No file available
To read the file of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Association Between Household and Community Single Motherhood and Adolescent Pregnancy in South Africa: International Perspectives
Abstract
This study investigated the independent association of single motherhood at both household- and community-levels with adolescent pregnancy. A sample of 14,232 female adolescents aged 10–19 years was obtained from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 South African General Household Surveys (GHS). These data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multilevel binary logistic regression with Stata. Interaction terms were also tested. Findings showed that living in a single motherhood household increased the average odds of adolescent pregnancy as did high levels of single motherhood within communities in the adjusted models. Significant interaction was found between both household and community single motherhood variables and education, poverty and household sex composition, after adjusting for other variables. These results highlight the important need for supporting households headed by single mothers. This need arises from an independent association as well as the added risk that occurs when single motherhood occurs in the presence of school non-attendance and poverty. Early pregnancy prevention programmes and awareness campaigns for females growing up in homes and environments with greater levels of single motherhood are encouraged in order to ensure the sexual and reproductive health of young females in South Africa.
... Studies by Langley (2016) and Mkwananzi (2019) found that adolescents who resided with mothers only and had no father figure were more likely to report a pregnancy when compared to AYP in households with a father or a father figure. This can be linked partly to a lack of monitoring of AYP, early sexual debut and unregulated behavior all factors linked to absent father phenomena (Dimbuene & Defo, 2012;Govender et al., 2020). ...
The role of a family environment in shaping the sexual behaviour of adolescents and young people (AYP) has been acknowledged in literature. This explanatory mixed methods study is aimed at highlighting the role of familial factors contributing to AYP pregnancy in Cape Town, South Africa, guided by the concept of Bowen’s Family Systems theory. Secondary data from the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) were analyzed, using descriptive and logistic regression procedures reporting odds ratios (OR). To complement the quantitative data, qualitative data were collected, using three (3) focus group discussions and 15 in-depth interviews. Results show that AYP who resided with a mother or father had lower odds of reporting an adolescent pregnancy compared with adolescents who did not reside with either parent. Lower odds of reporting a pregnancy were also noted in families who had an income of between 20,000 and 25,000 rands and above 25,000 rands. The results showed that both parent-child residence and high family socioeconomic status were protective against AYP pregnancy. Both AYP and parents perceived that pregnancy is largely due to family poverty which disempowers AYP from negotiating safer sex, and lack of parental monitoring due to work demands. Parents admitted that it was tough balancing parenthood and work, especially in single parent families, resulting in reduced monitoring.
The value of traditional nuclear family structure of man, woman and children is fast eroding, resulting in alternative family forms such as single motherhood among others. This work focuses particularly on choice of voluntary single motherhood whereby young women neither married nor divorced, opt to have children and settle down to single life. Reasons for single motherhood vary greatly across the nation, ranging from personal choices to involuntary circumstance. Through oral interviews, Focus Group Discussions, the findings of this research is that single mothers face discrimination, rejection and blackmail from the society, culture and religion. Although single motherhood is not appreciated in the major religions in the study area, this study discovers that single motherhood has come to stay. Understanding, tolerance, acceptance, economic aids towards single mothers are highly recommended. There is need for the entire society to focus more on the attitudinal change and social orientation towards single mothers.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa has focused attention on how children and youth learn about sex. This research has revealed an alarming failure of communication between parents and children on sexual issues. Parents find it very difficult to broach the issue of sex with their children who as a result have little option but to seek information elsewhere -- normally from their peers. There is also now a considerable body of work on sexual attitudes and practices which paints a bleak picture of contemporary realities. There are high levels of premarital sexual activity and teenage pregnancy. But perhaps most disturbing of all is the research on youth sexuality that suggests that sex -- especially for girls -- is often coercive and violent and that this is to some extent accepted as the norm by both males and females. While these patterns are increasingly well documented they have not been adequately explained. Some commentators have suggested that a promiscuous and violent sexual culture is primordial in Africa and that contemporary realities are an inevitable outcome. This point of view unsurprisingly has angered many people on the continent. It also contradicts historical evidence. (excerpt)
Daughters of teenage mothers have increased risk for teenage childbearing, perpetuating intergenerational cycles. Using Ecological Systems Theory, this study prospectively examined risk factors for teenage childbearing among a national sample of adolescent girls.
Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Participants (N = 1,430) were recruited in early adolescence and interviewed yearly for 6 years. Survival analysis was used to examine the rate of childbirth across the teenage years by maternal age at first birth. Hierarchical Cox regression was used to identify multivariate predictors of teenage childbearing and to test whether risk factors differed between daughters of teenage versus older mothers.
Age at first childbirth was based on cumulative information collected at yearly interviews.
Daughters of teenage mothers were 66% more likely to become teenage mothers, after accounting for other risks. Individual (school performance), family (maternal education, marital status, number of children), peer (dating history), and environmental (race, enrichment) factors predicted teenage childbearing. Risks unique to daughters of teenage mothers were deviant peer norms, low parental monitoring, Hispanic race, and poverty.
Results support multidimensional approaches to pregnancy prevention, and targeted interventions addressing unique risk factors among daughters of teenage mothers.
To describe prevalence of childhood experiences of adversity in rural South African youth and their associations with health outcomes.
We analyzed questionnaires and blood specimens collected during a baseline survey for a cluster randomized controlled trial of a behavioral intervention, and also tested blood HIV and herpes simplex type 2 virus at 12- and 24-month follow up; 1,367 male and 1,415 female volunteers were recruited from 70 rural villages.
Both women and men before 18 had experienced physical punishment (89.3% and 94.4%), physical hardship (65.8% and 46.8%), emotional abuse (54.7% and 56.4%), emotional neglect (41.6% and 39.6%), and sexual abuse (39.1% and 16.7%). Incident HIV infections were more common in women who experienced emotional abuse (IRR 1.96, 95% CI 1.25, 3.06, p=.003), sexual abuse (IRR 1.66 95% CI 1.04, 2.63, p=.03), and physical punishment (IRR 2.13 95% CI 1.04, 4.37, p=.04). Emotional neglect in women was associated with depression (aOR 1.82, 95% CI 1.15, 2.88, p=.01), suicidality (aOR 5.07, 95% CI 2.07, 12.45, p<.0001), alcohol abuse (aOR 2.17, 95% CI .99, 4.72, p=.05), and incident HSV2 infections (IRR 1.62, 95% CI 1.01, 2.59, p=.04). In men emotional neglect was associated with depression (aOR 3.41, 95% CI 1.87, 6.20, p<.0001) and drug use (aOR 1.98, 95% CI 1.37, 2.88, p<.0001). Sexual abuse was associated with alcohol abuse in men (aOR 3.68, 95% CI 2.00, 6.77, p<.0001) and depression (aOR 2.16, 95% CI 1.34, 3.48, p=.002) and alcohol abuse in women (aOR 3.94, 95% CI 1.90, 8.17, p<.0001).
Childhood exposure to adversity is very common and influences the health of women and men. All forms of adversity, emotional, physical and sexual, enhance the risk of adverse health outcomes in men and women. Prevention of child abuse need to be included as part of the HIV prevention agenda in sub-Saharan Africa. Interventions are needed to prevent emotional, sexual, and physical abuse and responses from health and social systems in Africa to psychologically support exposed children must be strengthened.
This paper describes marriage and partnership patterns and trends in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa from 2000-2006. The study is based on longitudinal, population-based data collected by the Africa Centre demographic surveillance system. We consider whether the high rates of non-marriage among Africans in South Africa reported in the 1980s were reversed following the political transformation underway by the 1990s. Our findings show that marriage has continued to decline with a small increase in cohabitation among unmarried couples, particularly in more urbanised areas. Comparing surveillance and census data, we highlight problems with the use of the ‘living together’ marital status category in a highly mobile population.
Why, despite evidence to the contrary, does the narrative of the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy, abortion and childbearing persist? This book outlines a critical view of `teenage pregnancy' and abortion, arguing that the negativity surrounding early reproduction is underpinned by a particular understanding of adolescence. The book traces the invention of `adolescence' and the imaginary wall that the notion of `adolescence' constructs between young people and adults. It examines the entrenched status of 'adolescence' within a colonialist discourse that equates development of the individual with the development of civilization, and the consequent threat of degeneration that is implied in the very notion of `adolescence'.
Many important issues are explored, such as the ideologies and contradictions contained within the notion of 'adolescence'; the invention of teenage pregnancy as a social problem; the construction of abortion as the new social problem; issues of race, culture and tradition in relation to teenage pregnancy; and health service provider practices, specifically in relation to managing risk. In the final chapter, an argument is made for a shift from the signifier `teenage pregnancy' to `unwanted pregnancy'.
