Teenage Pregnancy Research Report - 3p Consulting

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Executive SummaryAdolescence is a period of life dominated by transition. Thepassage from childhood into and through adolescence iscomprised of a set of transitions that touch upon manyaspects of the individual’s behaviour, development, andrelationships. These transitions are biological, cognitive,social and emotional. Transitioning to parenthood is asignificant life event for any individual, and has increasedsignificance when it is happening at a time of othertransitions such as adolescence.With funding from UnitingCare, the Northern EarlyYear Group has sought to understand the local contextin Northern Tasmania relating to young people andbecoming sexually active, pregnancy and parenting. Indoing so, they seek to not just understand but exploreopportunities for local responses and co-ordination.The key findings of this research provide an insight intothe literature and the experiences of young people andservice providers to ensure a well informed and evidencebased local context is achieved.6
A range of key findings have emerged from the researchproject. The most significant and perhaps mostsurprising finding is the lack of understanding about howto appropriately use contraception, and particularly, thepill. This is a significant challenge for policy makers andservice providers. In a world overcrowded with messagesthrough a range of social and mainstream medias,understanding how to get the attention of young peoplein a timely way is not easy. What the research has shownis that sex education at school and conversations withparents is unlikely to be a preferred source of informationfor this age group. The research demonstrates theneed to broaden the approach to include areas thatrelate to healthy relationships, sexuality and adolescentdevelopment in conjunction with exploring morecontemporary approaches to getting messages across.Accommodation is the other significant issue identifiedby young people once they become pregnant andcontinued into their parenting. Many of the youngpeople participating in the research were already livingindependently prior to becoming pregnant. The instabilityof their living situations was already evident and thenexacerbated by pregnancy. With the competing demandsof appointments with providers including antenatal care,applications for Centrelink and potentially still trying toattend school, layered with not knowing from week toweek where you might be living, it was generally found thatappointments are let go in priority to finding somewhereto live. For many young people, this uncertainty of “whereis home” continued once their baby was born.Overall, young parents reported moving up to 5 timesover a 12 month period from pregnancy through to theearly months of parenting and the impact is significant.In line with a hierarchy of needs, if the service systemcan prioritise at a regional level the accommodationneeds of young pregnant women, it will provide a moreseamless approach to then supporting the broaderneeds including antenatal care, retention in education,health and wellbeing. This should be considered by theNorthern Early Years Group and provider service systemas a priority area for local action.In conjunction with the need for accommodation, youngpeople reported the confusion and complexity of theservice system they were forced to navigate duringpregnancy and parenting. With a range of providersfunded to support various elements of need, navigatingthe system, potentially for the first time, was an addedstress during an already stressful time. There wasevidence of success where young people had thesupport of one significant adult who could assist them tonegotiate the system with them. At times, this could beextended to advocating for them. This was particularlyso with attending antenatal classes, attending to thecomplexity of Centrelink claims, negotiating and copingwith staying at school as long as possible in conjunctionwith sourcing and negotiating accommodation.There is an opportunity to look at “lead worker” modelswhere a young person is allocated a worker who then cantake the lead role across all providers to support the youngperson. This would include identifying and prioritisingtheir needs and acting as the navigator and significantadult for the duration of the pregnancy and into the firstmonths of parenting. Providing this level of intensive andpersonalised support would assist in ensuring many ofthe risk factors that may be present for individuals areidentified and addressed in a structured and consistentapproach. In a small region such as Northern Tasmaniawith an easily identified group of young women, triallingthis approach and mapping outcomes is viable.Throughout this research young people havedemonstrated incredible openness to sharing their verypersonal experiences with the researchers. Their loveand dedication for their children cannot be understatedand their desire to help inform this community on howto support other young people should be noted. All theyoung parents highlighted their sense of being judged andfeeling a stigma when transacting within the community,be it on a bus, in a store or in mainstream parentingprograms and/or playgroup. As a community we needto practice acceptance and understand that age is not adeterminant in what defines good parenting.Finally, this report highlights the importance ofunderstanding that young people are the experts of theirown experiences and a key stakeholder when tackling arange of social issues and policy and program responsesthat impact on them.7
Page 1 and 2: Teenage PregnancyResearch ReportNOR
Page 4 and 5: ContentsExecutive Summary 6Key Find
Page 8 and 9: Key Findings8
Page 10 and 11: PregnancyBecomingpregnantSupportnee
Page 13 and 14: IntroductionPoor outcomes associate
Page 15 and 16: Literature ReviewThe literature rev
Page 17: Research limitationsThis research p
Page 20 and 21: IntroductionDespite teenage pregnan
Page 22 and 23: Reflecting the international data t
Page 24 and 25: Link with Socio -Economic disadvant
Page 27 and 28: Being sexually active27
Page 29 and 30: Setting the scene - a case studyCAS
Page 31 and 32: Literature Review - Being sexually
Page 33 and 34: What worksAs the Netherlands and Sw
Page 35 and 36: State and Territory curriculum on s
Page 37 and 38: Young people, the internet and sexu
Page 39 and 40: The local contextTo gain a deeper u
Page 41 and 42: Sex EducationThe primary aim of sex
Page 43 and 44: This misconception may have implica
Page 45 and 46: Results from the survey also shed s
Page 47 and 48: Example programs - Sexually Active
Page 49: 23 Crabbe, Maree. “Eroticising in
Page 52 and 53: This section of the research focuse
Page 54 and 55: his apprenticeship and continue on
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Accessing Abortion in TasmaniaAcces
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STATESouthAustraliaVictoriaQueensla
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Pregnancy health and accessing ante
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adolescents highlight the effective
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six weeks, eh, six months’ (one).
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suggests that although the majority
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esearch participants were asked dir
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pregnant young women. Across a rang
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Example programs - Teenage pregnanc
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Teenage parenting75
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Setting the scene - a local case st
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Barriers to Accessing SupportSuppor
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EducationInternationally and nation
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Outcomes for childrenUntil recently
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not for all. Of the individual inte
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Local service providers - Parenting
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1Melender, Hanna‐Leena. “What c
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Teen Pregnancy Survey Results1. Are
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Sex was the least likely contributo
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Appendix TwoOnline survey results -
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8. Which of the following (if any)
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18. Which of the following would be
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Appendix ThreeData103
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Teenage Mothers’ Health and Wellb
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Appendix FourEthics ApplicationList
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Tackling Teenage Pregnancy Proje
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Tackling Teenage Pregnancy ProjectC
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Focus group questions young mig
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• How smart I am • How well
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Can you tell us about your kn
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Focus group questions young men
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• How well I do in school
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(Please tick the statement whic
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Individual interviews and focus
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(Please tick as many as apply
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If you feel uncomfortable or d
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We are more than happy to mee
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Your input to the discussion w
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Tackling Teenage Pregnancy Project
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Recruitment of participants Lette
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high levels persist in Tasmania
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Email: admin.northtas@tas.unitingc
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Prospect High Port Dalrymple St
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• Any time as long as you u
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