Adolescent Mothers: Intention to Continue in High School

By Jeanette Koshar RN, NP, PhD and 101 amazing young mothers

Problem

Beyond the demographics we aren’t really clear about why adolescent mothers stay in school or drop out after they have their babies

Demographics: Age, ethnicity, poor GPA, previous school problems, low SES

Significance

Over 400,000 babies are born to adolescent mothers each year in the US

56% of adolescent mothers with one child are able to graduate from high school

Dropping out of school impacts the health of mother/child, < employment opportunities, < wages over their lifetimes

Purpose of Literature review??

Purpose of Literature Review

Do we know why pregnant teens stay in school or drop out?

Is there a theory that might help us “predict” if they will stay in school?

Does staying in school have a positive effect for the teen mother and her child?

Purpose

To identify factors which influence her decision to continue in high school after the birth of her child

Understand the determinants of their intentions to continue in school

PICO

P: Adolescent mothers in special public teen parent HS programs

I: Higher Intention to stay in school C: Lower intention to stay in school O: Postpartum school attendance

PICO (etiology)

Are pregnant teens (P) who intend to continue in school (I) more likely to attend school PP (O) compared with pregnant teens (P) who have less intention of continuing in school (C)?

How was study conducted?

IRB approval/informed consent Pregnant teens in teen mother HS

programs filled out questionnaires within 6 weeks of expected birth

Measured # of days they were in school postpartum

What kind of quantitative study is this?

Is there an intervention? Is there a control group? Is this study longitudinal? So… what kind of study??

Methodology

Is there an intervention? No! Is there a control group? No! Is this study longitudinal? Yes! So… what kind of study??

Prospective cohort study

Study Variables

Are pregnant teens who intend to continue in school more likely to attend school PP compared with pregnant teens who have less intention of continuing in school?

Independent variables: ? Dependent variables: ? Are they truly IVs and DVs: ? What makes us think there is any

connection between the IVs and DVs?

Theory of Planned Behavior

Developmental Theories

Cognitive (Piaget and Elkind): future orientation & egocentrism

Psychosocial (Erikson): Identity formation

How does cognitive & psychosocial development influence decision making?

Assumptions being made???

Assumptions

Why would there be a connection between the IVs and the DVs?

Do people do what they think they will do?

Why do I care? What does the theory

tell you about the researcher?

Participants: Why do we care?

•Pregnant teens in special teen programs•Demographics: age, ethnicity, grade in school, previous GPA, school/grade lag. Couldn’t get SES

Criteria to be in the study

o Informed consent: At 6/7 sites the got school credito What kind of sample is this?o Inclusion criteria??o Exclusion criteria??

Why does it matter who is in and who is out?

oInclusion: can read English, currently in a program, in 10th-12th grades, ages 15-18, no other kids, plans to keep infanto Exclusion: twins, no PN care, not in school now, will graduate before birth

Effect Size and Power Analysis

Do you think there is a strong connection between attitude, social norms, perceived control , intention and if a student returns to school?

How many variables are in the study and how many questions in the questionnaire?

How many participants do I need?

Max-Min-Con Principle: Does the DV change because of the IV?

o Maximize the experimental varianceo Minimize the error varianceo Control the extraneous variance.

How will I know if the TPB concepts predict going to school?

How will I know if the TPB concepts predict going to school?

Stay tuned for next week when we do stats!