Research explodes myths of DPB mums

By JOSIE CLARKE social issues reporter

Teenage birthrates have more than halved since 1972, challenging one of the common "myths" surrounding teenage motherhood in New Zealand, says a Wellington researcher.

Massey University research fellow Helen Wilson says two commonly accepted myths - that teenage birthrates had swelled since the domestic purposes benefit was introduced in 1973 and that teenage mothers took a disproportionate amount of benefit payments - had major repercussions for young women struggling to raise their children.

In fact, teenage birthrates had halved since 1972 from 69 in 1000 women to 29.3 in 1000 in 1999. Teenage mothers now made up just 2.7 per cent of domestic purposes beneficiaries, with sole parents spending an average of 3 1/2 years on the benefit, said Ms Wilson.

New Zealand still had a relatively high teenage birth rate compared with other developed nations, and was second only to the United States for most of the past decade.

But Ms Wilson said the figures challenged the popular notion that the DPB was responsible for encouraging teenagers to have babies.

Statistics New Zealand and Work and Income New Zealand confirmed the figures yesterday.

Ms Wilson, a researcher at Massey's Wellington-based Centre for Public Health Research, is about to begin a PhD into the subject. Her background includes 12 years as a Plunket nurse.

She said teenage pregnancy had been considered problematic since the 1940s when it was seen as a moral and later a medical problem. Today it was seen as a social problem.

"In fact, research does not bear out the negative images that the media often portray.

"I wonder if it's being driven by the fact that middle-class white women are having their babies much later. Is this now seen as the norm and everything else is a problem?"

Links made between child abuse and teenage mothers were the most damaging, particularly for young Maori mothers.

Although literature did show a relationship between young mothers and poor parenting, those findings needed to be interpreted with caution because child abuse was too complex to isolate single causal factors.

Teenage pregnancies were often considered to be a cause of educational underachievement.

But studies had shown pregnancies might be the result of failure at school and identified pre-existing socio-economic factors including poverty.

Social Services Minister Steve Maharey said the statistics were not new, but independent research into the subject was timely and showed up false information which was "really off the beam".

He said the politics of welfare were partly responsible for incorrect perceptions.

"There are people who simply don't like the welfare state and have sought to demonise people who are on benefits.

"People are on welfare because they lack opportunity in most cases, and that's what this research shows."

Act MP Muriel Newman said Ms Wilson's figures hid damaging statistics showing that "the girl who went on the DPB at 14 years old is still there 20 years later".

Family Planning Association executive director Gillian Greer said there were two reasons for a drop in teenage pregnancies: more teenagers were choosing abortion and more were using contraception.

While there was some good news in the latest statistics, there were also many bad news stories about young mothers and the disadvantages for their children.

"Until the issue of reproductive health is made a priority, we are not going to change the negative statistics."