Using data gathered from studies in four continents, this book highlights central issues in the global debate concerning teenage pregnancy. It is suitable for academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students of health psychology, women's studies, nursing and sociology, as well as practitioners in the fields of youth and social work, medicine and counselling.
In this paper, we review South African research conducted in the last 10 years on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy. We discuss research into the rates of teen-aged pregnancy, the intentionality and wantedness of pregnancy, the disruption of schooling, health issues, consequences for the children, welfare concerns, knowledge and use of contraception, timing of sexual debut, age of partner, coercive sexual relations, cultural factors and health service provision.
We compare this discussion to the reviews on the same topic appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology a decade ago. We find that there are several changes in focus in the research on pregnancy amongst young women. We conclude that, in general, there has been an improvement
in the breadth of data available, mostly as a result of representative national and local surveys. A better teasing out of nuances around particular issues and a grappling with theoretical issues are also evident in recent research.
The signifiers, ‘race’, ‘culture’ or ‘ethnicity’ are utilized in the teenage pregnancy literature (1) to highlight ‘differences’ in adolescent sexual and reproductive behaviour and (2) as explanatory tools. When ‘white’ teenagers are the focus of research, psychological explanations are usually invoked, while for ‘black’ teenagers, explanations are socio-cultural in nature. In this paper, we explore how, through a process of racialization, the psycho-medical literature on teenage pregnancy in South Africa contributes to the entrenchment of ‘race’, ‘culture’ and ‘ethnicity’ as fixed, ‘natural’ signifiers. We utilize Derrida’s notion of différance, together with Phoenix and Woollett’s adaptation – ‘normalized absence/pathologized presence’ – to indicate how ‘black’ people are cast as the Other, the pathologized presence which relies on the normalized absent trace, ‘whiteness’, for definition. We analyse how the notions of ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ are deployed to sanitize or disguise the underlying racializing project. ‘Black’ is exoticized and rendered strange and thus open to scrutiny, monitoring and intervention. ‘Culture’ and ‘tradition’ appeal to the myth of origin, thus providing pseudo-historical explanations which essentialize and naturalize racialized collectivities.
Reducing rates of teenage pregnancy is an important part of the agenda of action for meeting most of the Millenium Development Goals. South Africa has important lessons for other countries in this regard as the rate of teenage pregnancy is high but has declined very substantially over the last twenty years. The country experiences waves of moral panic about teenage pregnancy, with assertions that current problems are rooted in accepting or even encouraging the sexual appetites of young people rather than sternly disciplining them. In this paper, we argue that the key to success in teenage pregnancy reduction has been an empowering social policy agenda that has sought to work with young people, making them aware of their rights and the risks of sexual intercourse. Furthermore, family responses and education policy have greatly reduced the potential negative impact of teenage pregnancy on the lives of teenage girls. There is tremendous scope for further progress in reducing teenage pregnancy and we argue that this lies in paying more attention to issues of gender and sexuality, including the terms and conditions under which teenagers have sex. There needs to be critical reflection and engagement with men and boys on issues of masculinity, including their role in child rearing, as well as examination within families of their engagement with supporting pregnancy prevention and responses to pregnancies.
This paper explores the nature and characteristics of lone motherhood in Zimbabwe. We argue that endogenous and exogenous forces associated with failing economies and gendered public policy structures, practices, and initiatives exacerbated by HIV/AIDS and intermittent droughts have worsened national poverty with much more devastation experienced by lone mothers and their children. Using vignettes of lone parents drawn from Zimbabwe, this paper extends the perspectives on lone motherhood to show the extent of poverty experienced by lone mothers as well as the varied formations and structures of lone parenthood. The vignettes highlight the socioeconomic concerns for these families regarding inadequate income, lack of access to employment, lack of housing, and problematic governmental policies that affect the well-being of lone mothers and their families. We conclude with a discussion of the role of social policy in managing the context in which lone mothers and their families must live and function.
The U.S. has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing in the industrialized world—and the highest rates in the U.S. are found among low-income black adolescents. This paper addresses the problem via a four-part theoretical framework based on an ecological developmental model. Variables that contribute to adolescent pregnancy in the black community are examined at the individual, family, sociocultural, and social structural levels. The potential utility of this framework is discussed, and suggestions are offered for research and programmatic intervention.
