New Door Opened: A Tracer Study of the Teenage Mother's Project, Jamaica

From the Executive Summary... "This Tracer Study assessed the impact of the Teenage Mothers Project (TMP) on a sample of the mothers and children who were participants between 1986 and 1989. It was conducted for the Rural Family Support Organization of Clarendon, Jamaica, through funding from the Bernard Van Leer Foundation. Through the use of qualitative/ethnographic and quantitative research methodologies, including interviews, questionnaire administration and attitudinal scales developed at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, the study explored the quality of life, attitudes and experiences of 10 mothers and their children in 1999. The study compared the TMP participants to 10 ‘comparison group' mothers and their children, five of whom had been the ‘controls' at the time the McCarthy Scale of Children Abilities (MSCA) was administered in 1989.

Findings revealed significant distinctions in educational achievement and vocational attainment between TMP and comparison group mothers, and marked differences in the school performance of the children from the respective groups. Furthermore, data revealed that TMP mothers had less than half the number of children their comparison peers produced in the same 10 year period. They also had higher Achievement Motivation, higher Assertiveness and lower Alienation levels than their peers.

The sample findings are indicative of the impact that the TMP intervention had on the lives of the 500 teenage mothers it served in the period from 1986 through 1996, in developing their resilience following the birth of their first child and arresting a negative life trend. In addition to reconfirming the earlier MSCA research, the study also supported the position that interventions that promote parenting education, strong mother-child bonding and early stimulation can have long term positive developmental impact on the child aged 0-3 years."

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