Perspectives of Young Women from Disadvantaged Backgrounds - Coursework Example

Critique and summary of a research paper titled ‘Planned’ Teenage Pregnancy: Perspectives of Young Women from Disadvantaged Backgrounds. 1. Introduction This is a paper intended to critique as well as summarize a research paper titled ‘Planned’ Teenage Pregnancy: Perspectives of Young Women from Disadvantaged Backgrounds in England by Dr Lester Coleman and Suzanne Cater Published in Jan 2007. The matters of teenage pregnancy have continued to attract a lot of attention globally in recent days. The United Kingdom currently has the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the western European region (Anonymous 1997). Guttmacher Institute (1999) estimated that the level of planned teenage pregnancies in the USA could be high, at 22 percent as at the time of the study. The British government, as well as their United States counterparts, have come up with measures of ensuring that cases of young girls conceiving pregnancies are reduced substantially. The UK government introduced the Teenage Pregnancy Unit whose primary included the provision of sex education and contraceptive to young people (Daniel and Ivatts 1998). Though measure have been put in place to reduce the teenage pregnancies, their occurrence rate of remain high in the western world with a vast number being unplanned. Conversely, there exists a number of teenage pregnancies that are planned. These cases attract lesser attention from researchers and policy makers as well (Greene 2003). When teenager gets pregnant, the most considered options are either continuing to carry the unborn child or procuring an abortion. In most cases, teenage abortion is influenced by a personal choices rather than the individual teenagers moral views. According to Murray's (1990) argument, some teens plan pregnancies with an objective of getting access to welfare services. Counter-arguments have been put forward against such assertions. Most notably is Allen and Bourke-Dowling (1998) argument that asserted that, most of teenager live with their parents at the time they conceive pregnancies. Montgomery (2002) identified the needs and wants that would likely drive teenage girls to want to conceive pregnancies. Amongst the needs identified included financial and the needs for stability amongst others. The wants identified included independence and maturity as well as wanting something to call their own and look after. 2. Summary The paper reports of the motivation and influences that are closely related to planned pregnancies amongst teenagers. At a deeper level, it critically evaluate the considerations associated with the teenager decision to conceive pregnancies. This research of planned will serve to help stakeholders working with teenagers and the teenage parents to understand the factor that may encourage teenager to want to conceive pregnancies. The paper also serves to shed light to governments and policy makers on the existence of planned pregnancies amongst young people owing to the fact they only concentrate on unplanned cases. Through the paper, Coleman and Cater intended to connect the teenage mother transition to adulthood and the society perspective of young mothers. In their research, Coleman and Cater employed face to face interview with forty-one subjects who had reported having carried a planned pregnancy. They included 34 parents of at least one ‘planned’ child aged below one year, and seven were women carrying a planned pregnancy. The one-year limit was chosen to enhance the accuracy of the data collected. The researchers perceived that those who gave birth or more than one year before the time of the research were less likely to give a statistically reliable recollection of the factor that motivated their choice of getting pregnant in the first instance (Bell 2000). The researchers chose to use qualitative methods that have the capacity to allow explanations and findings come up inductively from the data. They reported defining 'planned pregnancy' and unplanned pregnancy as a major obstacle that their study faced initially. The challenge was traced to the fact that the subjects rarely used such terms. Barrett and Wellings (2002) had dealt with the differing interpretation of ‘planned’ and ‘unplanned’ pregnancies in an earlier study. Utilising the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) devised by Barrett et al. (2004) the researchers were able to score a pregnancy out of twelve. Zero indicated the lowest degree of planning while twelve was use to showed the highest degree of pregnancy planning. Subjects were recruited using the help of young mothers support group across England. After identification of the potential subjects, the researchers sent out the LMUP questionnaires that were intended to be mailed back through the Freepost. They received back a total of one hundred and seventy-nine duly filled up questionnaires. To ensure that the sample selected represented a diverse population, the researchers involved rural support groups in the sampling process. Additionally, the researchers choose to use subjects from poorer working class backgrounds. After evaluation of the LMUP questionnaire, the sample population scored a mean of 9.4. Using the results obtained, the researchers were able to select the candidate with whom they conducted face to face interviews. The researcher announced the LMUP results only to the candidates who were successfully interviewed. The interviewer explores the extent to which the pregnancy had been planned using questions in addition to the ones captured using the LMUP questionnaires. The face to face interview was used to explore how the financial status, personal history, area of residence and family could have contributed the subject's decision of getting pregnant. The researchers designed their interview question to cover the subject childhood period and the immediate year prior to the pregnancy. As well, the questions touched on educational ambitions, career plans of the subjects, friends, family and sexual partners. To close the interview, the subject was the requested to reflect how pregnancy had affected and changed their lives. Data collected by the researcher from the interviews was then analysed using qualitative data analysis software called QSR N6/NuDist. Data generated, and the methods of analysis used by the researchers could only be used to establish the particular pattern of thinking, events, and experiences that were closely related to the planned teenage pregnancies. 