Bradley Terry, Cupples Margaret E, Irvine Helen
Northern Ireland Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, Department of General Practice, Queen's University Belfast, Ireland.
Int J Adolesc Med Health. 2002 Apr-Jun;14(2):117-23. doi: 10.1515/ijamh.2002.14.2.117.
Teenage motherhood has been linked with poor health, poor educational attainment, poor employment prospects and socio-economic deprivation. Much of the evidence has come from large surveys and the nature of these inter-relationships remains unclear. A case-control study was designed to compare the educational and employment experiences of teenage mothers with those of an age matched sample of peers from a similar social background and to test the feasibility of carrying out this type of research within primary care. Participants were identified from records in 36 GP practices in the Greater Belfast area. First time teenage mothers with one child aged 9-15 months at the time of interview were selected. Teenage mothers were matched with a control group of nulliparous teenagers in respect of age and postcode and registered with the same practice. Questionnaires were administered in their home or at their health centre. Data were analysed using SPSS for Windows Version 6. Teenage mothers were less likely than controls to have gained passes in school leaving examinations. None of the mothers was in full time education compared with 35% of the controls. Excluding those in education or training, more of the control group were employed at the time of study (82% v 11%). It is concluded that teenage mothers with one child report poorer educational attainment and employment status than their nulliparous peers from a similar social background with similar educational opportunities. Attention must be paid to these findings when planning policy to help teenage mothers and avoid perpetuation of a cycle of socio-economic deprivation.
少女怀孕与健康状况不佳、教育程度低、就业前景黯淡以及社会经济贫困相关联。许多证据来自大型调查，而这些相互关系的本质仍不明确。一项病例对照研究旨在比较少女母亲与来自类似社会背景、年龄匹配的同龄样本在教育和就业方面的经历，并检验在初级保健机构开展此类研究的可行性。研究对象从大贝尔法斯特地区36家全科医生诊所的记录中确定。选取首次生育且在访谈时孩子年龄为9至15个月的少女母亲。少女母亲在年龄和邮政编码方面与未生育的青少年对照组进行匹配，并在同一家诊所注册。问卷在她们家中或健康中心发放。数据使用SPSS for Windows版本6进行分析。与对照组相比，少女母亲在离校考试中获得及格的可能性较小。没有一位母亲接受全日制教育，而对照组这一比例为35%。排除正在接受教育或培训的人，在研究时对照组中有更多人就业（82%对11%）。研究得出结论，有一个孩子的少女母亲与来自类似社会背景、有类似教育机会的未生育同龄人相比，教育程度和就业状况较差。在制定帮助少女母亲的政策时，必须关注这些研究结果，避免社会经济贫困循环的持续。
