Early Motherhood in Soweto: The Nexus Between the Child Support Grant and Developmental Social Work Services

Abstract

In this article we ask whether the child support grant can mitigate the vulnerability of early motherhood, and if so, in what ways and what are its limits. Using data from a study on CSGs in a poor urban area of Johannesburg, we report on the circumstances of young women recipients. We find that the grant has positive outcomes for the women, but these are limited in the face of the range of needs and support necessary to give the young women a chance to successfully negotiate both motherhood and their own transition to adulthood. We suggest areas where social workers can engage positively with these issues.

“My partner was not fond of using condoms and I was not on contraception”: understanding adolescent mothers’ perspectives of sexual risk behaviour in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

“…While the literature suggests that some adolescent women are intentionally becoming pregnant for material gain by exploiting the child support grant [77,78], the participants in our study focused on the sexual exploitation of poverty stricken adolescents by older men. Gender inequality and the power struggle in a relationship compromise the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent women [79].…”

Describing objectively measured physical activity levels, patterns, and correlates in a cross sectional sample of infants and toddlers from South Africa

“…Indeed, previous studies in Soweto have shown that young adults report high levels of alcohol and drug abuse, crime, illegal dumping of waste, sewerage issues, road rage, and gang presence [ 49 ]– all of which could influence perceived safety for activities such as outdoor play. Furthermore, in a survey of young mothers in Soweto, most mothers lived in households with more than five occupants, and cared for children other than their own biological children, and the majority did not live with the father of their child [ 22 ]. These potential barriers definitely require further investigation, in order to better understand the context of these beliefs, and consequent behaviours in such a unique environment.…”

“…Soweto is over 200km 2 in size with over 1.2 million inhabitants. Fathers in Soweto often have little to no involvement in childcare [ 22 ], and therefore only mothers were considered in this study. In most cases, mothers had been recruited from the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (which is the largest public hospital in South Africa and is thus likely to provide a sample of mothers representative of the Soweto community) for participation in a pregnancy and infancy study (M130905) at the research unit, and were invited telephonically to participate in the current study if their child was within 2 weeks of 3-, 6-, 12-, 18-, or 24-months of age (information obtained via pregnancy study birth records).…”

The Utilisation of the Child Support Grant by Caregivers: The Case of Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality in Limpopo Province

“…It is therefore essential that the grant should be able to meet the needs of the targeted children. Although there is extensive literature on social security in South Africa, very few studies have paid sufficient attention to the utilisation of the CSG; hence there is a need to focus on this area (Goldblatt, 2006;Hunter & Adato, 2007;Jordan, Patel & Hochfeld, 2014;Mutshaeni, 2009). This article therefore reports on how the CSG is utilised by caregivers in BaPhalaborwa Municipality in the Limpopo province of South Africa.…”

“…Mutshaeni (2009) observed that young women tend to be pressured to share their grant with their spouses or boyfriends. Jordan et al (2014) concur that young women do not always have the power to make decisions on how to spend the CSG. Jordan et al (2014) found that, although there are young women who make decisions independently, in most cases the decision makers are either their own parents or whoever they share the household with, which might be their boyfriend or spouse.…”