Introduction: Teen pregnancy and teen parenting are prevalent and significant public health issues. Teen parenting also has many social and economic consequences for mother and family. Single parenthood is associated with increased financial, work and child care strains compared to a more traditional family type. Therefore, the impact of teen pregnancy on marital status needs to be investigated. This study examines the association between teen parenthood and future marital status. Methods: The 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle 6 was analyzed. This study included 12398 women age 20 – 44 years who had children. Teen parenthood was defined as age at first birth before the age of twenty. Marital status was dichotomized as married and other marital status. Exposure and outcome variables were examined using logistic regression modeling. Results: Women who had a child before age twenty were less likely be married compared to women who had a child at age 20 or older (OR = 2.30 [95% CI = 2.01, 2.64]). After adjusting for race, education, age at first sex and intendedness of the pregnancy, women who had a child before age 20 were less likely to be married or stay married compared to women who had a child at age 20 or older (OR = 1.35 [95% 1.19, 1.62]). Conclusions: Teen parents are less likely to be married or stay married later in life. Teens should be informed that teen parenthood is a significant risk factor for single parenthood later in life. Future studies should examine all levels of marital status as an outcome of teen parenthood. Future studies should also examine this association among fathers.

Teen pregnancy in New Zealand has been constructed as a multifaceted problem, which has prompted scrutiny into the lives of pregnant and parenting teens and their children. Research largely presents teen mothers as ‘at risk’ parents and high school drop outs, with high rates of welfare dependence. Teen parents are considered unlikely to achieve the educational and economic success of their non-parenting peers. This research considers the impact of the experience at a Teen Parent Unit (TPU) on the ways pregnant and parenting teens understand and achieve success. Using a qualitative case study of a Teen Parent Unit in an urban setting in New Zealand, this thesis documents the experiences and perspectives of four young women. Its aim is to detail, explain and interpret the ways these pregnant and parenting teens understand their developing identities as successful students and parents. Drawing on social constructionist perspectives, the views of the young women participants, and of the researcher have been analysed through a conceptual lens of culturally responsive pedagogical theory. Comparisons are made between the culture of success that has been developed in the Teen Parent Unit setting and that of schools which have engaged in Māori culturally responsive pedagogical practice. This thesis offers a strengths-based analysis of an environment which, by reframing expectations of success, presents a challenge to negative academic and societal expectations of pregnant and parenting teens. Its goal is to provide educators, social support agencies, education and social policy makers with an analysis of approaches that have made important differences in the lives of the young women and their children.

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Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-62).

Teenage parenting is widely constructed in prevailing research and public discourse as a social problem, with poor outcomes for parent and child. Teenage parents are regarded as a drain on state funds, too young to parent well, and at high risk of social exclusion, both educationally and economically. This thesis proposes that teenage motherhood is a turning point in a young woman’s life and identity, which can be an opportunity, rather than a problem, if there is adequate support for the mother and her child. It considers the role of a New Zealand School for Teenage Parents in providing this support. Using qualitative narrative methodology, ten young women, six family members and nine other members of the School community were interviewed about their experiences of its culture and practices. Six of the young women were also interviewed to gather their life stories. Informed by the narrative understanding that we story our identities from the narrative possibilities available to us within the varied discursive contexts of our lives, this thesis draws on these life stories to explore how the young women storied the fashioning of their own identities as young women, as learners and as young parents. It presents their stories of childhood and family life, teenage-hood and schooling, pregnancy and parenthood, their experiences at the School for Teenage Parents, and their lives since leaving the School, in order to consider the role of the School in supporting the positive refashioning of their identities. This thesis draws on social constructionist and narrative theories to interpret the storied contexts of the young women’s lives, and the role these often constraining and difficult contexts played in the fashioning of their multiple identities. Māori culturally responsive pedagogical theories are also drawn on to interpret the culture of the School for Teenage Parents, and its attempts to provide a supportive and affirming family or whānau environment for its students, in order to offer them more positive narrative possibilities of self and identity as young women, as learners and as young parents.