The list below is a selection of the relevant, recently published articles on my subject areas which I have read in preparation for writing a feature on teen pregnancy and education for young parents.
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/parenting_as_a_teenager.html/context/1000
Parenting as a teenager is attributed only to the ‘the raising children network’, and appeared on the online parenting forum, The raising children network; the Australian parenting website, on March 12, 2012.
This multimedia piece provides a text based profile of one teen parent, has statistics illustrating historical changes in teenage birth rates, observes challenges faced by young parents and concludes with a list of helpful resource suggestions for teen parents. The piece also contains a short video, which examines the parenting experiences of teenagers. It shows several families where a mother is raising a child alone, families led by parents within committed relationships, blended families with five children, multi generations living together to support young parents and the extended family members reflections on parenthood. The entire piece contains the message that networking, asking for help and accepting assistance is vital.
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/05/14/73175_lifestyle.html
The positives of teen pregnancy, by Danielle McKay, was published in the Tasmanian Mercury on May 14, 2009.
This article reports the findings of paper, by Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne, Professor Julie Quinilivan. The paper was presented at an un-named conference in Tasmania in 2009, and claims that becoming pregnant was an advantage to disadvantaged teens. The paper premise behind that rather startling suggestion is that pregnancy forces disadvantaged teens to engage with support services and develop a plan for the future for themselves and their children’s benefit.
Investigating an increase in teenage pregnancies in regional Australia, written by Melissa Sweet and published by Crikey, online on January 24, 2013. The piece examines the pregnancy rate of teens in remote regions and the lack of support services young parents have to access. The article follows research from Demographer from the Australian National University, Dr Ann Larson, who found that despite our national percentage of teens becoming parents was dropping with time, the number of young people becoming pregnant in regional areas is increasing rapidly. I find this interesting as Geelong is seen as a large regional town so wanted to see more research on population breakdowns amongst different rural and remote areas compare to Geelong.
Nearly 20 percent of teen births are repeat births, by the American Centres for Disease Control and was posted to the American Parent Hub website, on April 13, 2013. This story echoes Australian data found during my research into ‘Rapid Repeat Pregnancies’, showing that while pregnancy rates amongst teens is falling, there is a huge number of teen parents who have multiple children during their teen years. American states each vary with their rates of pregnancy to teen mothers, but there seems to be a global trend of rapid repeat pregnancies, especially amongst some ethnic, racial and geographic groups.
Unique needs of children born to teen parents was produced by an American not for profit agency called, the Healthy Teen Network. It was published online some time after 2006 (date not printed, yet 2006 is the most recent of the bibliography items) and provides cautionary statistics about teen pregnancy and the children effected when their parents are teens. It has some useful and interesting claims which seem to be from credible, government sources, but I feel outside the kind of research I am undertaking, it has minimal value. It is supposedly warning against teen pregnancy by providing a long list of negative elements and difficulties, however it is presented in a dry, dull and uninspiring manner, so very few teens would be interested in reading it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-31/20120331-teen-pregnancy-on-the-decline/3924688
Teen pregnancy on the decline, is an article from the ABC and was posted on March 31, 2012. It presents census data which confirms that the rate of teen pregnancies is dropping. This fact has been backed up by my research into Australian Bureau of Statistics maternal age birth rates and several other stories about teen pregnancy from the UK and USA. If the statistics show a decline in birth rates to young parents, why does it seem society doesn’t agree?
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s3016934.htm
Long Term Contraception to Reduce Teen Pregnancy, by reporter Irene Scott, and aired on September 20, 2010. This story was a part of the ABC national youth radio station’s Hack program The piece examines high repeat pregnancy amongst teenaged mothers. It suggests that a possible solution to ‘Rapid Repeat Pregnancies’ was to provide at risk young women with log term contraceptive devices. The two year old story raises a number of issues I am examining with current context in my article, so was a significant research piece.
http://educationforchoice.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/teenage-pregnancy-rates-have-dropped.html
This pro-choice, UK blog was published on February 26th, 2013 and has a strong advocacy for abortion. It observes the decreasing rate of births to teen parents, which it claims are the lowest since 1969. The casual writing style seems to be aimed at a teen audience and criticises the mainstream media’s negative focus when reporting stories featuring young parents.
http://www.thegloss.com/2013/02/11/sex-and-dating/teenage-pregnancy-statistics/
Numerical Proof That We Need To Continue Making Birth Control Available To Teens by Samantha Escobar, published in The gloss, February 11, 2013. The article advocates continuing the right to for teens to have reproductive choices. Escobar reminds that simplified access to contraception for teens is amongst the most effective methods of maintaining the current historically low birth rates, dropping from 6.2% of teens giving birth in 1991 to 3.3% in 2011.
http://www.knowabouthealth.com/statistics-australia-observed-high-teenage-pregnancy-rate/6000/
Statistics – Australia observed high teenage pregnancy rate, by Christine Stomes on August 30, 2010, filed in: Health News. This article from 2010 uses a lot of statistical information obtained from a range of reliable sources, along with opinions from leading Australian academics and researchers, to compare Australian state’s teen pregnancy rates and then observes comparative statistics for young mothers from other developed nations.
What’s it like as a teen Mum? by Lisa Mayoh, published in the Sunday Herald Sun on February 5, 2012. This recently published, brief piece profiles the different, yet similar experiences of four Australian mothers who had children during their teen years.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/04/11/3734989.htm
Teen mums reflect social disadvantage says academic, by the ABC local radio newsroom in Far North Queensland, and was aired on April 11, 2013. This news story examines a remote community where rate of teen pregnancy is 22%.
The story emanates from the academic research of James Cook University’s Dr Sarah Larkins, who looked into links between disengagement from education, disadvantage and teen pregnancy. The piece uses census data and expert commentary when promoting a need for greater community resources.
Feature Research File 