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Community‐based Peer Groups: an Intervention Programme for Teenage Mothers
Author(s) -
De La Rey Cheryl,
Parekh Angina
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199612)6:5<373::aid-casp388>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - teenage pregnancy , intervention (counseling) , psychology , context (archaeology) , peer group , focus group , session (web analytics) , local community , medical education , social psychology , nursing , developmental psychology , medicine , sociology , psychiatry , population , political science , paleontology , environmental health , world wide web , anthropology , computer science , law , biology
This paper assesses the use of community‐based peer groups as an intervention strategy to provide teenage mothers with an opportunity to share common experiences, receive social support and identify links between personal and social problems. The method utilized in a recent community project on teenage pregnancy is outlined. Over a period of 8 weeks a group of 10 teenage mothers met weekly to share their experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. The facilitators used various games and audio‐visual aids to build rapport and to enhance willingness to discuss sensitive topics. The final session comprised a 1‐day training workshop to enable the participants to act as co‐facilitators for similar groups in the future. The evaluation indicated that the participants felt empowered by the opportunity to discuss common experiences and to have their perceptions affirmed by their peers. The potential value of this programme within the broader mental health context of South Africa is briefly discussed, and also the possibility of adding a consciousness‐raising element to such groups.