Schooling trajectories in South African adolescent mothers: Which factors impact school discontinuation during pregnancy and the postpartum return to
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Social Policy and Intervention
Abstract
In Sub-Saharan Africa, girls remain at an educational disadvantage, especially at the secondary level. Pregnancy and motherhood are the most common self-reported reasons for school dropout provided by adolescent girls in South Africa. Despite falling rates over the past decade, the number of births among school-aged girls rose to 125 000 in 2019 - almost 25 000 more pregnancies than reported in 2017. Concerns about permanent school disruptions due to pregnancy are warranted because lack of education is an important predictor for a variety of negative health- and socioeconomic outcomes. Educational failure has not only been shown to diminish young mothers' employment prospects and future earning potential across European samples, but it could also drive the intergenerational cycle of poverty, potentially via academic underachievement in their own children. Rates of adolescent childbirth are much higher in populations affected by extreme adversities, which are already extremely limited in acquiring sufficient educational qualifications as a result of compounded socioeconomic and institutional hurdles. It is important to identify the factors that contribute to discontinuation of schooling during pregnancy, the return to school postpartum, and the longer-term schooling among adolescent mothers. The proposed DPhil project uses novel empirical evidence to elucidate these schooling trajectories among adolescent mothers in South Africa. The ultimate goal of this research is to inform school policies for pregnant learners and learners with children as well as contribute to the development of social interventions which support them.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Janina Jochim (Student) |
Publications
Jochim J
(2020)
When do adolescent mothers return to school? Timing across rural and urban South Africa.
in South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/R501037/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2021 | |||
| 1925458 | Studentship | ES/R501037/1 | 30/09/2017 | 31/12/2020 | Janina Jochim |
| Description | Globally, girls are still at an educational disadvantage but this is particularly the case in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are multiple interrelated reasons for this disadvantage but the most common reason for dropout mentioned in self-reports by girls is pregnancy and motherhood. Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, 26 countries have adopted various laws, policies, practices, and strategies that support pregnant girls or adolescent mothers' access to education. This project focusses on South African adolescent mothers and the key aims and objectives of the project are to identify the factors associated with adolescent mothers' school discontinuation during pregnancy and their return to school postpartum. While adolescent mothers' return to school after birth offers long-term benefits, returning too early in the absence of sufficient support may impede healthy child development. South Africa's national policy supports readmission but advises against mothers' return in the same year that pregnancy occurred. Historically, studies investigating the consequences of pregnancy in school-aged girls on dropout have predominantly assessed rates of enrolment in the time after birth. However, a very limited number of studies provide evidence for the factors that are associated with leaving school during pregnancy and no study has utilised further disaggregated data that show the month-by-month changes in school-attendance throughout pregnancy. In addition, there is a lack of research on the factors enabling mothers to return to school after a pregnancy-related dropout. To date, this work has crystallized key factors associated with the discontinuation of schooling throughout pregnancy and has, therefore, identified populations that are particularly vulnerable to school drop out as a result of pregnancy. These preliminary results will be able to inform the development of social interventions for adolescent mothers that aim to increase their school retention. In addition, the study results have shown a mismatch between the recommended timing for readmission advised in South Africa's national policy and actual return patterns. Namely, many mothers returned to school much earlier than advised in educational guidelines. The results highlight the challenges associated with developing effective and accepted school policies that flexibly promote mothers' right to education while simultaneously addressing their children's developmental needs (paper submitted to the South African Medical Journal in Feb. 2020). |
| Exploitation Route | The broader discussion around this research topic emphasises the importance of aligning educational policies for adolescent mothers with health policies that protect the needs and development of their children. For instance, the research has shown that many adolescent mothers return to school within the first months postpartum -- much earlier than recommended by the national policy. At the same time, South Africa's Department of Health follows the WHO and UNICEF recommendations and advises exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of age, with gradual weaning. However, recent qualitative research with 57 South African adolescent mothers indicated low rates of exclusive breastfeeding, despite awareness of its benefits. Even though mothers reported various reasons for introducing mixed-feeding early after birth, they indicated that schooling largely precludes exclusive breastfeeding. Therefore, one of the issues highlighted by the present research is the importance to ensure that policies affecting adolescent mothers are compatible with one another and that the Department of Health and Department of Education should work on their development in unison. These findings offer a great opportunity for social policy research to explore how different Sub-Saharan countries have approached this issue and which combinations of policies achieved the best results. For instance, it would be intuitive for school policies to recommend a timeframe for school-return that is aligned with the six months of recommended exclusive breastfeeding specified in the health policies. Maximising the health and well-being of mother-child dyads and acknowledging the nurturing needs of their children, requires policies that not only address questions on school return timings