The Stigmas Associated With Teen Parenting: How Gender-Stereotypical Expectations Contribute

One hundred three students from a small liberal arts college rated statements about potential stigma associated with unmarried teen parents. After reading a scenario describing an unmarried teen couple’s pregnancy and early parenting experiences, participants indicated their level of agreement with 11 statements for either the mother or the father. Multivariate analysis of variance comparisons of the items indicated that the focus of attention was on the mother, in both positive and negative ways. Compared to unmarried teen fathers, unmarried teen mothers were seen as more sexually promiscuous, and too young to be a parent. On the other hand, mothers were also rated significantly as spending more time with their child, and assumed as more responsible. Unmarried teen fathers were seen as significantly more ambitious, whereas respondents thought it was more important for mothers to continue their education. Results reinforce the idea that unmarried teen mothers are expected to bear a disproportionate amount of the burden of care for their child. Knowledge of these results could lead to greater sensitivity toward unmarried teen parents and lend to more helpful support, which could assist them, and their children, to succeed despite their circumstances.

620 Impacting Teen Parents with Early Education for Burn and Fire Prevention

Introduction Unintentional fire or burn injuries are the 5th leading cause of injury deaths in the United States for children age 1–4 and the 3rd for those age 5–9. 24% of all burn injuries occur in children under the age of 15. Preparation and education are key elements in preventing fire tragedies in children. We recognized a trend in children of teen pregnancies presenting to our outpatient burn clinic with burn injuries and identified an opportunity to incorporate burn and fire prevention education into a pre-existing teen parenting program within local schools. Methods We utilized an established relationship with the local school district, which offers an elective course focusing on teen parenting in high schools with credit granted toward high school graduation. This course offers parenting classes and life skills training on a variety of topics including car seat safety, water safety, bike and pedestrian safely, and poison and first aid education. The Burn Prevention Coordinator partnered with the Fire Department Injury Prevention Specialist to teach a one hour lecture on burn and fire safety. Upon completion, the teen parents were provided with water testers to prevent scald burns, outlet protectors to prevent electrical injuries, temperature sensitive spoons for safe feeding, travel mugs, smoke alarms, and “First Aid for Burns” refrigerator magnets. Results We have taught 16 classes over the past 2 years and reached 600–800 teen parents per year. Teen parents received education regarding scald and contact burn prevention, home escape planning, smoke alarm education including contact information to have smoke alarms installed into their homes, and education regarding first aid and when to seek medical attention in regard to burn injuries. Post-lecture feedback forms have shown positive results. On average, each teen parent learned two new fire and burn prevention techniques for their child. Conclusions We identified a high risk population and partnered with a well-established teen parenting course to educate teen parents on burn and fire prevention. We provided teen parents with tools to assist them in creating a safer environment for their children. Applicability of Research to Practice Partnering with established community programs we were able to immediately make an impact focusing on burn and fire prevention.

Manajemen Parenting untuk Remaja

Teenagers are in the growing age that moves dynamically to seek and establish identity / identities. If this phase is one in the care of the risk, it would be borne by the teens themselves, families, communities and countries.The risks occurring in any ages of teen parenting among others is one of the associations having an impact on early marriage, deviant behavior and drop-out. To reduce the risks that occur in adolescents, it needs management in teen parenting, given the importance of the role of youth as the regeneration of the family and the nation are very high asset value, and the management of parenting adolescents needs to be built with a variety of strategies.Keywords: Manajemen, Parenting, Remaja dan Geografi Tubuh.

Development of a Survey to Assess Adolescent Perceptions of Teen Parenting

Initiatives designed to prevent teen pregnancy are often based on adult perceptions of the negative aspects of a teen birth. Qualitative research has revealed that teens may perceive positive rewards associated with teen parenting. These perceptions have not yet been examined through survey research. The theory of reasoned action proposes that individuals assess the costs and rewards prior to engaging in a behavior and provides a framework for the development of a survey instrument designed to measure adolescent thoughts about the costs and rewards of the teen parenting experience. This manuscript describes the development and testing of a quantitative survey instrument designed to measure adolescents’ perceptions. Pretesting, piloting, exploratory factor analysis, and a variety of reliability and validity measures were used to determine the value of the measure. The Thoughts on Teen Parenting Survey (TTPS) demonstrates an alpha level of .90. The TTPS yields a cumulative score of teen perceptions about the impact of a teen birth during the adolescent years that may be used to assess youth beliefs, correlated with demographic data, used to identify teens at risk for pregnancy/parenting, or provide a pretest/posttest to assess the effectiveness of interventions designed to foster realistic attitudes toward teen parenting.