Early motherhood: voices from female adolescents in the Hohoe Municipality, Ghana-a qualitative study utilizing Schlossberg's Transition Theory.

Purpose: Using Schlossberg's Transition Theory, this study explored the lived experiences of pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers coping strategies during their transition to motherhood.Methods: Based on a phenomenological perspective, this qualitative study used in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) to answer the research aim. The process of data gathering included 8 FGDs and 12 IDIs held with adolescent mothers and pregnant adolescents. Audio recordings were transcribed and imported into MAXQDA 2018 for analysis.Results: Applying the interpretative phenomenologial analysis (IPA), four key themes emerged. This included: news of pregnancy; adolescent motherhood; social support and coping strategies. The findings display female adolescents' expressions of some of the negative aspects of motherhood they have been confronted with that have affected their lives. The dominant societal challenges posited by the adolescents included coping with economic and financial constraints, opting for unsafe abortion to reduce stigma associated with unplanned pregnancy, and managing the extra responsibility of taking care of the baby and the challenge of going back to school after delivery.Conclusion: There is the need to build social capital among community members regarding their support to improve the psychosocial well-being of adolescents during early motherhood.

Single women and motherhood: right now or maybe later?

Purpose: The decision to have a child might be postponed by the lack of partner, and elective egg freezing (EEF) can afford single women more time to find a suitable companion to reach the desired family structure. Alternatively, some women decide to have a child on their own thorough in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intrauterine insemination (IUI) with donor sperm. This study investigates the motivations and personal characteristics of single women undergoing IVF/IUI or EEF.Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study including 281 heterosexual single women who underwent either IVF/IUI with donor sperm for solo motherhood (208) or EEF (73) in 2015 at a large fertility center. An anonymous electronic survey was sent after starting the treatment.Results: The most common reason for not having fulfilled the motherhood desire was lack of partner (72.4% IVF/IUI and 65.9% EEF). We found that women undergoing IVF/IUI report a longer motherhood desire, >10 years (71.3% vs. 54.3%), live closer to their families (75.5% vs. 56.5%), and perceive a stronger family support than women undergoing EEF (85.4% vs. 68.8%). Finally, 100% of EEF obviously knew about the possibility of IVF/IUI with donor sperm, while 59.9% of IVF/IUI knew about EEF.Conclusion: Our results underscore the relevance of family ties in the decision to undergo IVF/IUI as single women. Moreover, these women might not be fully informed about social freezing as an option to postpone motherhood. Health professionals should be aware of these differences when counseling single women on fertility choices.

Paternal Support and Involvement in Unmarried Fragile Families: Impacts on Long-Term Maternal Mental Health.

Fragile families are defined as those that include unmarried or romantically unstable parents who have children and are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Mothers in fragile families may experience risk factors that lead to increased depressive symptoms that inhibit their ability to bounce back after stressful events. Risk factors for poorer maternal mental health may include declines in father involvement and a lack of coparenting support. This study examined the connected nature of coparenting and father involvement over time among continuously unmarried mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. A bidirectional latent growth curve analysis demonstrated that early father involvement was associated with a more gradual decline in coparenting support over the child's first 5 years, while early coparenting support also predicted a slower decline in father involvement over time. Steeper declines in coparenting support and father involvement over time were linked with more maternal depression and lower maternal life satisfaction when their child was nine. Results demonstrate a clear need for targeted intervention with both parents in fragile families to promote involved fathering behavior and enhance coparental relationships.

Las familias frágiles se definen como aquellas formadas por padres inestables solteros o románticamente inestables que tienen hijos y son desfavorecidos socioeconómicamente (Carlson & McLanahan, 2010). Las madres de las familias frágiles pueden sufrir factores de riesgo conducentes a mayores síntomas depresivos que inhiben su capacidad de recuperarse después de situaciones estresantes (Kalil & Ryan, 2010). Entre los factores de riesgo de deterioro de la salud mental materna se encuentran la disminución de la participación del padre y la falta de apoyo en la cocrianza. Este estudio analizó la índole asociada de la cocrianza y la participación del padre con el paso del tiempo entre las madres continuamente solteras del estudio sobre las "Familias Frágiles y el Bienestar de los Niños" (Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study). Un análisis bidireccional de la curva de crecimiento latente demostró que la participación inicial del padre estuvo asociada con una disminución más gradual del apoyo en la cocrianza durante los primeros cinco años del niño, mientras que el apoyo inicial en la cocrianza también predijo una disminución más lenta de la participación del padre con el paso del tiempo. Las disminuciones más pronunciadas del apoyo en la cocrianza y de la participación del padre con el paso del tiempo estuvieron ligadas a una mayor depresión materna y a una menor satisfacción materna con la vida cuando su hijo tenía nueve años. Los resultados demuestran una clara necesidad de una intervención orientada a ambos padres de las familias frágiles a fin de promover una conducta participativa del padre y mejorar las relaciones de cocrianza.

