Teenage pregnancy is a global public health problem, which results in inevitable interruptions in their education. In some instances, dropping out of school is temporary, but some of teenagers do not return to school. The dual responsibility of parenting and school work often results in poor scholastic performance, adding to the burden of a limited education and scarce employment opportunities. Since 2004, schools in Soshanguve have been requesting urgent preventive interventions regarding teenage pregnancy, which prompted the need for this study. The aim of the study was to determine the pattern of relationships, perceptions and the socio-cultural environments of pregnant teenagers in Soshanguve. A qualitative exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used for the study. Participants comprised teenagers from Soshanguve secondary schools, who visited the clinic for ante-natal or post-natal care. A purposive sampling method was used and the sample size was determined by saturation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 participants. Tesch’s approach, using open coding and a template analysis system, was utilised for data analysis. Teenagers lacked information about menarche and menstruation, leaving them unprepared for their pregnancies. Participants did not realise the consequences of their love and sex relationships. Circumstances around their lives and the socio-cultural environments contributed to their pregnancies, resulting in teenagers showing regret, shame, denial and some accepting their pregnancies. Communication about sexuality was lacking and teenagers had no risk perceptions teenage pregnancy is urgently needed.

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published_or_final_version / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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This thesis examines the experiences of four single Canadian mothers of Jamaican heritage with respect to their children’s education. Four themes suggested in the literature—beliefs, practices, barriers, and supports—guided the research. The interviews with the mothers largely confirmed previous research in the field. As such, all the mothers believed that it was a shared responsibility between parents and teachers in supporting children’s education. The mothers’ practices included primarily at-home support and to a lesser extent at-school support but did not include strict discipline. The barriers most salient for these mothers were lack of time and resources. To help overcome these barriers, the mothers relied on domestic kin networks. From these findings, the thesis provides implications for both research and practice. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-14 17:35:40.569

Mothers, in female literature, have often been represented through the eyes of their daughters; only recently have they begun to speak for themselves. The object of this thesis is to analyse the portrayal of mothers and daughters in several modern short stories written by women from 1961 onwards, in order to understand the principal elements of an often difficult and ambivalent relationship. In the texts written from "daughterly" perspectives, mothers represent regression and lack of autonomy; therefore, daughters tend to dissociate themselves from their mothers in an attempt to avoid the cycle of repetition typical of this relationship. In these texts, daughters speak for and about their mothers and hence do not allow them to articulate their own subjectivity. However, as daughters reach adulthood, they are able to accept their mothers and a new dialogue emerges. In the texts written from "motherly" perspectives, mothers speak about the responsibility and the guilt which the "institution" of motherhood confers upon them. Although they acknowledge their powerlessness in patriarchal society, these mothers nonetheless hope for better lives for their daughters. By speaking for themselves, they attempt to find an alternative to the traditional role of the mother. / The collection of short stories that follows, Demain tu comprendras, presents mothers and daughters at various stages in their lives and in their relationships. They are written from both "motherly" and "daughterly" perspectives.

The increasing involvement of mothers in paid employment has brought attention to child care both as a critical social issue and as a pressing need for families. Nevertheless, child care in Canada continues to be framed as a private issue to be resolved by individual families. In the absence of policies and programs that ensure widespread access to affordable, high-quality care, women who combine motherhood with paid employment face considerable challenges in making decisions about child care. This study examines the processes by which women make child care decisions and sheds light on both how and why they make such decisions. The emphasis is on the meanings that women themselves give to motherhood, paid work, and child care and on how they resolve the competing interests that inevitably underlie work and family decisions. By drawing on women's accounts of their own lives, the research elucidates the multiple and interrelated factors that enter into women's decisions and thus offers insights into the reasoning behind complex patterns of decision making. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 women who were intending to return to work or school following the birth of their first child. Women were interviewed at three points in time, encompassing a period from late pregnancy to several months after returning to work. The study furthers our understanding of the public and private dimensions of child care by revealing the dilemmas faced by women who frame their child care concerns in deeply moral terms, yet are called on to meet their child care needs within a public market oriented child care system. In particular, women's accounts of their experiences demonstrate the ways in which the intertwined and deeply privatised notions of 'dependent child' and 'good mother' underlie women's decisions about child care. Moreover, the research leaves no doubt that women's experiences of making child care decisions do not accord with the prevailing neo-classical economics version of rational and self-interested decision making. By examining women's decisions over time, the study illuminates the sequence of decision making about child care and adds to our understanding of what is entailed in looking for and deciding about child care. The study concludes with a discussion of implications of the findings for policy development and future research.

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