factorsthat contribute to understanding teenage pregnancy.We cannot, however, be certain that all relevant studieswere surveyed or that the studies surveyed provide abalanced view of the issue. With that in mind, an elementof publication bias may exist throughout the report. Thisis an issue for any report of this nature.17