Premarital parenthood and newlyweds' marital trajectories.

An increasing number of couples in the United States are entering their first marriage having already had a child together, raising important questions about whether and how these couples' marriages differ from newlywed couples who enter marriage without children. The current study used 5 waves of data collected over the first 4.5 years of marriage from a sample of ethnically diverse, first-married newlywed couples living with low incomes to examine the effects of premarital parenthood on couples' self-reported satisfaction, observed communication, and marital dissolution over time. Among couples who entered marriage with a shared biological child (premarital parents), satisfaction levels were lower and communication was less effective, less positive, and more negative than couples entering marriage without children. Rates of change in marital functioning did not differ between groups, but the rate of marital dissolution was twice as high among premarital parents (19.1%) relative to couples who were not parents at the start of marriage (9.5%). These between-groups differences remained robust after controlling for several demographic differences (race, age, education, household income, work status, relationship length, premarital cohabitation), and initial differences in communication did not account for between-groups differences in marital satisfaction or dissolution. Together, these findings indicate that newlywed marriage unfolds in similar ways for low-income couples with and without children at the start of marriage, but couples raising children at the time of marriage have greater vulnerability to marital distress and dissolution. Further research is needed to characterize this risk and how interventions can offset it. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Nepal - exploited by older married man - young unmarried mother accused of infanticide.

In Nepal, it is considered sinful for a woman to have sexual intercourse before marriage while the male is exonerated. The female will be branded a loose character outcast by family and society. Only a small percentage of women who feel the other way and stand mentally strong or who have family support come out to seek justice. Despite the stringent law, the loopholes in the justice mechanism re-victimise female victims. We report a case where a young unmarried pregnant woman who gave birth alone was charged with infanticide.

The longitudinal and bidirectional relationships between cooperative coparenting and child behavioral problems in low-income, unmarried families.

The coparenting subsystem is important for the psychosocial development of young children. In this article, we used cross-lagged structural equation modeling to assess the bidirectional relations between unmarried parents' cooperative coparenting and their children's behavioral problems. Using a subsample of 788 dyads of poor, unmarried parents and their children from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing data, we examined trends in coparenting and behavioral problems over time (in children ages 1, 3, 5, and 9 years) and the reciprocal effects between these 2 variables. All pathways from coparenting at 1 time point to the children's behavioral problems at the following time point were significant, indicating that cooperative coparenting at earlier time points is likely to result in fewer behavioral problems in children at later time points. A cross-lagged path from behavioral problems to coparenting in the preschool years was also statistically significant. Implications for interventions and next steps for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Male Experience and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Premarital Pregnancy: Based on a Nationwide Population-Based Survey Among Urban and Rural Chinese Youths.

Little is known about the male experience of premarital pregnancy (MEPP) and the sociodemographic characteristics of unmarried male youths involved in pregnancy. This study estimates the prevalence of MEPP and identifies the sociodemographic factors associated with it among Chinese unmarried youths aged 15-24 years, using data from the Survey of Youth Access to Reproductive Health in China. Descriptive analyses and χ2 tests were applied to explore the number and prevalence of MEPP, and logistic regressions were used to identify the associated factors. As a result, among 2,853 sexually experienced male youths, 597 individuals reported 852 partner pregnancies caused by them during their lifetime, with a weighted prevalence rate of 20.87% (95% CI [18.85%, 22.88%]). Among these pregnancies, 78.05% ended in induced abortion. Factors like living with only the father (OR: 4.16, 95% CI [2.22, 7.8]) and the low level of education of the father (junior high school or below, OR: 1.60, 95% CI [1.04, 2.46]) were associated with MEPP among unmarried male youth. Furthermore, there is a marked difference between the rural and urban youth in factors associated with MEPP. The findings in this study highlight the importance of and need for strategies and interventions targeting male youths, in order to improve sexual education and reproductive services.

Barriers to Unmarried Father Involvement During Infancy: Qualitative Study from Professionals' Perspectives.