Teenage pregnancy is an important health and social problem in South Africa. So far research on adolescent sexual activity has been almost exclusively descriptive; as a result there is considerable knowledge about practices of adolescents in general and outcomes of their pregnancies, but very limited understanding of factors that place particular adolescents at increased risk of teenage pregnancy. Without this understanding, our ability to intervene effectively to reduce teenage pregnancy rates is limited.
To undertake an exploratory study to investigate risk factors for teenage pregnancy among sexually active adolescents in an urban and peri-urban context.
The study used a matched case-control design, with 191 cases and 353 age-matched controls from the same school or neighbourhood. Subjects were under 19 years of age and were recruited from township areas of Cape Town. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-economic factors, contraceptive knowledge and use, and sexual behaviour. Conditional logistical regression was used to analyse the relationship between teenage pregnancy and the factors investigated.
Teenage pregnancy was found to be most strongly associated with having frequent sex (risk ratio (RR) 30.81) without reliable contraceptive protection (RR 24.35), forced sexual initiation (RR 14.42), not owning a television set (RR 10.33), larger household size (RR 2.44), not living in a brick house (RR 5.09), not living with the biological father (RR 3.26), talking openly about sex with a boyfriend (RR 4.72), and perceiving most friends to be pregnant (RR 4.38).
The findings suggest associations between the promotion of sexual health among adolescents and broader social development and promotion of gender equality. Although further research is needed, it is likely that important foci for short-term strategies should include developing assertiveness, enhancing decision-making competence, and promoting contraception and condoms as part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health educational interventions.
Considering both distribution and determinants of health
In this issue of the journal Jennifer Ahern et al 1 present the results of a multilevel analysis showing the increased likelihood of preterm birth affecting both African American and white women living in a neighbourhood with deprived socioeconomic characteristics. This increased risk was independent of individual cigarette smoking and modified by socioeconomic characteristics of the women. The authors, taking a multilevel perspective, concluded that examining both neighbourhood and individual socioeconomic factors in combination with behavioural and biological factors is the most adequate way to study determinants of preterm delivery.
The study of Ahern et al contributes to the growing stream of current multilevel analysis in modern health epidemiology. However, the analytical approach of Ahern’s multilevel analysis does not apply multilevel regression (synonymous with hierarchical regression )2–5 for statistical modelling. The authors describe the association between preterm birth and neighbourhood variables by population-average regression techniques that account for intra-neighbourhood correlation using a method called generalised estimating equations (GEE).6,7 In this way the authors simply aim to provide acceptable estimates for the standard errors around point estimates (that is, odds ratios, 95% CI), treating the intra-neighbourhood correlation as a “nuisance” that needs to be adjusted in the analysis but not explicitly investigated.
Analogously to the study of Ahern, other social epidemiologists have adopted a similar analytical approach, applying SUDAAN statistical software (http://www.rti.org/) to perform multilevel analysis. As in Ahern’s study, SUDAAN analyses also consider the variance structure of the data as a necessary “nuisance”. These authors’ analytical approach and the estimation of the association between neighbourhood characteristics and health are, however, appropriate and formally correct.
Is this the end of the story? Is the only reason for applying complicated statistical techniques so that correct confidence intervals may be obtained? Is …
This paper examines the effect of parental death on the mobility of 39,163 children aged 0-17 in rural KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, in 2000 and 2001. Parental mortality from all causes prior to and during follow-up increased the risk of a child moving by nearly two times after we controlled for the age and gender of the child and household characteristics. However, in the follow-up period, child mobility following maternal deaths from AIDS was lower than child mobility following maternal deaths from other causes. Younger children, boys, and children whose mothers or fathers were resident members of the children's households were also less likely to move.
A common application of multilevel models is to apportion the variance in the response according to the different levels of the data. Whereas partitioning variances is straightforward in models with a continuous response variable with a normal error distribution at each level, the extension of this partitioning to models with binary responses or to proportions or counts is less obvious. We describe methodology due to Goldstein and co-workers for apportioning variance that is attributable to higher levels in multilevel binomial logistic models. This partitioning they referred to as the variance partition coefficient. We consider extending the variance partition coefficient concept to data sets when the response is a proportion and where the binomial assumption may not be appropriate owing to overdispersion in the response variable. Using the literacy data from the 1991 Indian census we estimate simple and complex variance partition coefficients at multiple levels of geography in models with significant overdispersion and thereby establish the relative importance of different geographic levels that influence educational disparities in India. Copyright 2005 Royal Statistical Society.
