Magister Social Work -MSW / Teenage parenting is recognised as one of the greatest health and social problems in South Africa. Research in South Africa has shown that by the age of 18 years, more than 30% of teens have given birth at least once. Teen mothers may feel disempowered because they are ‘othered’ and consequently, may develop forms of resistance which in most cases may inhibit their ability to parent. Social support is therefore, an imperative intervention for successful teen parenting. Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological systems theory proposes that social support could be considered to reside within the microsystem of the model if the developing person is the teen mother. The aim of this study was to compare social support of different family forms and establish whether a relationship between single teen mothers’ parental efficacy and social support exists across the different family forms. This study used a quantitative methodology with a cross-sectional comparative correlation design. The sample consisted of N = 160 single teen mothers who reside with her family for a period of one year or is currently residing with her family or members thereof, in low socio-economic communities. The participants completed a self-report questionnaire that comprised of the Social Provisions Scale (SPS), and the Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC) scale. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation were used to investigate the data. Outcomes of the study indicated that a significant positive relationship between social support and parental efficacy existed. These findings are important for planning and applying parenting programmes amongst single teen mothers and facilitating awareness regarding the importance of social support and family forms when considering parenting practices.

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The occurrence of custodial grandparents is increasing greatly. These grandparents face added stress and many adversities that arise from caregiving. Findings of current research tends to be mixed on the effects of grandparents raising grandchildren experience. Much research concludes that grandparent caregivers experience negative declines in overall health and well-being, while other research points out that the caregiving role may actually be a positive experience for the grandparent. The current study hypothesizes that mixed research may be a result of varying levels of resilience in the custodial grandparent population. The model proposed in this study looks at resilience as a mediator between several variables that effect custodial grandparenting. The current sample consisted of 239 custodial grandparents. A regression/correlation analysis was conducted on the data, and it was found that resilience levels were significant in mediating the effects of grandparent caregiving.

This study examined the effect of a visual arts, family-focused school readiness intervention on the parental efficacy and level of family involvement of low-income families. A second, primary focus of the study was to test the potential of academically focused experiences in the visual arts to increase the basic concept development of young children. To increase accessibility, the intervention was conducted in a neighborhood library. The research design for this descriptive study included qualitative and quantitative components. Data collection consisted of a non-randomized one group pre-test/posttest design from students on a standardized instrument and from primary caregivers using self-report questionnaires. Other data collection sources included field notes documenting observations made during implementation collected by the investigator, parent home engagement data in the form of a weekly survey filled out by adult participants and weekly phone calls monitoring any issues or questions regarding the completion of take-home activities. The results of this relatively small sample using the visual arts to build basic concept knowledge indicate that, given a larger sample, this approach may prove to be a promising strategy to use with young children and their families. The average raw score gain on the student basic concept scale was 8 points at the end of the seven-week intervention. The parent surveys indicated that almost all books sent home were read each week and an average of three home learning activities per book were completed between sessions. The majority of parents commented at least once on the At-Home Surveys about increases in positive interaction with their children while engaged in the home learning activities. Enhancing the parent-child relationship begins with the sharing of positive experiences. Comments made by adult participants indicated that parents felt empowered to better support their child's learning by participating in this experience.