How Experiences of Being Looked After May Contribute to Teenage Pregnancy - Research Proposal Example

Critical Review The research paper selected for the Critical Review, ‘Someone of Your Own to Love Experiences of Being Looked After as Influences on Teenage Pregnancy, is a joint venture of Abigail Knight, Elaine Chase and Peter Aggleton. The researchers have undoubtedly proved their efficiency and knowledge in handling various research papers as they have been part of Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. They have conducted researches on many topics, including children and health, sexual health (including HIV/AIDS), early pregnancy and parenthood, disabled children and their families, and childrens rights and emotional and social wellbeing. Since the paper examines how experiences of being looked after may contribute to teenage pregnancy, one can infer that the authors do have the right claim to undertake such a study. The paper is an investigation to unveil the causes and realities behind early pregnancy or teenage pregnancy among the young people put in care. At the very beginning of the paper the researchers reveal the real intention for writing this paper. The paper seeks to answer the question “how experiences of being looked after may contribute to teenage pregnancy” (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 391) among the young people in various care centres. The researchers have proposed to find answers to such questions as what are the factors contributing to early pregnancy and parenthood among young people? The paper has also attempted to explore the kinds of support available to the younger people and young parents. Another focus of the research is for recognizing the barriers of the younger people when trying to access the services and support they needed. This paper also evaluates the experiences of the younger people with regard to sexual relationships and pregnancy. When analyzing the methods of the study, one can identify that the researchers have gathered primary data, such as, survey results and attempted a qualitative study to prove the research questions. Researchers have endeavoured to justify the research questions. To make a clear background for the study, the paper has gathered relevant literature and a preliminary sample survey, collecting data from four different regions of England. The researchers have given great attention to select economically and geographically different regions. It has also included the ‘varying rates of teenage pregnancy and numbers of children and young people who are looked after’ (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 392). The interview has also exerted remarkable influence in determining the final result of the study. The research was carried out and was published in 2006 when many researchers invited the attention of the general public as well as the authorities to the grave issue—teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy has often been regarded as serious issue overtime. Many researchers have identified significant differences in the percentage of teenage pregnancies between developing and developed countries. It is a fact that the findings of the study have got a greater significance and implication for social workers and researchers alike. The conclusions drawn from the study emphasise that “such young people may benefit from a greater degree of emotional and practical support throughout their lives in care” (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 391). The researchers followed an in-depth qualitative approach for the purpose of the study whereby they reviewed the relevant literature on the topic and conducted a survey among 63 young people recently looked after who are aged 15-24 and 78 professionals, across four research sites. The survey was conducted among the 63 young people (who all had become or about to become parents for the first time in their teenage years) and the authors took special care to bring about geographical and socio economic diversity in the choice of the four research sites. Similarly, young people who were neither pregnant nor were going to be conceived were kept out of the sample groups to ensure valid research outcomes. Special care was also taken by the researchers to include all aspects concerned with teenage pregnancy in care which took into account such factors as “young people’s feelings, reactions and responses to the pregnancy and to becoming a parent; who and what had helped, or not helped, from conception through to the time of interview; from where and how they had learned about sex and relationships and the types of care they had experienced” (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 392). In the same way, semi-structured interviews were used to elicit responses and data from the selected 78 professionals who were people either associated with the care among young people or were doing social work among young people living in care. The professionals were asked to share their views and experience on the issue and to express their opinions and views on the prevention of pregnancy among young people and on the possible supports that can be offered to the victims. A constant comparative method was employed by the researchers to identify the recurrent themes and such identified themes were included in the findings only after searching for ‘negative instances’. Thus, it can be concluded that the qualitative research methodology employed by the researchers is most appropriate for the study and that the researchers have taken special efforts to make the findings of the study reliable and valid by carefully selecting the sample population and in designing in-depth questionnaire for the 63 participants and semi-structured interviews for the 78 professionals who were involved in the study. Critically reviewing the research methods of the study, one can undoubtedly state that the topic of study call for an in-depth qualitative approach which the researchers have also followed. However, thinking about the possibility of alternative research methodologies will take one to the effectiveness of case studies also. The researchers could have also made some case studies among certain foster care centres, local care centres or even among young people in certain geographical areas which are most prone to teenage pregnancies. This would have added more credentials to the research. Similarly, it is a research limitation that the study does not have a sample population to undertake a comparative or contrastive analysis. While the researchers purport that young people in local care are more vulnerable to teenage pregnancy than their counterparts who live in their own homes, the argument seems to take for granted that young people who are not in care do not face the threat of teenage pregnancy. As teenage pregnancy is a sensitive issue, it was essential for the researchers to ensure some sort of confidentiality to the participants and to see that no ethical issues stem from their research. The researchers, thus, have taken effective precautions to make sure that their study was ethical. For ethical reasons the researchers avoided asking the participants “about the circumstances surrounding young people entering the care system” (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 393). The participants were offered confidentiality as they were promised that their personal identity