Introduction Unmarried fathers in the U.S. face barriers to establishing a relationship with their newborn children that married fathers do not confront. Our study was implemented to determine how systems and services could be modified to better support the engagement of unmarried fathers. Methods We conducted interviews with 35 professionals who interact with primarily low-income unmarried mothers and fathers to elicit their perceptions of such barriers. We developed a social ecological model to inform the study design and used purposive sampling with chain referrals to ensure a wide breadth of perspectives. Themes and subthemes categorizing personal and environmental factors were placed within five nested categories corresponding to different levels of influence on unmarried fathers' behaviors: public policy, community, institutions, interpersonal relationships, and intrapersonal characteristics, and their intersections. Results Participants challenged as inaccurate the stereotype of unmarried fathers as disengaged and uninterested in being involved with their children. Rather, they described the marginalization and devaluing of unmarried fathers by government policies and family service systems and programs and also the dearth of resources available to them. They called on decision makers to adjust policies and services to be more inclusive of unmarried fathers, to promote father engagement more actively, and to urge direct service providers to respond to fathers as valued individuals. Discussion Adapting to the common reality of nonmarital childbearing will entail a systematic shift in the integration of ways in which we value, understand, include, and serve fathers.

Association of family structure with atopic dermatitis in US children.

BACKGROUND: Children from families without 2 married biologic parents have an increased risk of poverty and poor health. The relationship between family structure and atopic dermatitis (AD) has not been elucidated. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of AD and related outcomes in children from different family structures. METHODS: Data on 13,275 children (age ≤17 years) and their parents from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed. RESULTS: In multivariable logistic regression models adjusting for sociodemographic groups, children from single-adult households (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.272; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.050-1.542), families with 2 or fewer members (aOR, 1.413; 95% CI, 1.079-1.852), families with a mother but no father present (aOR, 1.402; 95% CI, 1.179-1.667), nonbiologic fathers (aOR, 1.464; 95% CI, 1.089-1.969), or unmarried mothers (aOR, 1.508; 95% CI, 1.017-2.237) had increased odds of AD. Among children with AD, there were significantly increased odds of having only good, fair, or poor versus very good or excellent overall health (aOR, 1.545; 95% CI, 1.262-1.893) and greater odds of depression (aOR, 2.287; 95% CI, 1.523-3.434), anxiety (aOR, 2.001; 95% CI, 1.543-2.595), and stress (aOR, 2.013; 95% CI, 1.499-2.704). LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional study. CONCLUSIONS: Children in the United States who are from families with single adults, single mothers, nonbiologic fathers, or unmarried mothers may have increased odds of AD. Family structures were associated with poorer overall health, depression, anxiety, and stress in children with AD.

Recurrent unintended pregnancies among young unmarried women serving in the Israeli military.

BACKGROUND: Unintended pregnancy is a major public health problem with known risk factors, however, little is known about the prevalence of variables associated with recurrent unintended pregnancy (RUP) among young, unmarried women. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of unmarried women aged 18-21 serving in the Israeli military between 2013 and 2015. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine associations between RUP and women's education, IQ, immigration status, country of origin, socioeconomic status and history of psychiatric illness. RESULTS: Of 129,638 women drafted by the Israeli military during the study period, 1720 women with unintended pregnancies had a follow up period of at least a year. Three hundred and eighty-nine of them had RUP (22.6%). Multivariable models comparing women with no unintended pregnancies and women with RUP revealed that RUP was more common among (adjusted relative risk; 95% confidence interval) women who had not graduated from high school (6.9; 4.99-9.55), who had low (90-99) IQ scores (3.9; 2.88-5.39) those reporting Africa as the country of origin (2.5; 1.37-4.59) and those from a lower socioeconomic neighborhood (1.6; 1.18-2.05). Multivariate regression modeling comparing women with single unintended pregnancies and women with RUPs showed that recurrent unintended pregnancy was more common among women who had not graduated from high school (3.2; 2.04-4.84) and those who had a low (90-99) IQ score (1.9; 1.32-2.61). CONCLUSION: Rate of RUP is high among women serving in the Israeli military. These women have unique epidemiological characteristics. This may serve in identifying populations at high risk and thus may enable policy maker to offer at least to this population Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) methods. We encourage policy makers to consider the provision of LARC methods to all servicewomen who had an unintended pregnancy.

A Prenatal Coparenting Intervention With Unmarried Father-Mother Dyads: Fidelity of Intervention Delivery by Male-Female Community Mentor Teams.

