Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/5967
Title: Books and bottles : young women with a dual role of a student and a mother
Authors: Portelli, Angie-Marie
Keywords: Teenage mothers
Phenomenological psychology
Teenage mothers -- Education
Issue Date: 2015
Abstract: This study aims to explore the lived experience of women that had had a child in their teenage years and continued their studies later on in their lives. It intends to investigate what it is like to have a dependent and still get on with manage to juggle work and child rearing by means of a range of coping strategies to their day-to-day life. In order to investigate this complex scenario, the following research question was developed: “What is the experience of being a teenage mother and a student?” Data was gathered through six semi-structures interviews which were analysed by using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The use of IPA yielded six super-ordinate themes: return to school, juggling childrearing and school, life-changing experience, welfare benefits, support and future. The results concluded that a dual life for a teenage mother can be particularly demanding since at this age, the mother is still young and is at risk of missing out on her education, which should be a priority at her age. Indeed this experience can be life-changing and these student mothers may have to face stiff challenges and go through difficult times. Nevertheless, the results show that these women’s admirable determination, courage never to submit or yield and much-needed support from their family, friends, schoolmates and the educational system, were instrumental in helping them overcome a host of obstacles and constraints. This research shows that student mothers have the resources to achieve their dreams and build a good future for themselves and their child.
Description: B.PSY.(HONS)
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/5967
Appears in Collections:Dissertations - FacSoW - 2015
Dissertations - FacSoWPsy - 2015

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