Navigating norms and structures: young mothers’ pathways to economic independence

Abstract

Article 25fa pilot End User Agreement This publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (Auteurswet) with explicit consent by the author. Dutch law entitles the maker of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work. This publication is distributed under The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) 'Article 25fa implementation' pilot project. In this pilot research outputs of researchers employed by Dutch Universities that comply with the legal requirements of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act are distributed online and free of cost or other barriers in institutional repositories. Research outputs are distributed six months after their first online publication in the original published version and with proper attribution to the source of the original publication. You are permitted to download and use the publication for personal purposes. All rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyrights owner(s) of this work. Any use of the publication other than authorised under this licence or copyright law is prohibited. If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons.

How Young Mothers Rely on Kin Networks and Formal Childcare to Avoid Becoming NEET in the Netherlands

“…As they most likely have not yet established a stable career or are still in education, prolonged economic inactivity and educational drop-out could mean a significant source of negative late life outcomes for themselves and potentially their children. Young mothers face the additional structural conflict of interest between motherhood and education (Sniekers & van den Brink, 2019). They are more likely 'not in education, employment, or training' (NEET) (Statistics Netherlands, 2018;Klug et al, 2019), have achieved less education, less income, and lower employment probability at a later age (Johansen et al, 2020) and a higher welfare dependence at a later age (Gibb et al, 2015).…”

Understanding Sexual Agency. Implications for Sexual Health Programming

“…The scientific literature on the matter provides many alternative descriptors for "different" agency. "Bounded" agency is the general term, coined by Evans [29], to indicate that sexual agency is situated "comprising a mix of internalized, personal frames of reference and external, institutional influences" [33] (p. 191). "Bonded" agency is also used to indicate the connection of actors' selves to cultural sexual systems and, more specifically, to reveal their loyalty to the prescriptions and expectations of family, peers, and intimate partners [34].…”

“…Other concepts used to describe agentic behaviors while taking (restrictive) contexts into account are, for instance, "habituated" (as opposed to "imaginative") agency [15], "subtle" (as opposed to "public") agency [35], and "thin" (as opposed to "thick") agency [36]. Still other suggestions are: "tacit or hidden" [33], "weak" [37], and "symbolic" agency [32]. Mai [30] shows that individuals may be inclined to "act within rather than against" normative options.…”

“…Moreover, these studies show that multiple goals and motivations underly the diversity of agentic behaviors. In addition to the aspiration to challenge or change one's circumstances and act upon the world (as is characteristic of "thick" agency), people may rather (be obliged to) aim for continuity and stability [33], for maintenance of relationships [28,39], for positioning oneself in moral frameworks [34], or for simply "making sense of the world" [40] and of one's self [34] or merely "getting by" [41]. Bay-Cheng [11] provided some examples of behaviors that may not be considered agentic at first, such as choosing to be in an exploitative sexual relationship to be away from abusive parents or consenting to sex for the sake of much needed relational stability.…”

“…The modern literature on sexual agency reads as a general appeal to thoroughly take account of young people's perspectives and to acknowledge their everyday agency rather than having an overriding concern with correcting "deviant" agency [33,42,55]. Agency is embedded in everyday life, such as in young people's experiences and practices at school and at home or in interactions with relatives, friends and, notably, romantic partners.…”