Lived Experiences of Teenage Single Mother Pursuing Higher Education 1

Running Head: LIVED EXPERIENCES OF TEENAGE SINGLE MOTHERS PURSUING

HIGHER EDUCATION

Lived Experiences of Teenage Single Mothers Pursuing Higher Education

Humanities and Social Sciences

 Lived of Experiences of Teenage Single Mothers Pursuing Higher Education 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................. 3

Background .............................................................................................. 3

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework .................................................. 5

Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………7

Methodology ................................................................................................ 7

Research Design ...................................................................................... 7

Participants and Sampling ......................................................................... 8

Data Collection Technique and Procedure ................................................ 9

Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 10

Ethical Considerations ............................................................................. 11

Results and Discussion ..............................................................................

Results.........................................................................................................

Discussion ...................................................................................................

Recommendations .......................................................................................

Appendix ........................................................................................................

References ……………………………………………………………………
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INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Based on the latest United Nations estimates, the current population of the

Philippines is 105,732,944 as of 2018. Teenage single mother refers to the female

adolescent becoming pregnant and is already mother between the ages of thirteen up to

nineteen. In the corresponding estimates of the final results of 2013 National

Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), one in ten young Filipino women between the

ages of 15 to 19, has begun childbearing. Eight percent of these are already mothers

while another two percent are pregnant with their first child. Moreover, the United

Nations Population Fund (UNPF) initiates that teenage pregnancies in the country

expressively increased over the last two years (Philippine Star, 2017). It indicates the

percentage number of teen pregnancy rose every year. As a result, the 3, 524 current

population number of the 2016 grade 11 enrollees within Manila suddenly falls into 2,

280 when they enrolled in grade 12. This is supported by the recent gathered data of

the Philippine Statistics of the Authority (2017). Some of the student has begun to drop

out their school for many reasons. Some of them stopped due to the poverty but the

common reason why some of female student stopped schooling is due to the early

pregnancy.

Many studies had been conducted but most of the research studies had focused

on the teenage pregnancies’ drop out and those single mothers who became
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successful. Little research studies focused on the attitudes and behavior of teenage

single mothers who are determined to pursue on higher education. Rosemary Buteau,

in her Phenomenological Study of Single Mothers Who Are Successful Students in

Higher Education (2007) focused on the facet of successful college students who

balanced their much accountability linked with parts as a mother, worker, colleague, and

college student. However, this study has been limited to show the behavior of a teenage

single mother towards pursuing higher education. Also, to know how teenage mother

managed their roles as a teenager, a mother and a student. It is alarming to note that

the number Filipino teenage single mother increases every year as indicated in the

previous research studies. The social comparison of teenage single mother in her

community and in school is also alarming for it may lead into failure and into poverty. In

response to this concern, the researchers conducted another study which focuses in the

positive attitude and lived experiences of teenage single mother towards pursuing their

study in higher education.

Thus, this leads the researchers to conduct a study which focuses on the

behavior and determination of the teenage single mother to pursue their education

despite of being degraded and judgment of the society. It attempts to discover the

essence of teenage single mothers’ experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological

study is to unveil and to describe the lived experiences of teenage single mother who

are pursuing on their higher education while raising their child. It aims to answer how

the cultural norms and behavior of a regular student affects the lived experiences

teenage college student single mother. Also, to answer what are reasons why these
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young women want to pursue their higher education despite of challenges of upbringing

their child.

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

MILLER’S FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS THEORY

POSITIVE FORCE NEGATIVE FORCE

Pursuing Higher Education Status of being Teenage Single Mother

Improve of Life of the Teenage Mother and her Child

PARADIGM OF THE STUDY

Force field Analysis is a strategy that develops in the decision-making of an

individual in terms of what are things that will be strengthened or reduced in any

opponent. It is a framework that looks for the factors or a force influencing the social

situation of an individual. It evaluates and analyzes the situations to give the accurate

qualitative factors that may have an impact or failure of an individual. In short, it gives a
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path to examine the possible forces that affects in individual’s decision-making whereas;

it expands its evaluation within itself.