‘Teenage-hood’ has acquired the status of a universally applicable category of human development, with the experience of ‘teenage-hood’ contingent on one's circumstances and adoption of certain values. In its popular usage, the term ‘teenager’ refers to a person who is neither child nor adult. In this liminal space between childhood and adulthood, teenage-hood is encouraged to be and characterised as a time of self-discovery, anxiety, experimentation, instability and vulnerability. A teenager's journey towards adulthood takes them through important biological and socio-legal milestones – puberty, sexual debut, and legal recognition of being able to make decisions regarding one's body and conduct, including consent to engage in sexual relationships. Contributions selected for this volume discuss the world inhabited by teenagers, and encourage us to develop and expand our ideas about teenage desire and fertility.
Drawing on general household surveys, censuses and birth registration data, this chapter presents a demographic picture of teenage mothers and fathers in South Africa. How many are there? Who are they? How old are they as well as their partners and where are they from? This presents a nuanced framing of young families in the South African context.
Using quantitative data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, as well as qualitative data from an in-depth study of low-income fathers in Philadelphia, this chapter describes the characteristics of young adults who transition to parenthood before 25 and the family contexts into which their children are born. Most births to young adults occur outside of marriage, but unmarried parents typically rally around the birth of their child, claiming a commitment to making their relationships work. Yet, the responsibility of providing for a family of their own before they have achieved financial stability proves to be an enormous strain for most. Perhaps because the children of young adults are seldom explicitly planned, and because economic hardship and parenthood strain even the most committed relationships, young parents break up at higher rates than couples who delay childbearing. Young parents who break up with their partners do not remain single for very long, however, and quickly enter into new romantic relationships, many of which produce additional children. The churning of romantic partners, and the birth of additional children who result, create a complex web of economic obligations and negotiations that complicate paternal access to nonresident children, compromise maternal parenting, and create unstable family environments for young children.
Accepted manuscript: http://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/2212713/1/Timaeus-Moultrie-Teenage-Childbearing-SFP-accepted-version.pdf
The relationship between teenage childbearing and school attainment is investigated using nationally representative longitudinal data drawn from South Africa's National Income Dynamics Study. The analysis focuses on the outcomes by 2010 of a panel of 673 young women who were aged 15-18 and childless in 2008. Controlling for other factors, girls who went on to give birth had twice the odds of dropping out of school by 2010 and nearly five times the odds of failing to matriculate. Few girls from households in the highest-income quintile gave birth. Girls who attended schools in higher-income areas and were behind at school were much more likely to give birth than those who were in the appropriate grade for their age or were in no-fee schools. New mothers were much more likely to have re-enrolled in school by 2010 if they were rural residents, they belonged to relatively well-off households, or their own mother had attended secondary school. These findings suggest that, in South Africa, interventions that address poor school attainment would also reduce teenage childbearing.
© 2015 The Population Council, Inc.
The study examined the effects of parental marital status and peer influence on the occurrence of teenage pregnancy among 324 female teens in south-south, Nigeria. The participants responded to a valid scale. The Pearson correlation and Multiple Regression procedures were used to investigate the predictive capacity of the independent variables on the dependent variables. The result indicated that the two independent variables, when taken together and individually were effective in predicting teenage pregnancy among female teens. Single parents were seen to be more associated with teenage pregnancy than intact parents. On the basis of these findings it was suggested that in addition to providing sound sex education, parents should ensure appropriate supervision of the activities of their children particularly the female child and the kind of peer associations they keep and that the government should set up social service agencies to enable them assist single parents and their children particularly the female child to attain proper development.
