Attending School and College: The Perspective of Teenage Mothers

This thesis focuses on teenage mothers that have continued their education. The systematic literature review investigated whether school-based interventions support teenage mothers to attend school.

Nine studies were included in the review that were consistent with search terms, and inclusion and exclusion criteria.

A tentative conclusion was made that school-based interventions could support teenage mothers to attend school.

However, more methodologically sound research is needed before this conclusion can be made more confidently.

There was also a lack of research conducted in the United Kingdom.

The conclusion of the literature review led to an assumption that certain factors could support teenage mothers to attend school. It was notable that the studies included in the literature review did not seek the participants' views on the interventions.

The empirical paper sought to address this gap by investigating the views of teenage mothers attending school or college. Their views were sought on what had supported them to attend school or college, what had made it more difficult to attend school or college, and what they perceived they gained from attending school or college.

Seven teenage mothers were recruited for the study and data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was conducted and themes and sub-themes were formulated for each research question.

Many of the themes were consistent with previous research. The findings were also consistent with psychological theory, particularly Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behaviour.

The findings had implications for practice with regard to supporting teenage mothers to attend school or college.