Socio-economic factors affecting adolescent mothers’ struggles to revive their aspirations in Makete district, Tanzania.

Abstract

Few studies have been conducted on adolescent mothers in Tanzania and indeed about their aspirations revival struggle while taking into consideration that adolescent mothers are in a marginalized group. The general objective of this study was to determine the linkage between socio-economic factors and aspiration revival for adolescent mothers in Makete District, Tanzania. Specific objectives were determination of aspirations of adolescent mothers, examination of actions taken by adolescent mothers in reviving their aspirations, determination of socio-economic factors affecting aspiration revival of adolescent mothers and determination of adolescent mother’s attitudes towards adolescent motherhood. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and data were collected from a sample of 125 respondents through questionnaire survey, 3 Focus Group Discussions and interviews with key informants. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16 was used for data analysis. The findings indicate that adolescent mothers aspired being primary school teachers (26.4%), nurses (26.4%) and 15.2% aspired to business/entrepreneurship. The socio-economic factors such as age of parents, marital status of adolescent mother, education level of parents and adolescent mothers, financial status of the parents and access to financial credits by adolescent mother found statistically significant (P<0.05) contributing to adolescent mothers aspiration revival. Majority of the adolescent mothers had negative attitude towards early motherhood. The study concludes that majority of the adolescent mothers failed to revive their aspirations; they are dedicating most of their efforts on taking care of their children. The study recommends that the government, NGOs, community and families should dedicate efforts to address the problems and challenges facing adolescent mothers.