Teenage Pregnancy Research Report - 3p Consulting

his apprenticeship and continue on to a full wage. Hewas extremely relieved to be able to support his familyeven though it also meant he was required to worklong hours on a regular basis. Kayla elected to be afull time parent and discontinued her plans for furtherstudy. When Arielle was just over 2 years old theyhad a planned second child. Kayla has been involvedwith PYPS since Arielle was 4 months old. Althoughshe doesn’t necessarily see eye to eye with all theparticipants, she feels comfortable at PYPS, and isnot keen to attend other groups.Both Travis’s and Kayla’s parents were delightedto become grandparents and are very supportiveand both are involved in their grandchildren’s lives,babysitting, providing advice and helping in otherpractical ways.Their second child, Dylan was 6 months old whenTravis and Kayla separated. Kayla lived for a shortwhile with her parents before finding a unit to rent.Travis is back living with his parents. While theirseparation is difficult they continue to make jointdecisions about the children and Travis has regularcontact with both children, having Arielle overnighton weekends and seeing Dylan at least once everyweekend and sometimes on a week day evening.Support from both grandparents means that Kayla isable to contemplate enrolling in nursing at University.Travis says that while absolutely nothing can prepareanyone for parenthood the best quality a father canhave is patience. Travis is happy that he and Kaylaare young parents because it is “...biologically betterto have children when you are young and you havemore energy.” However he wishes he had longer todevelop good work habits and had more resources tosupport his family.The one thing that Travis has found very difficult isfeeling “judged” for his age when he is with his children.For him this was particularly difficult when Arielle wasfirst born and he used to push the pram while theyshopped-he was regularly targeted by members ofthe general public, bus drivers and shopkeepers, andmade feel irresponsible and useless because he wasa young father.Literature review - Teenage PregnancyThere continues to be two broadly different ways offraming discussions about pregnant teenagers whochoose to continue to motherhood. The first focuseson examining and documenting the medical, socialand economic implications for young mothers and theirchildren, whereas the second approach involves morein-depth qualitative studies orientated to understandingyoung people’s perspectives about their choice.Investigations into the first approach seek answers toconcerns such as:• Possible health risks to the pregnant teen and hergrowing baby;• The ability of the teen parent to care for and supporther child;• The effect that pregnancy/parenting at a young agecan have on the teen’s life plan, and;• The social costs of supporting young mothers andtheir children.Conversely, other studies work closely with young peopleand are interested in questions such as:• Attitudes and values about sex and relationships;• Aspirations for the future, including attitudes toeducation and employment;• Their emotional health, and;• Sense of stigmatisation from the general community.54