but also outline ways in which the school context can actively support mothers after their return. Given the health benefits of breastfeeding, policy documents should make recommendations for how schools can facilitate breastfeeding for school-going adolescents who wish to breastfeed. The present study and its results rose a number of important questions, particularly regarding the implementation of monitoring of school policies for pregnant learners and learners with children in South Africa. Specifically, further investigations should focus on if and how schools are currently implementing the educational policy for pregnant learners and learners with children, explore the existing barriers that prevent the successful implementation of these policies and identify the longer-term educational trajectories of adolescent mothers. In addition, the identified factors associated with school discontinuation during pregnancy are not only important to identify mothers who may be at risk of premature school discontinuation but can also inform the development of interventions aiming to support pregnant learners. Future researchers will be able to re-focus their prevention and intervention efforts by including these factors and testing their relative impact and effectiveness on adolescent mothers' schooling behaviours. |
| Sectors | Education Healthcare |
| Description | Adolescent mothers' school outcomes across two South African provinces |
| Organisation | Drexel University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In 2018, I joined a meeting in Durban, South Africa to visit Prof. Allison Groves's presentation on her project "Mentoring Adolescent Mothers At School" (A DREAMS Innovation Challenge intervention funded by PEPFAR). Prof. Groves (based at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, USA) and I have recently submitted a paper together, pooling the results on adolescent mothers' return to school after birth, using data from both studies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The research was planned and conducted separately. Each investigator analysed their own results and presented separately in one paper. |
| Impact | Jochim, Groves, & Cluver (2020). Adolescent Health Brief: South African adolescent mothers' timing of return to school after birth in rural and urban contexts (Submitted to South African Medical Journal in February 2020). |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Girl-led activism in humanitarian crises: Implications for programmes and policymaking in COVID-19 |
| Organisation | UNICEF |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | In 2020, I undertook an ESRC-funded placement with the Gender Section at UNICEF headquarters in New York City. Due to COVID-19, this placement was completed remotely. One of the objectives was to gather academic and grey-literature evidence on the breadth of girls-led movements during crises (such as the current COVID-19 pandemic) and compile a report reflecting information on their agendas, workings, and support needs. To date, the findings have been translated into a blog post for a blog series from King's College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/girl-led-activism-in-humanitarian-crises-implications-for-programmes-and-policymaking-in-covid-19 |
| Collaborator Contribution | Each partner contributed to the conceptual development, discussion, and writing of the manuscript and blog. |
| Impact | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/girl-led-activism-in-humanitarian-crises-implications-for-programmes-and-policymaking-in-covid-19 |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Dissemination at the Learner Support Agents |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | About 25 - 50 Learner Support Agents, teachers, and managers attending this regional meeting. Learner Support Agents are a group of professionals in South Africa, typically based at a school, who provide support for children and adolescents who may struggle to progress through school (e.g., as a result of the health of family-issues). Joining this meeting, the group was interested in finding out what specific needs were expressed by adolescents in our sample emerged from and they encouraged the research-team to set up further research to identify the best ways to support the children's smooth educational progress. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | HIV-AFFECTED ADOLESCENT MOTHERS - Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS Dissemination |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | In, May 2020, the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS organised a webinar on HIV-affected adolescent mothers. Our larger-funded studies presented results for the adolescent mothers in our sample, reporting on health, school, and social outcomes of the girls and their children. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | UCL Lecture, Behavioural Change ("Co-creating and Co-producing Scalable Change in Africa") |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | About 20 students enrolled in the "Behavioural Change" MSc at University College London attended my lecture on "Co-creating and Co-producing Scalable Change in Africa". Students were extremely excited to hear about how social interventions -- but in particular the case study of the parenting intervention "Sinovuyo Teen Project" -- are developed, progress, and get scaled-up throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. I introduced several models and frameworks which complemented their MSc syllabus. An interesting discussion emerged that revolved around the role of the researcher once the program operates at scale, the challenges that the researcher and the program may face once an intervention is implemented at scale, and the problems associated with measuring impact once the intervention has been scaled up. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Visit at the Department of Education, South Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | About 50 - 100 practitioners, researchers, and policymakers attending this regional meeting organised by the Department of Basic Education in South Africa. The purpose was to bring researchers together who undertake work relevant to educational outcomes among South African children and adolescents. We presented recommendations for teachers and policymakers, regarding school-provisions and safety that would positively impact South African youth. The audience showed great interest and enthusiasm for the broader project and the results on adolescents in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |