Exploring the career-related goals and barriers of teenage mothers
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Date
2015
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
Despite an increase in teenage childbearing within the province of New Brunswick, there is very little literature on the development of career goals and anticipated barriers to reaching these goals in this population. This study employed a qualitative approach to explore the career-related goals and present/anticipated barriers of three teenage mothers between the ages of seventeen and nineteen. The results of this study suggest that career-related goals and barriers to reaching these goals are more concretely discerned with older teenage mothers (i.e. nineteen years old). Both academic/career-related goals as well as the barriers to fulfilling these goals varied for each participant. Some of the barriers communicated included financial and time constraints, lacking supportive figures (i.e. partner), lacking qualifications, lacking motivation to graduate high school and uncertainty related to a lack of guidance and knowledge in terms of formal education. Implications for counsellors within and outside of the school system are discussed.