Recent figures have shown that Britain currently has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe. However, a survey has shown that only 49 per cent of people think that teenage mums are responsible – are young parents overly-stigmatised in our society? Meanwhile, lone parents currently make up 7.9% of the UK’s population and nearly 3 million children are growing up in one-parent families. This book looks at current problems and trends.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Teenage parents
Teenagers: sexual health and behaviour, Information on teenage pregnancy, Teenage pregnancy, Teenage pregnancy – what to do, Consequences of teenage births, Sex education and teenage pregnancy, Sex education that works, Beyond biology, Call for sex education in primary schools, Mum’s the word, Pregnancy in teenage girls ‘all part of nature’s law’, Poverty and young parenthood, Teenage mums should not be stigmatised, The stigma of being a teenage mum, Getting teenage mums ‘back to school’, When lads become dads, Toddlers to help halt teen pregnancies.
Chapter Two: Lone-Parent Families
Welfare and single parenthood in the UK, Welfare and single parenthood in the UK: statistics, Lone parent families, Dependent children, Why UK is Europe’s single-parent capital, Benefits and tax credits, How many lone parents are receiving benefits?, Top ten survival tips for lone parents, Parenting alone, Birth fathers’ rights.
Key Facts
Glossary
Additional Resources
Index
Acknowledgements
• The UK has the highest teenage birth and abortion rates in Western Europe. (page 2)
• Groups who are more vulnerable to becoming teenage parents include young people who are: in or leaving care, homeless, underachieving at school, children of teenage parents, members of some ethnic groups, involved in crime, living in areas with higher social deprivation. (page 5)
• Children of teenage mothers suffer as young adults in terms of lower educational attainment, a higher risk of economic inactivity and of becoming a teenage mother themselves. This may result because of the lower standard of living experienced by many teenage mothers, owing in part to the poorer earning partners that they pair with. (page 10)
• Only 49 per cent of respondents to a YWCA survey think teenage mums are responsible (compared to 91 per cent for mums in general). (page 18)
• According to research, if a father is present at the birth, and has his name on the birth certificate, the chances of remaining positively in the baby’s life are vastly increased. (page 26)
• There are 1.8 million one-parent families in Britain and they care for nearly 3 million children. About nine out of ten lone parents are women. The median age for a lone parent is 35, and at any one time only 3 per cent of lone mothers are teenagers. (page 28)
• Between 2003 and 2004, the percentage of lone-parent households (with one child) was ten times less likely to be on the £500-£600 (a week) income bracket than a two-parent household with one child. (page 30)
Teen Pregnancy and Lone Parents Study Guide
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.50
ISBN: 978 1 86168 397 7
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