Teenage mothers talk about their experience of teenage motherhood

abstract

This article explores how teenage mothers talk about their subjective experience of teenage motherhood and their motivation to complete schooling after their pregnancy. Individual interviews were conducted with teenage mothers aged 15 to 19 years who attended an inner-city public school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Discursive analysis was used to identify and analyse key themes that emerged from the study. The findings indicate that despite the challenges of being a teenage mother, the participants were able to persevere towards achieving their academic goals and future aspirations. This was due to a heightened sense of responsibility and maturity, as well as great motivation to continue schooling so as to be able to provide a better future for their children. These findings are contrary to the existing mainstream literature, in which teenage mothers are often associated with high drop-out rates at school, poor academic performance and inadequate parenting skills. Recommendations are made for policy making and school interventions to acknowledge and celebrate teenage mothers’ sense of agency and heightened sense of growth post-pregnancy, rather than seeing them as a source of social ills.

Keywords:

• teenage mothers
• pregnancy
• motherhood
• stigma

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the participants who took the time to talk to us about their deep personal experiences of being teenage mothers.

Notes

1. In this inner-city context, many participants stayed with their working mothers. Thus, it was difficult for them to stay and take care of their grandchildren. In the case of Mkhwanazi (2009) study, mothers, grandmothers and members of the extended family played an important role in taking care of the babies while their teenage mothers were at school. In this inner-city context, six participants reported sending their children to daycare centres because there was no one to look after them while they were at school. Only two participants had their mothers looking after their children while they were at school.