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Parents of teenage parents:
How services respond
Background
There is much focus on teenage parenthood and the services that support them. However, the voice of their parents is often unheard. Parents of teenage parents can play an important role in supporting young people who are parents themselves and research shows that positive involvement from parents of young parents can lead to better outcomes for both the child and the young parent.
We want to understand more about these experiences and find out how services can work better w ith the teenage parent’s whole family. We want to include services that work w ith young parents at all stages including maternity services, health visitors, parenting support and other specialist services in both voluntary and statutory sector. We also want to find out about young parents’ own experiences of service use.
This research project has been funded by the Parenting Fund and will work in three specific areas; Norfolk, Nottingham and Cornwall.
The aims of our research are to find out:
- How parents and the wider family support young parents
- How teenage parenthood impacts on parents and the wider family
- How parents of young parents experience services
- What support parents and young parents might want from services
What the project involves
It involves carrying out research w ith parents of teenage parents, and young parents themselves to find out more about how services can and do respond to the parents of teenage parents. It will also involve some consultation w ith practitioners / service providers.
Fieldwork
The research will take place over the telephone w ith parents. We aim to carry out telephone interviews w ith between 40 and 60 parents in total across the three areas. This includes parents of teenagers and teenage parents themselves. W ithin that we’re also hoping to interview some young fathers. The interviews will take place between April and July 2010.
What we want to find out
From the parents of young parents we’re keen to find out about their experiences of service involvement and how they’d like to be included more. From the young parents themselves we’d like to know what the issues are for them about including their parents more in service provision. We also want to know how teenage parenthood impacts on parents and the wider family, and how families support young parents.
May 2010