One decade on: teenage mothers talk about parenting
Ann Evans
The Australian National University
Contact Email: ann.evans
anu.edu.au
What do women who had their first child as a teenager say about their lives nearly a decade later? The Young Motherhood Study conducted by The Australian National University interviewed 50 young mothers in 2006. The interviews were conducted in metropolitan and rural areas across NSW and the ACT and reveal the complexities of teenage motherhood.
In the UK a ‘social exclusion’ framework has been adopted to direct policy responses to teenage pregnancy. In light of this study, how useful is social exclusion as a policy framework for Australia? This paper explores how young mothers themselves understand the challenges they face in combining the transition to adulthood, work, education and motherhood. From this we can consider how useful social exclusion might be for framing work and family policies in Australia.
The study finds that many young mothers have enormous social capital within their family and immediate networks. However, this capital is not necessarily sufficient to enable their transition to meaningful social and economic participation.
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