Stigma and Mental Well-Being among Teenage Mothers in the Rural Areas of Makhado, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Adolescent mothers experience psychological challenges, such as social withdrawal and rejection by their communities. Assuming the role of motherhood is associated with emotional and mental distress, such as fear and worry, regret and frustration, guilt and shame, and social isolation. This study adopted a qualitative critical participatory action research approach. Purposive and snowballing recruitment were employed to recruit 11 teenage mothers, and semi-structured face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were employed to generate data. All sessions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Teenage mothers in this study reported experiencing humiliation and being subjected to degrading remarks and judgement by schoolmates. The experience of being rejected, teased, and labelled made participants feel that they were not accepted as part of their community. It was concluded that teenage mothers experienced inconsistent support from parents and community members, which led to social isolation and feeling rejected; hence, teenage mothers lacked a sense of belonging to and acceptance by their communities. Policymakers and authorities in education and healthcare should encourage social change and transformative learning and address the issue of stigma and social isolation experienced by teenage mothers in rural communities.

Perception and Relocation Intentions of Japanese Youth towards Rural Areas: A Case Study of Visitors in Hanyu-shi, Saitama Prefecture

“…Drawing upon the methodologies outlined by Gill and Van Manen (Gill 2014;Van Manen 1989), this study employs interviews to delve into diverse individual experiences, thereby offering foundational insights for academic inquiry. Typically, research in this field includes a participant range of 7 to 28, aligning with common practices in qualitative studies (Lomas et al 2021;Alirhayim 2023;Bailey et al 2021;Vergara-Perucich and Arias-Loyola 2024;Moganedi and Mudau 2024;Hyassat et al 2023;Ribeiro-Gonçalves et al 2023). Furthermore, according to Gill (2014), a sufficient sample size is considered attained when the data yields clear and discernible interpretations, and the inclusion of additional participants does not contribute novel insights, thus negating the necessity for data saturation in the study.…”