Targetting Teenagers. INSTITUTION Bernard Van Leer Foundation, the Hague (Netherlands)
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 380 222 PS 023 060 TITLE Targetting Teenagers. INSTITUTION Bernard Van Leer Foundation, The Hague (Netherlands). REPORT NO ISSN-0921-5840 PUB DATE Jan 95 NOTE 25p. PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022) Reports Descriptive (141) JOURNAL CIT Bernard van Leer Foundation Newsletter; n77 Jan 1995 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adolescents; Behavior Standards; Developed Nations; Developing Nations; *Early Parenthood; *Family Programs; Foreign Countries; *Parenthood Education; *Pregnancy; Pregnant Students; *Prevention; Program Descriptions; Public Policy; Sex Education; Social Attitudes; Social Values; Sociocultural Patterns IDENTIFIERS Chile; Ireland; Jamaica; Kenya; New York (New York); Trinidad and Tobago; United States ABSTRACT This theme issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation newsletter focuses on the problem of teenage pregnancy and teenage parenthood in developing and developed nations, and examines the problems that teenage mothers face in different societies. It explores societal norms and values related to teenage parenting; the effects of teenage parents on children; socioeconomic circumstances related to teenage pregnancy; teenage marriage; pregnancy prevention programs; sex education; educational attitudes;self-esteem; and public policy. Separate sections focus on:(1) societal attitudes towarr' teenage pregnancy and parenthood in Kenya;(2) the experiences of a teenage mother in Ireland and the work of the Togher Family Centre in Cork;(3) the activities of the Vicaria de la Pastoral Social program in Chile, which is designed to improve the overall development of young children; (4)the Teenage Mothers Project in May Pen, Jamaica, which seeks to improve the prospects of teenage mothers and their children through education and jobtraining; (5) the Adolescent Development Programme, a parenthood and sex education program in Trinidad; and (6) the TeenParent Resource Center in New York City, which works with schools and other institutions to present pregnancy prevention and parenthoodeducation programs. Contains 24 references. (MDM) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 011cp of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) )(This document has been reproducedas received from the person Or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction duality Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY .C. 0\ner\ Targetting teenagers TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." r , In this Targetting teenagers: a survey of teenage parenting and behaviour with examples of programmes from Kenya(page6). Ireland(page7). Cni le(page61, Jamaica(page 101; Trinidad(page 11): USA (page 12) Network News page14 Reports from the Field: Okinawa Bunko page17 Israel. Intermediary Learning page 18 11" Australia: launching the Intelyape-Iyape itS Akaltye protect page20 When Irish eyes are smiling page 22 0181111111bil Why is teenage parenting so often perceived as a Where there is a concern with teenage parenting it Resources problem? Why do attitudes towards young mothers should focus on the fact that for many young page 23 vary so much between, and even within, countries? mothers, pregnancy is both unwanted and unwel- To what extent is our behaviour the result ofcome. There are two separate aspects involved About the changing norms and values? here: Foundation page 24 Posing the questions is easy enough: finding the pregnancy is culturally or developmen- a answers calls for a survey of attitudes. beliefs and tally inappropriate, and/or practices across the world. Although there are some Nate photograph above aspects of teenage parenting that are universal. the pregnancy is physically and/or psycho- and on page.% 3 dud many others are applicable in only specific coun- logically damaging to the young mother and 11111111.5, are taken from tries or cultures. All that we can attempt to do in this her offspring. publication% of the Newsletter article is to draw attention to some of the comm. I'mje(t, main issues. and draw together a little of the 'Culturally inappropriate' means that community °mama evidence. tradition and practice assess that a woman is too 2 ' BEST COPY AVAILABLE young to hear children. The expression 'develop-children per woman fell, the median age of mar- mentally inappropriate' means the mothers' andriage for women rose as did the age of bearing first infants' needs may be 'out of sync'. The term children.' The mutability of norms is amply illus- 'physically and psychologically damaging' implies trated by the changes that have occurred in the t'K. that. regardless of focal traditions and practices. At the beginning of this century. marriage and there is a minimum age below which pregnancy is childbearing was common among women under 20. not only socially or developmentally inappropriate,while until the 1930s, unmarried women who gave but is positively harmful to both the mother and herbirth were being locked away in institutions as infant. 'mentally deficient' and their babies given away for adoption. Now, many fewer women marry in their teens and unmarried motheri.00ti. although not Uni- over half the world's population is under 25 versally approved. is an accepted part of life. one in three people are aged 10-24 Effects on children in many countries, more than half of the teenagers have unprotected penetrative sex before the age of 16 The evidence concerning the consequences for children of having young mothers is mixed. It is emotional pressure and physical violence are often used to force young generally accepted that. biologically speaking. the people to have unwanted sex, especially girls late teens arc the ideal years for childbearing. However. the years just before then are far from as the adolescent girl's body is still devel- about one third of young women in Latin America and Asia, and over half ideal in many African countries, have given birth by the age of 20 oping and crowing. she is more likely to hear babies that are premature and/or underweight. Poised most deaths in 15-19 year old women are linked to pregnancy and between childhood and adulthood herself. the young mother gill not always have the emotional childbirth maturity needed to cope with a baby's demands and each year up to 5 million young women have abortions, usually illegally the realities of parenthood. and in life-threatening conditions It is sometimes suggested that children of !voting mothers are more likely to he abandoned. to become Source AIDS action the international newsletter on AIDS prevention and care, 25. JuneAugust 1994 AHR1AG London street children. or to he abused. The evidence is scanty. but a study in a hospital in South Africa found that 66 per cent of abused children had mothers under 19 years of age: 'It is not necessarily the mothers themselves who do the abusing. but Norms and values they are unable to cope and to protect their children: and they lack any support systems.' In every society, there are norms and values that lay down when and under what circumstances it is Other studies in Africa' have drawn attention to the acceptable for women to have children. In Africa.problems of street children and abandoned babies for example. some three quarters of all women are as having their roots in the 'disorganisation of the married by the age of 20.1 In many Moslem coun- family'. This has come about as a result of migrant tries, girls are married around the age of menarche. labour systems. rapid population growth. civil war. These young women may give birth to several chil- violenceandtile' easingurbanisationand dren before they are 20 indeed, the woman who Westernisation. reaches 21 without having had a child may' he con- sidered barren and unworthy of respect. As Shashi Socio-economic circumstances Bali in Kenya relates: 'riot to have a child is the worst thing that can happen to a woman. But the children must be produced within marriage' Socio-economic circumstances are the background (page 6). to much of the anxiety that is expressed about teenage parenthood. Lower birth weights and prem- In many parts of the world. it is unmarried teenage ature deliveries are not just an outcome of a mother parenting that is perceived as a problem because it s ho is too young. they are outcomes of poor nutri- is culturally inappropriate and, despite the high tion. unsatisfactory housing and inadequate health value placed on pregnancy and childbirth, birth out-care which come from poor socio-economic sidemarriage is viewed with disapproval. The circumstances. experience in Chile. where unmarried teenage mothers are still socially stigmatised, is described There is evidence from a number of countries in the article on page 8. which suggests that teenage motherhood is pre- dominantly a feature of the poor. In the usA, for It is apparent that norms and values are riot only example. it is estimated that 83 per cent of teenagers based in societies, cultures and religions. but they giving birth are from poor families.' Although there can change over time. This applies to age of mar- is a tendency to view this as a 'black problem'. riage. desirability O. marriage, desire for children. births