3. Critique and analysis The use of the LMUP questionnaires assisted the researchers to define precisely the and distinguish between planned and unplanned pregnancies. This was a major success considering the fact that there are issues associated with clearly distinguishing between the two as asserted by a study carried out by Barrett and Wellings (2002). The LMUP assessment of the 'planning' was along an along a continuum as contrasted to assigning a dichotomous classification of ‘planned pregnancy’ or ‘unplanned pregnancy.' The researcher's choices of face to face interviews served to enhance the quality of the screening. The interviewee could not provide false information regarding their age, sex or even their race. All the necessary information entered during the course of the interview was correct and reasonable as verified by the researchers. By doing a face to face interview, the researcher was able to identify verbal cues that usually impossible to capture in questionnaires. This assisted in understanding and noticing the question that the women felt uncomfortable to answer. Additionally, face to face interview helped the researchers and the respondents to keep focused on their task to completion. Considering the fact we live in a technological era with many gadgets, like mobile phones, that are bound to distract the individual from the tasks at hand, the face to face interview is void of such distractions. The researchers were able to capture the facial expressions and the and body language of the respondents as they answered their questions. This could help in enhancing the accuracy of the data collected. The researchers policy to include only women who had planned and given birth within a period of one year prior to the research helped to enhance the accuracy of the survey. It ensured the memories, and the feeling associated with the pregnancy could be presented without distortions. Feelings associated with decisions made in the past are bound to change, get distorted or forgotten once the situation changes. Involving women who had given more than one year prior to the study could have negatively affected the integrity, and the accuracy of the data collected. The researcher was successful in identifying several factors that motivated young women to get pregnant of after analysing the interview data. Some women reported their decision to get pregnant to be a choice that they had discussed with their partners and got approval. Some teenagers said they had discussed the decision with their partners though the partners initially did not support them. Other young women had gotten pregnant behind their partners back. A small group amongst the subjects reported grief, fear and the disappointment of a miscarriage as their sole motivating factor for them to plan the pregnancy. They reported feeling a need to conceive, even though, the first miscarried pregnancy had not been planned in the first place. Others cited fear of not being able to conceive a pregnancy in the future as their motivating factor. This particular reason was in contrast to the fact that these women were very young, and there existed no reason to suggest the possibility of such a problem fate in the future. Additionally, the research identified the group of young women who seemed to have no motive of getting pregnant but had no initiative of preventing the conception. The researchers were able to connect the influence of childhood experiences on a young woman decision to carry a pregnancy. The experiences contributed to the decision to become pregnancy, most cited reason was an avenue of changing their direction in life. Many of the interviewed women had an unsettled past while growing up. The research was able to identify parental separation as a factor that had caused a troubled life for the majority of the respondent. Esmaeili and Yaacob (2011) argues that, parental separation can cause teenager to desire freedom and rush to make life changing decisions. They continue to assert that poor parental relationships are ultimately transferred to poor parent to child relationship that can end up hurting the teenager's functions and decisions. The results of the finding are in line with Derkman et al. (2011) finding that, parental separation can cause young women to seek stability in their lives by seeking to meet partners. In some cases, the parental separation caused the introduction of a step-parent in the life of the teenager who ended up mistreating them leading them to want a way of going out of the home. The study identified negative attitude toward education and school from a majority of the respondent. Additionally, it was noted that bullying was the primary cause of the young women dislike and lack interest in schools. Through facial expressions and body language, the interviewer noted that bullying remained a bitter subject for the respondent. Such a finding is complimented by Natvig et al. (2001) assertion that, bullying negatively affects the self-esteem of its victims. Moreover, bullying victims carries the stigma and the hurt to adulthood. In this research, the researchers were able to connect bullying with painful memories of loneliness and bad behaviour like drug and alcohol misuse and in some cases self-harm. Neighbourhood with norms of settling early were also identified in to influence the young women's decision to get pregnancy, they did this with the perspective of deciding to build a family in the near future. They also got pregnant so as to conform with their societal expectation of appearing normal. With single mother around their neighbourhood and often being their close friends, this made their local community seem to be accommodating to them as single mothers or a pregnant young women. The weakness of this research is that it was shallow, the number of the subject interviewed was minimal to be a representation of the entire England population. With such a sample size, there will be no way of having any meaningful confidence in the sample representativeness (Bock et al. 2002). Another weakness of the study is the bias depicted while selecting the subject. The researchers chose to select only white young women for the survey yet there are many black young women and other minority races living in England and suitable for choice as the respondent in the survey. Planned pregnancies are also reported in the life of black women living in England according to the assertion made by Dearden et al. (2006). As well, the researcher failed to provide a convincing reason why they left out other ethnic groups in this particular survey. Due to this exclusion, the research could have possibly left a range of other factors that motivate and influence planning of teenage pregnancy. The study depicts bias by choosing to study women from poor poverty-stricken backgrounds. It is a fact that even young women from rich background plans to conceive pregnancies and they have their reason and motivating factors as well. By the fact this was a qualitative study, it failed to prove or highlight the relationships between the themes identified and the pregnancies among the sampled young woman. The intention was to study planned teenage pregnancy, but the researchers ended up including women who are twenty-one year age. A twenty-one-year-old young woman cannot be considered a teenager, and this compromises the entire results of the study. 