Parental Experiences for Teenage Mothers Living in Poverty: Associations of Head Start

Abstract

This study utilizes Head Start Impact Study data to examine whether Head Start is associated with teenage mothers’ experiences. Among 3,576 participants, 579 mothers were identified as teenage mothers (under 19 years old). Research questions included (1) compared to nonteenage mothers, do teenage mothers have different maternal experiences such as informal social support, formal social service use, mental health, and child-rearing skills? (2) does Head Start have any association with the experiences of teenage mothers? Teen mothers had less education, lower family incomes, and were less likely to be married than nonteenage mothers. Teenage mothers were most likely to identify as black and least likely to identify as Hispanic. Teenage mothers were more likely to speak English at home and live in rural areas. Further, regression analysis indicated that teenage mothers used less formal social services and displayed less mental health problems than nonteenage mothers. There was not a significant association on parental experiences for teenage mothers participating in Head Start. Study implications include using teen mothers’ voices to inform service needs, increasing strengths-based interventions, and raising awareness or creating nonstigmatizing programs for teen mothers.

Predictors of teenagers' pregnancies in Rwanda: Evidence from selected Districts

“…Local leaders supported what was mentioned by parents and stressed that early pregnancies are grounded on poverty, family conflicts, lack of parental moral, emotional, psychological and financial support. The results of the study are in line with the findings of previous researchers who emphasized that poverty is at the top of teen pregnancies (Lambani, 2015;Asare et al, 2019;Singh & Naicker, 2019;Lee et al, 2021). Family conflict has also been mentioned by all respondents to be a major push factor of teen pregnancies.…”

Psychopathological and Psychosocial Risk Profile, Styles of Interaction and Mentalization of Adolescent and Young Mother–Infant Dyads

“…Despite the difficulties encountered by adolescent mothers, many studies, indeed, show that when they have adequate support at their disposal, they can activate their resources and improve their condition of disadvantage. Social support is therefore an im-portant protective factor for young parents [93]. It is therefore fundamental to implement dedicated, specialized intervention in order to support young parents from pregnancy onwards and help them in taking on the new role, intervening at a number of levels: psychological, psychoeducational, social, and relational.…”

A Scientometric Analysis of Forty-Three Years of Research in Social Support in Education (1977–2020)

“…These findings indicate that the discipline has progressed slowly but has gained prominence in 2020 in terms of publication. Until now research in the social support area was limited to health education [32], family education [33][34][35], community education [36] and work-related professional setting [37]. One of the main reasons of increased research in the social support in education could be the increased diversity in university enrollments in terms of age, gender and nationalities discussed in-depth in the proceeding sections.…”

“…There are a plethora of research studies in the field of social support in the educational context. However, the research contexts are not limited to teaching and learning in an educational setting, rather it expands to health education [32], family education [33][34][35], community education [36] and work-related professional settings [37]. It is interesting to note that until now no bibliometric study has been published to examine and document research trends in the role played by social support in the lives of students and teachers in an educational setting.…”