would not be revealed in the study. However, the researchers took care to get the permission of the participants to use their views and comments anonymously for research purposes. Thus, the participants readily agreed to use the data obtained from them for project reports and articles and to publish the findings of the research. Thus, it can be stated that the researchers have made their study quite ethical by taking effective measures to ensure the participation of the participants as well as to make sure their consent to publish the research findings, keeping their personal identities intact. There is no doubt that the results of the present study are beneficial to the victims of teenage pregnancy in local care, foster carers, local authorities, social workers and other researchers, The results of the study clearly indicate that most of these participants had experienced loneliness, neglect and rejection in their family before they were going into care which had adversely affected their self-esteem. Similarly, there were participants in the study who confessed that they experienced the same sort of loneliness, rejection and stigmatisation in the care system also. The frequent placements and shifting from one caring centre to another also created feelings insecurity, existential dilemma and adjustment issues among many such young children. One of the most noteworthy findings of the study was that these victims of teenage pregnancy in care were more likely to be affected by “their emotional attachments, their stability and their ability to form secure and trusting relationships as adults” (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 394). This inability to build trusting relationships is most likely to affect their adult behaviour and this is likely to haunt them for the rest of their whole life. It is also interesting to note that many of them confided that a counsellor or someone who they could trust and share their experiences will be of great assistance to them. The results of the semi-structured interview conducted among the 78 professionals brought about many factors associated with teenage pregnancy of young people in care. While some of them considered previous sexual abuses as a potential reason for vulnerability while disengagement in education and disrupted education was viewed as another reason by many others. Lack of access to school-based sex education, lack of priority in imparting information about sexual matters (especially on safe sex) in the residential care, the inability of social workers to such issues as teenage sex or pregnancy, lack of assistance in the decision-making process regarding pregnancy, their innate need to love and get loved, feelings of loneliness and instability, general emotional vulnerability, desire to have a personal identity, lack of responsibility in the use of contraception, and the positive associations of being a parent are some of the factors that have accelerated teenage pregnancy among the youth in various care centres. It has been proved from the study that most of the participants suffered from “high degree of emotional vulnerability, including feelings of loneliness and rejection, both from birth families and in the care system itself, insecurity, stigma, social exclusion and marginalization” and as a result many of them considered pregnancy and having a baby as an emotional relief (Knight, Elaine & Peter 2006, p. 401). The results of the study clearly pinpoint the need to offer these young victims timely and proper counselling, therapy’ advocacy, befriending and mentoring and it also emphasises the need to offer them the full time services of professionally qualified personnel to meet their emotional well-being. One can clearly find similar threads of conclusions in the studies made by Farmer and Pollock (1998). The authors also concluded that the young people in care were seldom offered sex education in their residential care and therefore information about sexual matters were alien to them. Similarly, Farmer and Pollock also identified that even social workers were unable to offer sex education or sex awareness among the teenagers as they had many other social concerns to be addressed too. Similarly, studies such as conducted by Wellings and Others (2001) also have shown that young people practically do not get any assistance in the decision-making regarding teenage pregnancy and the findings of the present study also point towards such a conclusion as half of the participants who took part in the study also raised similar concerns. Similarly, the study also brought about the participants’ strong disapproval against abortion which was also been observed by Corlyon and McGuire (1999) in their studies. The participants also were against leaving the child for adoption as they themselves were subjected to the ill effects of having been brought up in care. To conclude, it can be stated that one can find many parallels between the present study and previous researches and all these studies have brought about almost similar conclusions regarding teenage pregnancy and the factors that lead to it. To sum up, it can be stated that the research paper demonstrates all the good qualities of a well-knit qualitative research. As already mentioned, the topic of the study is best suited for a qualitative approach. The advantages of the qualitative research over the quantitative one have been highlighted by many researchers. Rick Houser, in this respect, has pointed out that a “researcher can gain a more detailed understanding of the phenomena of interest than with quantitative research and that the “qualitative research is helpful in understanding or explaining unusual situations that could not be identified through large scale quantitative methods” (p. 38). It can also be concluded that the researchers have effectively made use of two of the tools of qualitative research, namely that of the in-depth interview and the semi-structured interviews. It is clear that the in-depth interview conducted among the participants have offered them ample opportunities to express themselves free and the in-depth interview has touched on all aspects of teenage pregnancy among the young people in care. Similarly, the researcher can very easily come across recurrent themes that are dominant by analysing the qualitative data that he has collected from the participants. Similarly, the structured interview has proved to be an effective tool for collecting qualitative data. No doubt, the semi-structured interview has offered the practitioners to express their views and experiences more elaborately than in a multiple choice interview questionnaire. To conclude, it can be stated that the article under review is a well-knit piece of research that brings about a great number of conclusions which are equally beneficial to the young people who are prone to teenage pregnancy and all others who are associated with them. The article calls for timely support and counselling assistance to the young victims who suffer from the ill effects of teenage pregnancy as they are put in care. Reference Houser, R 1998, Counseling and educational research: evaluation and application, Illustrated Edition, SAGE. Knight, A., Elaine, C & Peter, A 2006, ‘Someone of Your Own to Love’: Experiences of Being Looked After as Influences on Teenage Pregnancy. Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, vol. 20, no.2, pp. 391-403. Read More