Teenage Parenthood and Social Exclusion: a multi-method study: Summary report of findings

Abstract

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 8 4. Summary of main findings This section summarizes our key findings by themes and explores how our findings contribute to an understanding of teenage pregnancy. Many teenage parents report positive experiences . For some women in the TPSE Study the pregnancy was planned or, if not planned, wanted. For others this was not overtly the case at the time, but their teenage pregnancy came to be viewed by many as a positive occurrence. Many women loved being a mother; for some having one or more children as a teenager turned their lives around in a positive way. Furthermore, the children who were interviewed felt they had gained by having a young mother, although their own priorities were to develop their careers, rather than have children at a young age as their mothers had done. Dislike of school/educational failure . In both the qualitative and quantitative data in this study, teenage parenthood was strongly associated with: leaving school by 16 years of age, leaving school with no or few qualifications and disliking school. Boredom, bullying and educational failure were the main reasons given for school being a negative experience