One issue that in one way or another is permanently wedged in our social psyche is ‘the family’.  In some way or another, this institution in our country retains high importance and most of us still value the purpose it serves. 

Last Saturday during the radio show I anchor on Radju Malta, Ghandi xi Nghid, I hosted Dr Andrea Dibben who spoke about the research she submitted for her Doctoral Studies.  Andrea is a Lecturer within the Department of Social Policy and Social Work (Faculty for Social Wellbeing) and her research on teenage pregnancies and motherhood in Malta is an excellent piece of work with some very enticing and ground-breaking findings.  Coincidently Andrea has also been interviewed on Euro News on a related issue lately. 

Dr Dibben stated that she was a teenage mother herself and knows very well the challenges that teenagers have to tackle when faced with motherhood. 

I would think that what emanated from this interview is that we are still afraid to deal with the issue of teenage pregnancies and motherhood.  Not only that, we seem to have a number of stereotypical positions that nobody dares to challenge.  I believe that the moral authority claimed by the Catholic Church still has a strong influence on the way we think about sex, sexuality and motherhood. 

During this interview it transpired that even our state services are very much shaped and organised to ‘fight’ teenage sexuality and motherhood.  Whilst the commitment shown for example by Servizz Ghozza, a governmental service focused on supporting teenage mums is commendable, the approach in schools tends to be one of a struggle to ‘inspire’ teenagers to abstain or at least be careful, that the consequences of sex could be very unpleasant and that we need to do all that is possible to frighten young people out of their wits every time they (dare) mention or make reference to the word ‘sex’.  However, with all due respect, I think that portraying sex to adolescents as being doom and gloom does not seem to work.  It appears that whilst young people in Malta are less engaged in sexual activity we cannot say the same when it comes to teenage pregnancies.   In fact the rate of teenage births is comparable with other countries and one of the highest in Europe, trailing some six other countries in Europe.  Probably one of the reasons for this is that abortion is illegal.  There is also a lack of access to contraceptives, especially long-acting reversible contraceptives suitable for adolescents, which proved successful in bringing down the numbers in other countries.  Furthermore, our high early school leaving rates and the prevalence of traditional gender roles in our society means that early motherhood is still seen as an alternative vocation for many teenage girls who cannot begin to aspire for a high-flying glamourous career.  During the interview with Dr Dibben a number of interesting issues come to light. 

First, she claimed that we really need to re-think the way our civil code addresses the role of teenage fathers.  The law still states that fathers, if still under 18 years of age, cannot be recognised as legitimate parents.  I believe this is a major human right discrepancy. It is totally unfair for the babies in question to preclude them from their daddy.   I am pretty sure that historically we could make a reason out of this but in this day and age, it is simply a breach of human rights that needs to be sorted out quickly. 

Another interesting finding in Dr Dibben’s work is that the average age-gap between teenage mothers and fathers in her study was that of seven years. Having a relationship with an older partner was common and it seemed that none of the men involved were too concerned that they were actually breaking the law by engaging in sexual relations with a minor. This finding is relevant and can be interpreted in a myriad of ways.  What seems to be happening is that such a significant age gap often leads to an imbalance of power and control by males over their partners which seemed to be the experience of some of the young mummies interviewed by Dr Dibben. 

Another interesting finding in Dr Dibben’s research is that it appears from her cohort of informants that none of the participants were on contraception at the phase when they got pregnant.  The research  seems to indicate that the boyfriends refused to use condoms, some teenage mothers said they would ‘never believe that it would happen to them’, others trusted their boyfriends to ’pull out’ at the point of ejaculation and some actually wanted to get pregnant.  It is significant that from this research, those interviewed actually claimed that they felt that maternity had given them scope and purpose, improved their wellbeing, enhanced their self-esteem, increased their social skill-set and also compensated for difficulties they had faced when they were still adolescents.  The notion that with maternity life seems to come to a halt couldn’t have been more bogus.  In actual fact, most of the time the opposite actually happened.  The study seems to indicate that an improved quality of life was evident for the teenage mothers after they had their baby especially for those mummies who came from a challenging social background, were experiencing social exclusion and did not find comfort at their schools.  The middle class expectations of a girl fitting into the system and getting a career had left them bare.  They also became more assertive in their relationships and managed to develop their character and personality.  In this sense Dr Dibben questioned whether teenage pregnancies still deserved to be interpreted as a barrier to the quality of life of these teenagers.  She actually argues that with the right type of support teenage pregnancies could in fact add value to their life and increase their motivation in all they did.    

To add to this, the study claims that many teenage mothers have a positive identity in terms of motherhood, they are dedicated towards their offspring and are not only willing but able to take good care of their children.  The commitment and dedication was noted to be permanent.   

This research also surfaced the importance we need to give to supporting male parents in getting engaged as much as possible in the child’s upbringing. 

While not emanating from the findings of the actual study, another issue that was raised during this said programme was that we need to really embark on a discussion about the Morning After Pill.  It seems that the controversy that shrouds MAP is making it difficult to even approach a conversation on it.  Dr Dibben said that the need to discuss this form of contraception is essential even though there may be strong opinions on the issue.  

When it comes to teenage pregnancy and motherhood, we just cannot have a one size fits all solution.  Teenage pregnancy is far from being a resolved debate – we really need to engage in a vigorous conversation.