The study of Lived Experiences of Teenage Single Mother pursuing on Higher

Education is anchored on Miller’s Force Field Analysis Theory (2007). This theory is

cited in Rosemary Buteau’s Phenomenological Study of Single Mothers Who Are

Successful Students in Higher Education (2007). Miller’s Force Field Analysis Theory

(2007) explains how the positive forces decline the negative forces to the achievement

of grown-up learners. One of negative forces are stated in the theory of Festinger’s

Social Comparison Theory (1954) cited by Brenda Temblador in her study of the

Experience Of Being A Single Mother And A Student (2014). Festinger’s Social

Comparison Theory (1954) explains that self-evaluation happens when the external and

internal standards are unattainable; one begins to compare him or herself to the others.

These external standards are the expectations within social interactions of individual.

On the other hand, the internal standards refer to the expectations within you.

When the social interaction influences your internal standard, sometimes it led to

inevitable comparison of yourself to the other. It is usually happens when the internal

standard does not meet your expectations. Thus, this theory is functional in this

research paper in a way how the teenage single mother conquer the undying set of

issues and social comparison they have encountered. The paradigm of this study shows

how the Miller’s Force Field Analysis Theory is associated in this paper. The positive

force that Miler’s force Field Analysis Theory refers to is pursuing of teenage single

mother on Higher Education. However the negative force that might influence on the

determination of the teenage single mother is their status of being teenage single
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mother. This negative force hinders to reach the success of the participant of this study.

These forces influence the improvement of life of the teenage mother and her child.

Statement of the Problem

This research paper aims to discover the conducts of the lived experiences of the

teenage single mother in pursuing higher education while upbringing their child.

Specifically, this study seeks to respond the following question:

1. How the cultural norms and behavior of a regular student affects the lived

experiences teenage college student single mother?

2. What are reasons why these young women want to pursue their higher education

despite of challenges of upbringing their child?

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researchers presented the research design, participants,

sampling techniques and data analysis that were utilize in this study. The approach to

data analysis will cover consistency in the interpretation of the results.

Research Design

This study is a qualitative research design using phenomenological approach

since it aims to answer how the cultural norms and behavior of a regular student affects

the lived experiences of teenage single mother and what are the reasons why these

teenage mothers want to pursue their higher education despite of the disgrace and
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status of their life. The cultural norms are set of standards that students must have or

follow. Since, most of the regular students have set of standards which one of this is not

to be a pregnant woman or a mother, the cultural norms that was said in this study,

turned into different set of issues and self-evaluation encountered by the teenage single

mother within her school. Hence, the Phenomenology approach was selected to be

utilized as an appropriate strategy of this paper. This approach describes the meaning

of the lived experiences for several individuals and reveals the intense human

experiences. The set of different issues and self-evaluation encountered by the teenage

single mother were considered under this strategy. This allows the researchers to get

inside the person’s experiences and to apprehend them from within. The aspirations of

the teenage single mother towards their study are the uniqueness of this study.

Participants and Sampling Technique

The study concerns the lived experiences of a teenage single mother. Hence, the

participants could be teenage single mother between 13-19 years old with at least one

child. This phenomenological study is conducted through purposive random sampling

with ten teenage single mothers who are in Grade 12 continuing their higher education

or enrolled in colleges and universities within Manila. The purposive random sampling in

this study agrees on the criteria of participants. The criteria of participants should meet

the needs of this study. Below are the criteria of this paper.
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Criteria of Teenage Single Mother Pursuing Higher Education

Age Number of Grade Level or Number of

Child(ren) Year Level participants
13 to 19 With at least one Grade 12 and 10
child college degree level

Since the criteria of participants are already given, the research paper is ready to

conduct. In conducting the research paper, the study is developed to describe the lived

experiences of being a teenage single mother and a student. The ten participants are

involved and target of this study. The researchers asked their colleagues’

acquaintances if they knew someone who is studying on higher education yet a teenage

single mother. After the researchers sought the participants for this study, the

researchers asked the consent of the participants to be involved in this study. The

consent for participation contains the approval of the participant to be interviewed

voluntarily without being paid. The time of interview will last approximately thirty to forty-

five minutes. Also, a set of sub research questions will be prepared by the researchers

to be asked from each of participant. However these sub research questions are not

always directly asked each of participants during the interview. Their responses will be

based on their own perception which would give the researchers intuition into the

phenomenon.

Data Collection Technique and Procedures

The main aim of this study was to answer how the cultural norms and behavior of

a regular student affects the lived experiences of teenage single mother and how do the

teenage mothers managed parenting alone. To realize this aim, interviews were
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conducted to better understand “Phenomenological Study of Single Mothers Who Are

Successful Students in Higher Education” (Rosemary Buteau, 2007).

Upon initial interview, the researchers prepared an interview guide which

indicated the scope of the topics. Moreover, the cultural norms, social comparison,

Miller’s force Field Theory and knowing the reasons why these teenage mothers want to

pursue on higher education serves as the foundation in outlining the interview guide.

Upon interview, the researchers secured first the approval of participants in order

to record each interview. The preliminary part of each interview focused on discussing

the participant personal background such as family, school, friends and economic

status. After establishing good rapport with the participants, the researchers shifted the

interview to the participant’s experiences in interacting with other people in different

situations. At the end of the interview, the researchers made sure that the participants

were able to review their answers and asked them to give comments. Each interview

took approximately thirty to forty-five minutes and the data gathered was transcribed to

uncover the common themes.

Data Analysis

The data are gathered through interviews, field-notes and audiotapes. The taped

interviews are recorded from each participant. These recorded audiotapes will be put

into a written copy of words called transcript. The transcript of the study will

continuously analyze and edited for themes and issues. The themes and issues that put

into transcripts will give to the participants to validate the researcher’s analyses.
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There are many subsequent steps to be followed in order to analyze the

qualitative data of participant’s responses regarding to the interview questions.

Specifically, the researchers followed the following steps to get the common themes.

Step-by-Step Process of Analysis Leading to the Construction of Themes

a) The researchers make a written copy all the answer to the interviews

b) The researchers analyzed the data gathered by set. Each set contains ten

participants.

c) The researchers used different marks such as circle, check, box, star, asterisk,

check, cross and et cetera. These marks are easily recognized of which the

responses are the same.

d) The researchers did an initial coding in the marked data.

e) The researchers continuously read the initial codes to evaluate the accuracy of

details included under the initial codes and analogous frequency of occurrences.

f) The researchers made an initial classification of these codes into themes. The

process of classifying initial code is called Axial Coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2007

in Merriam, 2009, p. 180) cited in “Unfolding Oral Communication Apprehension”

(Romalyn Rizardo, 2017).

g) The researchers look closely to the similarities and differences of the initial set of

themes to the second themes and to the third set of themes, and so forth.

h) The researchers merged all my lists, done manually and tabulated them.

i) The researchers established the identity of the recurring patterns or regularities

in the main lists. The major themes took the frequent patterns that cut across the

qualitative data.
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The researchers constructed the major themes are based on the following criteria

(Merriam, 2009) cited in “Unfolding Oral communication Apprehensiion” (Romalyn

Rizardo, 2017).

a) The major themes should quickly respond to the answers of the interviewee and

should be the aim of this research.

b) The major themes should include all the possibilities to enclose all relevant data

to make sure that it determines all the relevant data.

c) The major themes should be related and should fit to all criteria of the study. The

researchers made sure there were no themes that overlap.

d) The major themes should be perceptive to the outcome of the possible data in

order to reflect the responses of the participants.

e) Lastly, the major themes should be parallel to all criteria and at the same time to

the level of concepts.

Ethical Considerations. The method of this qualitative research considers ethical

guidelines in order to avoid the wrong behavior in asking questions that might offense to

the participants. These ethical guidelines should involve the right questions following the

accepted rules with morally right and good behavior. Thus, the general ethical

guidelines will be followed including doing no harm, treating the participants with high

regard, telling the truth in revealing the truthfulness, securing informed consent, allowing

the participants to withdraw from the research study without holding any responsibility
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and keeping the confidentiality of the participants of the study. (Sarantakos, 200; Sieber

& Tolich, 2013; Rizardo, 2017).

The researchers specified the ethical standards in the research design and

methodology of this paper. Prior to the agreement of the study, the researchers

obtained the research approval from the participants of this study. The content of the

consent for participation made clearer to the participants that being involved in this

study is voluntary without being paid for and any time, the participant may withdraw and

discontinue his or her participation without penalty in this study. Also, the researchers

secured the confidentialities of the participants that were involved in this study. The

consent form provides the privacy of the participants and carefully taken the exact

details without any harmful information being revealed or included in this study. Since

the participants of the study are the teenage single mothers, the consent from them, the

field notes and the audiotapes are given to the participants to validate and to edit the

details from interview.

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