Experiences of, and attitudes towards, pregnancy and fatherhood amongst incarcerated young male offenders: Findings from a qualitative study

Abstract

Teenage parenthood is problematised in the UK. Attention is increasingly falling on the potential or actual father yet we still know relatively little about young men's experiences and attitudes in this area. This paper focuses on the experiences of, and attitudes towards, pregnancy and fatherhood amongst a sample of men incarcerated in a Scottish Young Offender Institute. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 inmates, aged 16 -20, purposively sampled using answers from a questionnaire administered to 67 inmates. Twelve men reported eighteen pregnancies for which they were, definitely or possibly, responsible. All but one of the pregnancies were unplanned. Five of the men were fathers: two were still in a relationship with the mother of their child and were in close contact with her and the child while incarcerated, three, all of whom had separated from their partner before the birth, had had patchy contact with mother and child before and/or during their sentence. All five of the men expressed a strong desire to be 'a good father'. Amongst the interview sample as a whole, most said they did not feel ready to become fathers. The main reason given was being unable to fulfil what they regarded as the key role of financial provider. Most of the men had given little or no thought to the possibility of a sexual partner becoming pregnant. Contraceptive use was high, however, amongst the minority who reported thinking about this possibility. The paper concludes by considering the cultural context of the men's attitudes and the potential for intervention development for incarcerated male young offenders in the areas of Sex and Relationships Education and parenting.

Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of a Version of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy for Women’s Partners

“…69 There may, however, be other aspects too. For instance, a range of ideas about responsibility for pregnancy exist, [70][71][72][73][74][75] there appears to be an ideal of financial stability as a pre-requisite for pregnancy planning, 72,76,77 and there is a possible pejorative discourse of unintended pregnancy as entrapment among a minority of men. 69,71 Our sample included two female partners.…”

Recruiting, Retaining and Engaging Men in Social Interventions: Lessons for Implementation Focusing on a Prison-based Parenting Intervention for Young Incarcerated Fathers

“…Fourth, the men’s desires to be “good fathers” should be noted. Young incarcerated men appear to aspire to being caring fathers: warm, sensitive, attentive, protective of their child, and spending time with and supporting him/her (Buston, 2010 ; Buston, O’Brien, & Maxwell, in preparation ). All of the fathers participating in the two deliveries observed for this study said that they wanted to be good fathers.…”

Adolescent men's attitudes and decision making in relation to pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes: An integrative review of the literature from 2010 to 2017

“…Buston (2010) found that some of the incarcerated men in their study did not question their lack of power in the decision-making process. Buston (2010) highlights that pregnancies tended to be seen as the property of the female partner, reflecting both the power of the female partner to claim a pregnancy as her own, and the power of the male partner to be able to leave the consequences of sex largely to the woman. Deslauriers (2011) in a qualitative study with young fathers in Quebec found that the young fathers did not play a role in the decision to bring the pregnancy to term.…”