BACKGROUND: Most prenatal preventive interventions for unmarried mothers do not integrate fathers or help the parents plan for the development of a functional coparenting alliance after the baby's arrival. Furthermore, properly trained professionals have only rarely examined the fidelity of these interventions. PURPOSE: This report examines whether experienced community interventionists (home visitors, health educators, fatherhood service personnel) with no formal couples' therapy training are capable of pairing together to deliver with adequate fidelity a manualized dyadic intervention designed for expectant unmarried mothers and fathers. METHODS: Three male and four female mentors (home visitors, health educators, fatherhood personnel) working in paired male-female co-mentor teams delivered a seven-session "Figuring It Out for the Child" curriculum (six prenatal sessions, one booster) to 14 multirisk, unmarried African American families (parent age ranging from 14 to 40). Parental well-being and views of fatherhood were assessed before the intervention and again 3 months after the baby's birth. Quality assurance analysts evaluated mentor fidelity (adherence to the curriculum, competence in engaging couples with specified curricular content) through a review of the transcripts and audiotapes from the sessions. Mentors also rated their own adherence. RESULTS: Although the mentors overestimated adherence, quality assurance analyst ratings found acceptable levels of adherence and competence, with no significant male-female differences in fidelity. Adherence and competence were marginally higher in sessions that required fewer direct couples' interventions. Parents reported satisfaction with the interventions and showed statistically significant improvement in the family dimensions of interest at 3-4 months posttreatment. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Findings support the wisdom of engaging men both as interventionists and as recipients of prenatal coparenting interventions-even in families where the parents are uncoupled and non-co-residential.

Adolescent Reproductive Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs and Future Fatherhood.

PURPOSE: With a growing focus on the importance of men's reproductive health, including preconception health, the ways in which young men's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KAB) predict their reproductive paths are understudied. To determine if reproductive KAB predicts fatherhood status, timing and residency (living with child or not). METHODS: Reproductive KAB and fatherhood outcomes were analyzed from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a 20-year, nationally representative study of individuals from adolescence into adulthood. Four measures of reproductive KAB were assessed during adolescence in waves I and II. A generalized linear latent and mixed model predicted future fatherhood status (nonfather, resident/nonresident father, adolescent father) and timing while controlling for other socio-demographic variables. RESULTS: Of the 10,253 men, 3,425 were fathers (686 nonresident/2,739 resident) by wave IV. Higher risky sexual behavior scores significantly increased the odds of becoming nonresident father (odds ratio [OR], 1.30; p < .0001), resident father (OR, 1.07; p = .007), and adolescent father (OR, 1.71; p < .0001); higher pregnancy attitudes scores significantly increased the odds of becoming a nonresident father (OR, 1.20; p < .0001) and resident father (OR, 1.11; p < .0001); higher birth control self-efficacy scores significantly decreased the odds of becoming a nonresident father (OR, .72; p < .0001) and adolescent father (OR, .56; p = .01). CONCLUSIONS: Young men's KAB in adolescence predicts their future fatherhood and residency status. Strategies that address adolescent males' reproductive KAB are needed in the prevention of unintended reproductive consequences such as early and nonresident fatherhood.

Premarital Births and Union Formation in Rural South Africa.

CONTEXT: In rural South Africa, women often delay union formation until they are in their late 20s, though premarital first births are common. METHODS: Longitudinal data from the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System in rural South Africa were used to examine the relationship between premarital birth and union entry among 55,158 nonmigrant women aged 10-35 who took part in at least one annual census from 1993 to 2012. Discrete-time event history models were used to determine whether the likelihood of union formation differed between women who had had a premarital first birth and those who had not. Associations between single motherhood and union type (marriages or nonmarital partnerships) were identified using logistic regression. RESULTS: Forty-five percent of women had had a premarital first birth and 25% had entered a first union. Women who had had a premarital first birth were less likely than other women to have entered a first union (odds ratio, 0.6). Women who had had a premarital birth in the past year were more likely than those without a premarital birth to have entered a union (1.5), but women had reduced odds of union formation if they had had a birth 1-2 years earlier (0.9) or at least five years earlier (0.8). Unions formed within two years of a premarital birth had an elevated likelihood of being nonmarital partnerships (1.2-1.4). CONCLUSIONS: Single motherhood is common in the Agincourt HDSS, and women with a premarital first birth face challenges in establishing committed unions with partners.

'A healthier and more hopeful person': illegitimacy, mental disorder and the improved prognosis of the adolescent mother.

