When Children Become Parents: Welfare State Responses to Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage parenthood is recognised as a significant disadvantage in western industrialised nations. It has been found to increase the likelihood of poverty and to reinforce inequalities. This book explores, for the first time, the links between welfare state provision and teenage reproductive behaviour across a range of countries with differing welfare regimes.Drawing on both welfare state and feminist literature, as well as on new empirical evidence, the book compares public policy responses to teenage parenthood in each 'family' of welfare regime: Nordic, Liberal and Continental (Western European); analyses the different socio-political contexts in which teenage pregnancy is constructed as a social problem and identifies best practice in Europe and the USA.Countries included in the study are the UK, USA, New Zealand, France, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Canadian province of Quebec and Russia. The contributors are all internationally recognised experts in the fields of welfare and/or gender studies."When children become parents" is important reading for a wide audience of students, policy makers, practitioners and academics in sociology, social policy, social geography, education, psychology, and youth and gender studies.

Teenage parenthood is recognised as a significant disadvantage in western industrialised nations. It has been found to increase the likelihood of poverty and to reinforce inequalities. This book explores, for the first time, the links between welfare state provision and teenage reproductive behaviour across a range of countries with differing welfare regimes.

Anne Daguerre, School of Health and Social Services, University of Middlesex and Corinne Nativel, Department of Geography and Geomatics, University of Glasgow

List of figures and tables

Acknowledgements

Notes on contributors

1. Introduction: the construction of teenage pregnancy as a social problem

      Anne Daguerre and Corinne Nativel

Part One: Liberal welfare states

2.  Young single mothers and ‘welfare reform’ in the US

      Christine Carter McLaughlin and Kristin Luker

3.  Teenage pregnancy in New Zealand: changing social policy paradigms

      Georg Menz

4. Teenage pregnancy and parenthood in England

      Anne Daguerre

Part Two: Continental and Scandinavian welfare states

5. Approaches to teenage motherhood in Québec, Canada

      Johanne Charbonneau

6. Teenage pregnancy and reproductive politics in France

      Corinne Nativel

7. Early motherhood in Italy: explaining the ‘invisibility’ of a social phenomenon

      Elisabetta Pernigotti and Elisabetta Ruspini

8. Teenage reproductive behavior in Denmark and Norway: lessons from the Nordic welfare state

      Lisbeth B. Knudsen and Ann-Karin Valle

Part Three: Transition States

9. Meeting the challenge of new teenage reproductive behavior in Russia

      Elena Ivanova

10. Teenage pregnancy in Poland: between laissez-faire and religious backlash

      Stéphane Portet

11. Conclusion: welfare states and the politics of teenage pregnancy: lessons from cross-national comparisons

      Corinne Nativel with Anne Daguerre

Statistic appendix: Teenage fertility in OECD countries

Index