4. Relationships with young people. The research was done with young people at the centre of the study. The researchers objective of establishing the factors that influences and motivates planned pregnancies amongst teenagers could not be efficiently attained without involving them. The research provides an effective and meaningful avenue for boosting young people's learning and participation in research. This empowers and encourage them to participate actively in their own life endeavours while at the same time providing them with a chance to make original contributions to knowledge and policies. Study done on young people, with their participation is also a vital key to improving their superiors' understanding of teenage and childhood in general since their involvement presents an opportunity for them to be heard (Kellett 2005). The interviews were done at community centres, and this serves to boost the confidence that the interviewed young women had on the researchers. The researcher interviewed minors, aged as low as thirteen years. There is no indication that the minors interviewed had a parent or a guardian to accompany them. In my opinion, the minors should have been interviewed in the presence of their guardians because the information that the researchers were collecting was sensitive in nature (Robson 2002). 5. Relationship between Research, policy and practice This research provides an opinion that can enable makers of policies to understand the identified challenges and commit to a given action plan. It is important that evidence guides policies and practices touching on the matters of teenagers. Such evidence can only be acquired through research. Coleman and Cater policy objective of the study are clearly stated as an attempt to establish the motivations and influences that are closely associate associated with a ‘planned’ pregnancy in teenage and young adulthood. This closely relates to the United Kingdom policy of understanding the construction of teenage pregnancies with an objective putting in place measures to reduce them (Kufeldt and Mckenzie 2003). The research when used by policy makers will help them to commit to a particular action plan. The policy maker, in this case, the UK government, is concerned with improving their practice that is supposed to be user-friendly all the time. For instance, the researchers have identified poverty as a possible motivating factor for planned teenage pregnancies. In a bid to curb teenage pregnancies, the government should be at the same time design measures to deal with poverty (Kufeldt and Mckenzie 2003). Effective research involving minors should always involve developing and teaching or enhancing their personal skills of dealing with challenges and put them in a position to view them as part of their growth. It should exhibit practices of handling challenges while encouraging the minors especially the teenager to take responsibility of this challenges. Through questions asked during the interview, the research was able to elicit in the mind minor the significance of attaining an education before settling to get pregnancy. Additionally, it is evident from the answers that were collected from the minor that they all longed to have their children attain a better life. 6. Ethical considerations The research adhered to the ethical policy throughout the study. The ethical policy is a policy that provides guideline for protecting the respondents and the information they share during the research period. The researcher used informed consent as well as maintained the confidentiality in the use of information collected as well as feedback. Nowhere in the study is there a direct reference to a named respondent. Additionally, the people carrying out this researcher had been cleared by the credit reference bureau Enhanced Disclosure check (Allen 2005). Another issue of ethic that the research undertook well was the handling of the interviewees travel expenses. At the end of the interview, the participants were each given a ten pounds voucher to cater for the travel expenses. Additionally, participants were given sheets that contained information and information where young women could seek help and information regarding parenting and sexual health. This was appropriate because, all the interviewees were young mothers or prospective young mother who were sexually active. By carrying approximately all the interviews at the a community centre, this locations can be considered appropriate and comfortable for women, especially pregnant and insecure women. During the interview, the proceeding were only recorded with the consent of the interviewees (Kakabadse et al. 2002). The paper does not indicate whether the researchers sought the necessary consent from parents and guardians before interviewing the minors. Conversely, this research found sensitive information regarding the teenagers sexuality. 7. Conclusion The social policy researchers have traditionally be focused on the aspects unplanned teenage pregnancy. More attention need to be focused toward planned pregnancies by the teenager and young women. The issue of planned teenage pregnancies requires an unbiased research capturing a more cosmopolitan sample. A more in-depth quantitative research is needed to determine the how the factors and the theme described above affects the minors' choice to carry pregnancies. Policymaker should educate the young female population regarding the potential dangers and complications associated with teenage pregnancies. As discussed in the analysis of the article, majority of the teenager who gets pregnant on purpose comes from broken families. Therefore, it follows that they lack parenting skills. The policy maker should see this an opportunity for them to fill in this void and come up with ways of supporting teenage parent to cope with the pressure provided by parenthood. Finally, another finding that policy makers should put focus on is, how poverty motivates teenage pregnancies. They should come up with measures of eradicating poverty if the objective of understanding and reducing teenage pregnancy is ever valid. Bibliography ALLEN, N. (2005). Making Sense of the Children Act And Related Legislation for the Social and Welfare Services. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons. ANONYMOUS. (1997) Reducing unintended teenage pregnancies. Journal of Clinical Effectiveness, 2(2), pp. 64 BARRETT, G. & WELLINGS, K. (2002) ‘What is a ‘planned’ pregnancy? Empirical data from a British study’, Social Science Medicine , vol. 55, pp. 545_557.. BELL, J. 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