This paper aims to contribute to the exploration of the shift from a problematisation of 'unwed motherhood' to 'teenage motherhood' in late twentieth century Britain. It does so by exploring the dominant social scientific understanding of 'unwed mothers' during the 1950s and 1960s which suggested that these women suffered from a psychological disorder. I then analyse the conceptualisation of 'adolescent unwed mothers' exploring why professionals deemed them to be less disturbed than older women in their predicament. This finding is discussed in light of contemporary social scientific concern with adolescent motherhood.

"How can I gain skills if I don't practice?" The dynamics of prohibitive silence against pre-marital pregnancy and sex in Zimbabwe.

Young people face sexual and reproductive health (SRH) problems including Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is critical to continue documenting their situation including the contexts they live in. As part of a larger study that explored perspectives of men to SRH and more specifically abortion and contraceptive use, 546 pupils (51% female; age range 9-25 years) from a rural area in Zimbabwe were invited to write anonymously questions about growing up or other questions they could not ask adults for fear or shame. The pupils were included following descriptions by adults of the violence that is unleashed on unmarried young people who engaged in sex, used contraceptives, or simply suggested doing so. The questions by the young people pointed to living in a context of prohibitive silence; their sexuality was silenced and denied. As a consequence they had poor knowledge and their fears and internal conflicts around sexuality and pregnancy were not addressed. Current action suggests concerted effort at the policy level to deal with young people's SRH in Zimbabwe. It nevertheless remains necessary, as a way to provide support to these efforts, to continue examining what lessons can be drawn from the past, and how the past continues to reflect in and shape present dynamics and relations. There is also need to look more critically at life skill education, which has previously been described as having failed to address adequately the practical needs of young people. Life skill education in Zimbabwe has rarely been systematically evaluated. A fuller understanding is also needed of the different factors co-existing in contemporary African societies and how they have been and continue to be constituted within history, and the implications to the promotion of adolescent SRH.

The influence of social-developmental context and nurse visitation intervention on self-agency change in unmarried adolescent mothers.

Pregnancy among unmarried adolescents has been linked to negative personal control beliefs. In contrast, self-agency beliefs about control over future possibilities have been linked to delay in subsequent childbearing. In this secondary analysis, we examined factors associated with self-agency change in 429 unmarried adolescent mothers from intervention and control groups of a nurse home visitation study. Adolescent mothers who participated in a sustained relationship with a nurse made greater gains in self-agency than did control group mothers (p = .034). Adolescents with lower cognitive ability who were behind their age-appropriate grade level in school made the greatest self-agency gains.

¿Quiénes son los verdaderos padres? Consideraciones sobre el padre en la apropiación de niños / Who are real parents? Considerations on the father in children’s appropriation

Pater semper incertus est, así reza la antigua fórmula jurídica citada por Freud en La novela Familiar del neurótico. Es la verdad fundacional sobre la filiación del viviente sostenida por Freud y Lacan en su enseñanza y que los ha conducido a interrogarse por el estatuto del padre y su función. Dicha incertidumbre constitutiva sobre la paternidad conlleva un acto de fe sobre quién es el padre, que recae en aquél que lo nombra como tal. Entonces, ¿como dirimir la cuestión del padre? ¿Cómo situar el lugar del que posibilita la filiación y la genealogía al encadenar al sujeto con una historia que lo inscribe en una serie generacional?Se presenta aquí un apartado específico de la investigación que vengo realizando sobre El padre en la apropiación de niños. Un estudio sobre la función del padre en la filiación en los casos de apropiación de niños en la Argentina entre 1976-1983, referido a las discusiones generadas sobre el lugar del padre y su función, en el marco del plan sistemático de apropiación de niños e identidades el cual desbarató el orden generacional, desapareciendo un linaje, una historia, afectando, por lo menos, a tres generaciones e impidiendo que una transmisión sea posible.

Releasing mother's burdens: child abandonment and retrieval in Madrid, 1890-1935.

In nineteenth-century Europe, the foundling hospital grew beyond its traditional purpose of mitigating the shame of unwed mothers by also permitting widows, widowers, and poor married couples to abandon their children there temporarily. In the Foundling Hospital of Madrid (FHM), this new short-term abandonment could be completely anonymous due to the implementation of a wheel­a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside­which remained open until 1929. The use of survival-analysis techniques to disentangle the determinants of retrieval in a discrete framework reveals important differences in the situations of the women who abandoned their children at the FHM, partly depending on whether they accessed it through the Maternity Hospital after giving birth or they accessed it directly. The evidence suggests that those who abandoned their children through the Maternity Hospital retrieved them only when they had attained a certain degree of economic stability, whereas those who abandoned otherwise did so just as soon as the immediate condition prompting the abandonment had improved.