Browsing by Author "Peltokorpi, Terhi"

Aims. Vision of good motherhood is culturally dependent and standardized. Adolescent motherhood is not common and many times it is considered negative. Young mothers ability to cope with children and everyday life is questioned many times. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to describe adolescent mothers' views on motherhood and their daily life and to find out how peer group could be used to support their everyday life. The theoretical background is based on theory of mastery of everyday life in home economics science (Haverinen, 1996) and research of everyday life and peer groups. The main research questions are for example: what is young maternity, how do mothers define the mastery of everyday life in their own lives and how peer groups of young mothers supported the other adolescent mother and helped them in the mastery of everyday life? Methods. The data of this study were collected by interviewing nine 20-22 years old one child mothers, who were taking part of young mothers peer support group in Tyttöjen talo in Helsinki and two registered midwifes, who were working as mentor in these groups. The classification of research data were .. data-based. The data were analysed in Atlas.ti –qualitative analysis program using content analysis. Results and conclusions. Most of the mothers thought that becoming a mother at a young age separates them quite strongly from the other youth. In the peer group the mothers got many friends who were in the similar life situations. Adolescent mothers considered the group support and the social relationship very important to themselves. They felt that they could be accepted characterized by themselves too. Group activities were effective and helped mothers to keep the rhythm in their everyday life. Discussions with the other mothers, the practical advice and the work in the peer groups cause positive effects to young mothers mastery of everyday life. Peer counselors' and mothers' views on the importance of the activities for the mothers were similar. The results of this study give information on adolescent mothers everyday life and mastery of it. Findings can be used for planning activities and organizing young mothers peer groups. Peer group effectiveness can also be researched with longitudinal studies following the same families throughout the period of participation in peer group activities. When developing the activities it would be necessary to do further research on how adding more functionality to the groups and the cooperation assists the mothers mastery of everyday life.