Coping strategies for adolescent birth-mothers who return to school following adoption

Abstract

In this article we report on a study on the effects of adoption on the school performance of birth-mothers (adolescent mothers who choose to have their babies adopted) who return to school following adoption. The study focused on the experience of five white adolescent birthmothers. Factors impacting on school performance were identified in a literature study and correlated with information received from the birth-mothers using phenomenological interviews. The study aimed at providing an in-depth understanding of the factors that impacted negatively on the birth-mothers' school performance in order to ultimately develop guidelines for helping birth-mothers cope better when returning to school.

South African Journal of Education Vol. 26 (4) 2006: pp. 491-499