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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on April 21, 2006
British Journal of Social Work 2007 37(2):225-243; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcl002
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Young Mothers and the Care System: Contextualizing Risk and Vulnerability

Ravinder Barn and Nadia Mantovani

Ravinder Barn is Professor of Social Policy and Social Work at Royal Holloway, University of London. Ravinder has researched and written extensively on ‘race’, ethnicity and child welfare. She was Director of the Joseph Rowntree funded ‘Life after Care’ study upon which this paper is based. Nadia Mantovani is a PhD Student in the Department of Health and Social Care at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is currently undertaking her doctoral thesis into young motherhood and minority ethnic women in and leaving care.

Correspondence to Ravinder Barn, Department of Health and Social Care, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX. E-mail: r.barn{at}rhul.ac.uk

Although the UK has the highest levels of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe, and while adolescent mothering has received considerable recent attention from researchers, there is a paucity of research literature about the particular experiences of young women who become mothers in or following local authority care. Findings from our empirical study reveal the significance of risk and vulnerability faced by a group of fifty-five young mothers following their exit from care. This paper explores the impact of risk and vulnerability and also highlights that although pregnancy may not be a planned activity, young women demonstrate choice and rationality in their decision to become mothers.

Keywords: young mothers, teenage pregnancy, youth in care, risk and vulnerability, choice, rationality


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