High crime and violence rates in South Africa are associated with the progressive disintegration of families and communities that occurred under apartheid. Not only does social disorganisation lead to the breakdown of informal social control in communities and families, but it also weakens the capacities of communities to protect themselves against crime. Survey findings suggest that poor and socially disorganised communities are increasingly resorting to social isolation as a means of protecting themselves against crime. Evidence is accumulating both in South Africa and abroad that social disorganisation is not only strongly associated with high crime and violence rates, but also has a major impact on the effectiveness of crime prevention at the community level. This article explores the relationship between crime and social disintegration in South Africa. The article also reviews some of the international evidence that links violent crime to social cohesion, social capital and inequality, and argues that we cannot effectively combat crime and violence in South Africa without addressing the underlying social processes and inequalities in the society. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the potential implications that a social capital perspective might hold for violence prevention and safety promotion.African Safety Promotion Vol.1(2) 2002: 4-18
The impact of pregnancy on the health and livelihood of adolescents aged 15–19 years is substantial. This study explored sociodemographic, behavioral, and environmental-level factors associated with adolescent pregnancy across five urban disadvantaged settings.Methods
The Well-Being of Adolescents in Vulnerable Environments study used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to recruit males and females from Baltimore (456), Johannesburg (496), Ibadan (449), New Delhi (500), and Shanghai (438). RDS-II and poststratification age weights were used to explore the odds associated with “ever had sex” and “ever pregnant”; adjusted odds of pregnancy and 95% confidence interval were developed by site and gender.ResultsAmong the sexually experienced, pregnancy was most common in Baltimore (females, 53% and males, 25%) and Johannesburg (females, 29% and males 22%). Heterosexual experience and therefore pregnancy were rare in Ibadan, New Delhi, and Shanghai. Current schooling and condom use at the first sex decreased the odds of pregnancy among females in Baltimore and Johannesburg participants. Factors associated with higher odds of pregnancy were early sexual debut (Johannesburg participants and Baltimore females) being raised by someone other than the two parents (Johannesburg females); alcohol use and binge drinking in the past month (Baltimore participants); greater community violence and poor physical environment (Baltimore males and Johannesburg participants).Conclusions
The reported prevalence of adolescent pregnancy varies substantially across similarly economically disadvantaged urban settings. These differences are related to large differences in sexual experience, which may be underreported, and differences in environmental contexts. Pregnancy risk needs to be understood within the specific context that adolescents reside with particular attention to neighborhood-level factors.
This paper assesses the effects of family structure on the risk of a first premarital birth for a sample of women from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The sample reflects the family structure and family formation experiences of a cohort of women who were at risk of out-of-wedlock childbearing during the 1980s and early 1990s. We focus on assessing the effects of family structure in the presence of correlated unmeasured family effects, which are identified through the use of sibling data. The availability of multiple sibling respondents per family permits identification of family-level unobserved heterogeneity in a multi-level context of individuals nested within families. Our models account for family-specific sources of unobserved heterogeneity in the processes generating family structure and nonmarital childbearing, and provide estimates of the association between these sources of unobserved heterogeneity along with the effects of family structure and other covariates. We find that accounting for the correlation between unobserved family-level effects in processes generating family structure and first premarital birth leads to attenuated estimates of the effects family structure on the risk of first premarital birth. This suggests that other family-level factors may play a mediating role in generating both family structure and nonmarital childbearing.
This paper examines the effects of childhood family disruption on adult family experience by applying proportional hazard models to data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). The results provide strong evidence that women who spend part of their childhoods in one-parent families are more likely to marry and bear children early, give birth before marriage, and have their own marriages break up. The major exception is that, among blacks, early marriage is unrelated to family background. Several explanations for intergenerational consequences are tested, including the economic-deprivation hypothesis, the socialization hypothesis, and the stress hypothesis. The results are most consistent with the socialization explanation, which argues that parental role models and parental supervision are the major factors in determining offspring's future family-formation behavior.
This article draws together unusual characteristics of the legacy of apartheid in South Africa: the state-orchestrated destruction of family life, high rates of unemployment and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The disruption of family life has resulted in a situation in which many women have to fulfil the role of both breadwinner and care giver in a context of high unemployment and very limited economic opportunities. The question that follows is: given this crisis of care, to what extent can or will social protection and employment-related social policies provide the support women and children need?
Many rural children in China have been experiencing life without fathers since the 1990s, when their fathers left the rural areas for the urban areas to find a job that would allow them to continue to support their family. However, to date, knowledge and understanding of the effects of the absence of fathers and timing of separation on the mental health of adolescents are limited.
A total of 2233 students, ranging in age from 11 to 23 years, from five provinces of China, including 1024 adolescents who experienced the absence of their fathers, were recruited for this study. The data were collected using State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, which were self-report questionnaires.
Findings from a structured questionnaire showed that the subjects who experienced life without fathers have increased state-anxiety (t=-5.80, P < 0.001) and lower self-esteem (t= 39.54, P < 0.001) when compared with other subjects, and the above results could be influenced by gender and grade. A limited effect of the timing of separation was found on the mental health of students whose fathers were absent. A significant timing group effect existed for state-anxiety scores [F(3,992) = 2.26, P= 0.05], and post test also revealed that the self-esteem of female scores in the 0-2 timing group was higher than other timing group's [F(3,992) = 4.58, P= 0.004].
