Research Evidence to Inform Strengths-Based Policy and Practice: Mapping the Coping Strategies of Young Women in Mozambique

Abstract

Unintended pregnancy amongst young women in Mozambique is associated with many 'problems' and 'poor outcomes'; yet little is known about how young women, their family and communities actually respond to these problems. Qualitative research on the coping strategies used by young mothers under 20 years of age in response to conflictual relationships, poor material provision, poor health and poor educational access in Mozambique is presented. Data was constructed through 21 semi-structured narrative interviews with young mothers (16-19 years old) from two regions (urban/south and rural/north) on their experience of coping with unintended pregnancy. Thematic data analysis to identify coping strategies was completed using Nvivo 7. The majority of strategies identified were 'relational' in nature highlighting the importance of developing interventions which strengthen naturally occurring strategies used by women, their families and communities. The findings are used to illustrate the role of strength-based research in developing policy and practice, particularly in relation to community development and groups considered unable to 'cope' or 'get on'. It is also important to ensure strengths-based approaches are used to tackle structural inequalities and strengthen organisational resources, despite this being a strong critique levied at strength-based interventions.

How to do (or not to do)…how to embed equity in the conduct of health research: lessons from piloting the 8Quity tool

“…Thus, according to the 8Quity tool, this domain could involve using the PROGRESS+ lens ( Evans and Brown, 2003 ), strengths-based approaches ( Weick et al. , 1989 ; Hutchinson, 2019 ) and a review of or contribution to analysis by study participants and partners themselves. The literature supporting these concepts also include the studies by Mbuagbaw et al .…”

Thematic Analysis in Social Work: A Case Study

“…Qualitative methods are an established component of research models in various branches of inquiry, including social work, and have been used by social work researchers studying a range of dimensions, such as the family [11][12][13][14], women [15][16][17], children [18][19][20][21], and mental health services [18,[22][23][24]. Thus, qualitative research methods have served to develop various domains of social work intervention ( Table 1).…”