Early childbearing: perspectives and experiences of young men and women in Durban.
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Date
2018
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Abstract
Early childbearing continues to be a matter of concern around the world, especially in
developing nations. The causes and the implications of early parenting have been explored by
researchers from young mothers’ perspective, thus excluding young fathers. Life goals and the
future of young people is threatened by early parenting. The negative outcomes of early
parenting intercept young parents’ ability to further their studies. The exclusion of fathers
defeats the purpose of better understanding the causes of early childbearing as fathers are an
integral part of early childbearing. The inclusion of young fathers is also important in trying to
understand early childbearing and its implications for the youth. This study aimed at closing this
gap by focusing on early childbearing from the perspective of both young mothers and fathers.
This study draws its rich findings from semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with
twenty participants (ten mothers and ten fathers) who were students at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal. Findings of this study show that there are more similarities than there are
difference between young mothers and fathers in terms of causes and experiences of early
childbearing. The study found that lack of proper sex education in homes and schools play a
huge role in enabling other factors that exacerbate early childbearing. Although lack of access
to contraception was an issue that resulted in non-use of contraception, this study also found
that there were various reasons for not using contraception despite its availability, which also
contributed to early childbearing. This study differs from others as it reports on young parents
that continued with their education despite financial problems and other difficulties caused by
early childbearing. For this reason, this study recommends that future studies explore factors
that encourage and help young parents to re-enter the education system and finish their high
school education and further their studies to higher education level. Youth friendly and youth
driven awareness and education is also recommended to prevent early childbearing. This study
acknowledges that ecosystems perspective fails to explain internal factors that prevent early
childbearing, thus the recommendations is that researchers explore internal factors that prevent
early childbearing and enforce resiliency.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.