The influence of the absence of fathers on the anxiety and self-esteem of adolescents seems to be more serious than our expectation, and the influence will be different according to the timing of father absence.
Adolescent pregnancy is an important health issue. Prevention programs are usually aimed at the prevention of repeat pregnancy, ignoring the adolescents at risk of becoming pregnant for the first time.
To analyse if socio-economic status, family type and mother's age at first pregnancy are risk factors for adolescent pregnancy and to design a risk score of first-time adolescent pregnancy.
A case-control study was performed: cases were primiparous adolescents and controls were primiparous adult women. Participants were asked about their socio-economic status and family structure during adolescence and the age at which their mothers' first pregnancy occurred. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. A first-time adolescent pregnancy risk score was designed based on a multiple logistic regression model.
Sixty-six adolescents and 140 adults were interviewed. Belonging to a family other than nuclear or extended types was an independent risk factor for adolescent pregnancy (OR 9.37, 95% CI 3.36-38.07). Low socio-economic status and having a mother with history of adolescent pregnancy were not independent risk factors (OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.34-5.11 and OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.42-4.32, respectively), achieving significance only when simultaneously present (OR 6.01, 95% CI 2.36-20.79). The presence of all these factors determined the highest adolescent pregnancy probability (OR 10.49, 95% CI 3.43-51.00). A first-time adolescent pregnancy risk assessment score was designed, with an estimated sensitivity of 75.8% and specificity of 75.0%.
Adolescent pregnancy is associated with unfavorable precedents that can be used to identify adolescents at increased risk of early pregnancy.
To assess the outcomes and risk factors of adolescent pregnancies in 2 major hospitals in Malaysia.
We conducted a case-control study of pregnant girls aged 10 through 19 years. The controls were women aged 20 through 35 years who did not become pregnant in their adolescence. Cases and controls were matched for parity and place of delivery. Data were collected from questionnaires and the hospitals' medical records.
The study included 102 cases and 102 controls. There were significant associations between adolescent pregnancy and low education level, low socioeconomic status, being raised by a single parent, not engaging in extracurricular school activities, engaging in unsupervised activities with peers after school, and substance abuse (P<0.05 for all); being anemic, being unsure of the expected delivery date, and having few antenatal visits and a late delivery booking; and low Apgar scores and perinatal complications.
Adolescent pregnancies are high-risk pregnancies. Better sexual health strategies are required to address the associated complications.
Although South Africa's total fertility rate is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, high rates of early childbearing remain a concern. Most teenage pregnancies occur among poor black and coloured South Africans. The majority of these pregnancies are said to be unwanted and unplanned and the teenager's relationships, unstable. Becoming a mother during one's teenage years is perceived to be socially, economically and physically deleterious for the teenager and her baby. This paper presents ethnographic data collected over a five-year period in the South African township of Nyanga East in the Western Cape. It draws attention to the circumstances that surround teenage pregnancy and discusses reactions to teenage pregnancies in this community. Findings highlight that despite the negative perception of teenage pregnancy within the township, particular social and cultural circumstances provided fertile ground for its occurrence. Furthermore, the paper argues that in this particular community the management of a teenage pregnancy played a functional and critical role in maintaining and reproducing social norms and ideals regarding intergenerational relationships, which ultimately ensured that the rates of early childbearing remained high.
Controversy exists over whether to target public- and private-sector programs to female-headed households in developing countries in the attempt to combat poverty and social disadvantage. The issues related to the definition and measurement of female headship and the importance of the concept for development policy are discussed. A systematic review is then presented of the empirical evidence on the relation between female headship and poverty. If female-headed households tend to be poorer on average than other households headship should seriously be considered as a potentially useful criterion for targeting antipoverty interventions especially in developing countries where means testing is not feasible. The authors examine the potential costs and benefits of targeting female headship and review the experience of Chile one of the few countries which has targeted female headship through government intervention and the only one which has evaluation data available. The analysis of the project experience is used along with a review of the empirical evidence to answer the question of the desirability and efficiency of targeting female headship in order to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Violence against women within sexual relationships is a neglected area in public health despite the fact that, in partially defining women's capacity to protect themselves against STDs, pregnancy and unwanted sexual intercourse, it directly affects female reproductive health. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study conducted among Xhosa-speaking adolescent women in South Africa which revealed male violent and coercive practices to dominate their sexual relationships. Conditions and timing of sex were defined by their male partners through the use of violence and through the circulation of certain constructions of love, intercourse and entitlement to which the teenage girls were expected to submit. The legitimacy of these coercive sexual experiences was reinforced by female peers who indicated that silence and submission was the appropriate response. Being beaten was such a common experience that some peers were said to perceive it to be an expression of love. Informants indicated that they did not terminate the relationships for several reasons: beyond peer pressure and the probability of being subjected to added abuse for trying to end a relationship, teenagers said that they perceived that their partners loved them because they gave them gifts of clothing and money. The authors argue that violence has been particularly neglected in adolescent sexuality arenas, and propose new avenues for sexuality research which could inform the development of much-needed adolescent sexual health interventions.
