Medpedia Podcast. Apps Newsletter Abo-Shop. Springer Medizin. Suche Suchbegriffe eingeben Suchen. BMC Public Health. Abstract Background Adolescent school-going mothers return to school in the rekindled hope of obtaining an education.
However, their re-introduction into the school environment requires adequate support from teachers, fellow pupils, and the community. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of school-going mothers in Lusaka to understand their coping mechanism in the process of re-integration.
Method This is a qualitative case study. We conducted in-depth interviews with 24 school going mothers between the ages of 16—19, purposively selected from 2 schools in Lusaka district.
Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed, coded using Nvivo 10 software and analysed using thematic analysis. Results The girls reported experiencing stigmatization, discrimination, mockery and abuse from their teachers. Families forced some girls into early marriages making them feel rejected.
These experiences resulted in low self-esteem, inferiority complex, poor performance in their academic work and identity crises in the young mothers. Therefore, because of the experiences the girls faced, they developed certain behaviours such as beer drinking, truancy and running away from home.