To determine the risk factors for adolescent childbearing in Taiwan within the context of family.
In this case-control study, the cases were 198 mothers aged < or =19 years with firstborn infants in Taichung City, Taiwan, in 1997. The controls were composed of nonchildbearing adolescents matched with the cases with respect to age and neighborhood for each case. A self-administered structured questionnaire asking about a variety of family factors was used to gather relevant information from the study subjects. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for variables associated with adolescent childbearing were obtained by multiple logistic regression analysis.
There were 162 cases and the same number of controls completing the questionnaire, for a response rate of 81.8%. Compared with the controls, childbearing adolescents were more likely to have all adverse sociodemographic and familial conditions. However, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that adolescents living outside the home (adjusted OR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.0-4.6), single-parent families (adjusted OR = 4.8, 95% CI 1.4-16.1), family dysfunction (adjusted OR = 1.8, 95% CI 1.1-3.1), mother's inadequate education (adjusted OR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.0-2.2), and mother's childbearing in adolescence (adjusted OR = 4.9, 95% CI 2.2-11.0) were the significant risk factors for adolescent childbearing.
Some familial factors contribute significantly to adolescent childbearing in Taiwan, as reported in other countries; these factors should be taken into consideration for further research and development of prevention programs.
Outstanding issues in the neighbourhood research agenda.
This paper studies the effects of local marriage markets on South African women’s marital decisions. The analysis is motivated by the low proportion of married among African mothers since 48% are never married. This means that the children of all these never married mothers have no access to their fathers' resources. The low sex ratio of 92 men to 100 women among Africans aged 20-40 makes us believe that shortage of marriageable men may explain marriage patterns. Economic theory predicts less attractive marital outcomes for women when the sex ratio is low. We analyze this hypothesis using the 2001 Census of South Africa. An ordered probit model is fitted with the different marital type ranked from less desirable (never married) to more attractive (married civil). The estimation results suggest that both the quantity and quality of marriageable men matter in the marital choice of women who have at least one child. Exposing African women to the White woman’s marriage market and the achievement of educational levels similar to those of Whites increase their probability of marriage by 8%, implying that only 44% of African women are expected to marry even given good marital opportunities and improved levels of education.
Adolescent pregnancy in America: Causes and responses
- D M Domenico
- K H Jones
- DM Domenico
Domenico, D., & Jones, K. H. (2007). Adolescent Pregnancy in America: Causes and
Responses. Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education, 30(1), 4-12.
Umthente Uhlaba Usamila-The 2nd South African national youth risk behaviour survey
- S P Reddy
- S James
- R Sewpaul
- F Koopman
- N I Funani
- S Sifunda
- SP Reddy
Vulnerability of female-headed households in Cambodia. Presented at the workshop on “Family, Gender and Health”, Center for Family and Women Studies Hanoi
- K Kusakabe
Risk factors associated with teenage pregnancy at Ga-Dikgale villages in the Northern Province of South Africa
- R N Malema
Levels and correlates of single motherhood in Southern Africa (M. A. thesis)
- C M Mbanefo
Adolescent sexual behaviour in Navrongo: Does family count? (M. Sc. thesis)
- K Muindi
Gender-based violence and HIV infection among pregnant women in Soweto (A Technical Report to the Australian Agency for International Development). Gender and Health Group
- K Dunkle
- R Jewkes
- H Brown
- J Mcintyre
- G Gray
- S Harlow
Teenage pregnancy: Views of parents/caregivers, teenagers and teachers at two high schools in
- M P Makola
Makola, M. (2011). Teenage Pregnancy: Views of Parents/Caregivers, Teenagers and
Teachers at Two High Schools in Soweto, Gauteng. (Masters of Arts), University
of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg.